Nokia announced on Thursday plans to acquire US-based real-time analytics for IP network performance management and security company Deepfield. The acquisition will extend Nokia’s position in real-time, analytics-driven network and service automation, providing customers including communications service providers, cable operators and cloud, webscale and large technology companies with greater network and application insight, control and DDoS protection.
Founded in 2011 and privately held, Deepfield is headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The planned transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of next year, subject to regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions.
Even though cloud applications and services – including Netflix, Hulu, HBO Go, Google Docs and Facebook – make up over 60 percent of network traffic, providers have very limited insight into which applications are running on their networks, and what impact this application traffic is having on their networks and subscribers.
At the same time, the advent of SDN and NFV technologies is creating increased demand for network and service automation, which requires big data analytics – delivered in real time – to drive it.
Nokia plans to solve the network and service automation problem by coupling Deepfield big data analytics with the dynamic control capabilities of open SDN platforms, such as the Nokia Network Services Platform (NSP) and Nuage Networks Virtualized Services Platform (VSP). Together, these products become the cognitive “brain” that makes real-time, automated changes to wide area networks (WANs) and datacenter networks so they can adapt to changes in application demand, flow and traffic patterns.
Nokia’s service assurance and customer experience management portfolios would also leverage Deepfield’s big data analytics, including per subscriber application performance, to automate actions that ensure ongoing service health and customer satisfaction.
This will allow Nokia customers to drive greater network efficiency, help assure quality and enhance security – without manual intervention, and in real-time.
“We are impressed with Deepfield’s unique approach to network analytics and their deployments with major providers around the globe, delivering critical visibility into how leading cloud applications and services flow through their networks,” said Basil Alwan, president of Nokia’s IP/Optical Networks business group. “Combining Deepfield’s cutting-edge analytics with Software Defined Networking techniques (SDN) will allow our customers to automate engineering and assurance processes while enhancing performance, utilization and security. We believe this capability will only increase in importance as networks and applications become more complex, diverse and dynamic.”
“We are very pleased to join Nokia, a like-minded global leader in IP networking with shared values in network innovation,” said Craig Labovitz, founder and CEO of Deepfield. “I look forward to leveraging the strength of Nokia’s world-class customer, sales and support footprint to take our Deepfield technology worldwide. This will also give us a solid foundation from which to accelerate the creation of new value – both in the Deepfield portfolio, and in joint areas such as telemetry and automation.”
