{"id":659772,"date":"2013-05-23T08:00:06","date_gmt":"2013-05-23T12:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gigaom.com\/?p=641627"},"modified":"2013-05-23T08:00:06","modified_gmt":"2013-05-23T12:00:06","slug":"contextream-claims-mystery-carrier-has-deployed-its-sdn-technology-to-40m-customers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/659772","title":{"rendered":"ConteXtream claims mystery carrier has deployed its SDN technology to 40M customers"},"content":{"rendered":"

ConteXtream<\/a>, an early player in software-defined networking (SDN), has apparently deployed its software for around 40 million subscribers of a wireless service provider in the United States, although it refuses to say which company is using the services. Telecommunications companies have been kicking the tires on implementing software-defined networks for the sake of efficiency, cost savings and agility, but a big one like this suggests that the benefit could outweigh the cost.<\/p>\n

With offices in Israel and Palo Alto, Calif., ConteXtream was founded in 2007 and focuses on using software to help service providers virtualize network functions. It has picked up investments from Comcast Ventures and Verizon Ventures<\/a>, among others. \u201cYou can imagine that those two investment arms are very interested in what we do,\u201d said Nachman Shelef, ConteXtream\u2019s CEO and a co-founder.<\/p>\n

The customer\u2019s total subscriber base is least double the number that the virtualized network covers, Shelef said, meaning that it could be either AT&T or Verizon, and given that Verizon has invested in ContexTream, it seems hard to imagine it would be selling services to its investor\u2019s biggest rival, although Shelef wouldn\u2019t say one way or the other.<\/p>\n

Running ConteXtream\u2019s Grid software<\/a> on servers would allow a wireless carrier to more quickly roll out new revenue-generating features while also looking at traffic flows and directing certain subscribers only to the services they need, such as content filtering, customized billing, video optimization and subscriber statistics. \u201cThe old way of doing this was all the traffic goes through all functions, whether it needs to or not, without identifying each flow,\u201d Shelef said. As a result, network appliances can be used more efficiently.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a step toward the future of running all network functions as software on servers. \u201cThat vision is still very far off,\u201d Shelef said.<\/p>\n

Early SDN deployments have come from managed-hosting providers<\/a>. Webscale deployments from Amazon and Facebook appear to be in the works<\/a>. Enterprises have been slower to jump on board, even though many have expressed interest<\/a> in SDN. <\/p>\n

ConteXtream and other SDN vendors are eager to capitalize on the continuing hype cycle, and VMware is no exception to that, following its $1.26 billion acquisition last year of Nicira<\/a>. Using software to virtualize networks is one component of VMware\u2019s software-defined data center vision, which VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger will discuss with my colleague Om Malik at GigaOM\u2019s Structure conference<\/a> in San Francisco on June 19. Also at Structure, Juniper Networks<\/a> executive Bob Muglia will talk SDN with GigaOM Research Analyst David Linthicum.<\/p>\n

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