HP Acquires ConteXtream for [Estimated] Tens of Millions $

A post by Saar Gillai [pictured], SVP and General Manager, Communications Solutions Business, HP announces that "HP has signed a definitive agreement to acquire ConteXtream, a provider of OpenDaylight-based, carrier-grade SDN fabrics for NFV, and a current HP OpenNFV partner.

Headquartered in Mountain View, CA, ConteXtream offers solutions that allow service providers to create a more flexible and programmable network through an SDN/NFV model. ConteXtream’s open SDN controller platform complements HP’s NFV expertise and telecommunications and IT experience.

After the transaction closes, ConteXtream will become part of HP’s Communications Solutions Business. ConteXtream’s current CEO, Chairman, and co-founder Nachman Shelef will continue to lead the ConteXtream business within HP and will report to me".
  
ConteXtream was founded and is based in Israel. The local press estimates the acquisition price in the Tens of Millions of USD. Comcast and Verizon are among the investors, along a number of VCs. 

Related posts:

• Orange Teams w/ConteXtream to Introduce NFV-Based Subscriber-Aware Services - here
• ConteXtream Adds OpenDaylight-based, Carrier-Grade SDN Fabric for NFV - here 
• Largest SDN Network Deployed by US Tier1 MNO w/ConteXtream (T-Mobile?) - here
• Telenor Manages OTT Video Traffic With: ALU, Opera/SkyFire, ConteXtream and Velocix  - here
• ConteXtream Secured $14M - Investors Include Comcast and Verizon - here

See "HP to acquire ConteXtream to accelerate NFV adoption" - here.

Orange Teams w/ConteXtream to Introduce NFV-Based Subscriber-Aware Services

ConteXtream announced that "Orange Silicon Valley (OSV), a subsidiary of Orange has teamed up with ConteXtream in using and testing Contextream’s ContexNet carrier-grade SDN fabric. 

ContexNet is part of OSV’s NFV/SDN testbed for creating a solution that virtualizes Gi-LAN services and provides network interconnectivity and visibility with subscriber-level granularity".

Christos Kolias [pictured], senior research scientist and principal of the Netsquared Studio at OSV said: “ConteXtream could be a great partner as they have a history of helping carriers seamlessly transition to virtualized network. By leveraging ContexNet, we can create a programmable network and work with best-of-breed vendors for various network functions to quickly introduce new services while easily managing the network. 

This is part of our innovative E2E, integrated NFV/SDN testbed with the goal to enable us, our partners and customers to showcase solutions and potentially for third-parties to test theirs.”

See "Orange Silicon Valley Partners with ConteXtream to Evaluate its Subscriber-Aware SDN Fabric" - here.

ConteXtream Adds OpenDaylight-based, Carrier-Grade SDN Fabric for NFV

ConteXtream announced the launch of "ContexNet 4.0, the first commercially-available OpenDaylight-based, carrier-grade software-defined networking (SDN) fabric for network functions virtualization (NFV).

Taking advantage of OpenDaylight, OpenStack, OpenFlow and other industry standards, ContexNet 4.0 provides unsurpassed scale, supporting millions of subscribers with customized service profiles, as well as the resiliency, high-availability and extendibility requirements for carriers’ unique network needs. This complies with the Internet Engineering Tasks Force (IETF) horizontal standard interfaces for network virtualization allowing operators to create programmable networks that are not only flexible and self-healing, but also have a high degree of consistency. The solution also allows for geographically dispersed sites to be unified and operate as a single network". 

ConteXtream ContexNet

Nachman Shelef [pictured], CEO, ConteXtream said: “Today’s wireless carriers are facing a tipping point. They need to innovate beyond their traditional service model or become the latest commodity industry .. The cost of increased traffic without corresponding growth in ARPU has tightened profit margins for carriers, making it harder to continue building up the network to meet future needs and investing in R&D to identify and launch new services. ContexNet 4.0 allows service providers to optimize their network to meet traffic demands, control costs and introduce new services so they can open up new revenue streams”.

See "ConteXtream Announces First Commercially-Available OpenDaylight-based, Carrier-Grade SDN Fabric for NFV" - here.

Opera/Skyfire Adds Real-Time Analytics

Opera Software's Skyfire (here) unit released "Rocket Insights™ as part of its Rocket Optimizer platform to help operators better manage their network loads by providing a real-time analytics dashboard that analyzes mobile video congestion. Operators can now instantly view key metrics such as stall rates, video start times, bitrate distribution and mean opinion score, and use this data to improve their overall network traffic management.

Rocket Insights elegantly addresses the current lack of existing real-time video monitoring analytics in a graphical and user-customizable dashboard. It provides operators with visibility into the importance of actionable quality of experience (QoE) monitoring that can intervene as needed to improve the video experience for each user on the network. Operators can test and refine their optimization strategies using the dashboard, and measure how these rates improve or change on the basis of real-time adjustments that they make.

Prior to the release of Rocket Insights, traffic management analytics were limited to packet- or URL-level data, which were often a poor proxy metric for application session quality, and did not allow for session mitigation actions in real time. Rocket Insights, on the other hand, now allows operators to easily see the impact of video on their networks, down to individual subscribers and their anonymized location in the network.

Rocket Optimizer is currently deploying with Telenor’s mobile networks across 11 countries, as well as across the national network of a Tier 1 US-based operator. Rocket Optimizer is also currently in live user trials with multiple operators around the world. The new Rocket Insights module is also compatible with leading traffic steering partners of Skyfire’s such as F5, Procera Networks [see "Procera Partners with Skyfire: Detects and Steers Video Traffic for Optimization" - here] and ConteXtream [see "Telenor Manages OTT Video Traffic With: ALU, Opera/SkyFire, ConteXtream and Velocix" - here]

See "Opera’s Skyfire Adds Video Analytics Dashboard to Rocket Optimizer Platform" - here.

ConteXtream and Guavus Bring Analytics to SDN-based Carrier Networks

ConteXtream announced that it has "..partnered with Guavus to bring real-time analytics to Software Defined Networking (SDN) deployments on service provider networks. The partnership will combine ConteXtream’s ContexNet™ and Guavus’ Reflex™ operational intelligence platform. 

The joint solution gives network operators an end-to-end view across their network and enables Communication Service Providers (CSPs) to dynamically and more efficiently allocate network resources for video optimization, TCP optimization, and rate shaping".

See "ConteXtream and Guavus Partner to Make Service Provider Networks Programmable with Real-time Analytics" - here.

Telenor Manages OTT Video Traffic With: ALU, Opera/SkyFire, ConteXtream and Velocix

Alcatel-Lucent and TelenorGroup have "signed a three-year global frame agreement that will give customers fast, buffering-free mobile video and improve overall Internet service quality. The agreement will enable the deployment of mobile Internet optimization for Telenor’s 2G, 3G and 4G networks in Europe and Asia. Alcatel-Lucent will help Telenor address the challenges caused by mobile users accessing ‘over the top’ (OTT) video from sites like YouTube or Netflix"

"Telenor will deploy technology that automatically manages the delivery of Internet traffic over a mobile network, optimizing the experience for customers watching video and accessing web content while ensuring a surge in demand doesn’t affect those using the network for other activities.

The mobile Internet optimization solution includes: Opera’s  SkyfireRocket Controller and Optimizer [see Opera Buys Skyfire for (up to) $155M" - here] , ConteXtream’s [here, here] Session Control to manage end-to-end sessions across the network, automatically directing video traffic to Skyfire based on rules or policies decided on by the operator, Velocix 7810 Transparent Caching [here] and  9900 Wireless Network Guardian".

 

See "Telenor Group selects Alcatel-Lucent to enhance mobile Internet experience in 11 countries" - here.

Largest SDN Network Deployed by US Tier1 MNO w/ConteXtream (T-Mobile?)

 
ConteXtream (see "ConteXtream Launches Software-Defined Network Virtualization Solution for Carriers" - here and "ConteXtream Secured $14M - Investors Include Comcast and Verizon" - here), announced recently that its "ConteXtream Service Provider Software-Defined Networking (SDN) solution has been deployed by a Tier I U.S. wireless operator to virtualize a network of nearly 40 million wireless users. ConteXtream’s Service Provider-SDN technology was selected by the wireless operator to create a virtualized service abstraction layer, constructing the largest SDN implemented on production traffic to date"

A US operator with "nearly 40 million wireless users" (if this statement refers to the whole network) is T-Mobile (here).

".. ConteXtream’s Service Provider-SDN solution identifies and steers traffic to the specific subset of network functions needed to support each subscriber flow, enabling far greater network efficiency, and providing improved network management and subscriber visibility. Existing network functions, as well as the ones being newly introduced, benefit from this deployment. They include content filtering, spam filtering, customized billing, distributed caching, video optimization, TCP optimization, ad insertion, and network and subscriber analytics"
See "ConteXtream at the Core of the Largest Commercial SDN Deployment to Date by Tier 1 U.S. Wireless Service Provider" - here.

ConteXtream Launches Software-Defined Network Virtualization Solution for Carriers

  

ConteXtream (see "ConteXtream Secured $14M - Investors Include Comcast and Verizon" - here) announced " .. the availability of ConteXtream Grid for Cloud and Managed Hosting providers .. With ConteXtream Grid network virtualization software, customers can offer tenants sophisticated networking and security services, achieve optimal utilization of physical resources, reduce capital costs for network infrastructure and drive down operational expenditures".

"Based on the principles of Software-Defined Networking (SDN), the ConteXtream Grid is a distributed virtual L4-7 switch that works as an overlay on existing networks to connect an unlimited number of endpoints to a flat network"

"ConteXtream Grid software is deployed today by tier one service providers .. virtualizes how operators connect subscribers to content and services, leveraging operators’ real-time awareness of subscribers, network and application context to optimize every subscriber-application flow"

See "ConteXtream Launches Software-Defined Network Virtualization Solution for Cloud and Hosting Providers" - here.

ConteXtream Secured $14M - Investors Include Comcast and Verizon

    

ConteXtream, a startup in broadband traffic management space, introduced its solution and announced "that it has secured $14M in Series B financing bringing the company’s total financing to $29 million. Lead investor, Comcast Interactive Capital was joined by Verizon Investments Inc. (assisted by Verizon Ventures) as well as all existing investors Benhamou Global Ventures, Gemini Israel Funds, Norwest Venture Partners and Sofinnova Ventures."

See the (first ever) press release - "ConteXtream Introduces Service Delivery Grid, Enabling Network Operators to Unlock the Value of Their Broadband Networks"  - here.

The company’s product, Service Delivery Grid,  provides carriers with traffic management and control capabilities. One example is traffic steering (see chart below and here) where it "identifies traffic as part of a session and then forwards that traffic based on the characteristics (or "context") of the session – more precisely, based on the metadata associated with the session"

Does the CEO quote below refer to the new investors when talking about tier1 operators? (Comcast’s quote confirms them as one - "We invested in ConteXtream because, by cloud enabling our network, its Service Delivery Grid can help us continue to deliver exciting new services to our customers in a cost-effective way")

“Operators are under significant pressure to cost effectively monetize bandwidth and yet improve the subscriber experience,” said Yaron Simler, CEO of ConteXtream. “With active trials underway at a number of tier one operators, as well as the endorsement and quality of our investment team, ConteXtream brings a complete solution to help operators, for the first time, address their business needs.  It is clear that our timing is right, and there is a strong need for our Service Delivery Grid solution to address the major issues operators are facing.”