Trans-Atlantic encryption test seen as stepping stone toward commercialization
Ericsson, Telstra and Ciena have joined forces to trial continuous data encryption while ensuring speed and consistency over a 21,940 km multi-vendor network and cable system. The companies announced they successfully encrypted data in transit between Los Angeles and Melbourne by leveraging a Ciena 100 Gbps solution, surpassing the 10 Gps speeds set between Melbourne and Los Angeles by the companies at the beginning of the year.
Optical encryption refers to securing in-flight data in the transport layer of a network as it coasts along optical waves across fiber-optic cables. Companies are looking to secure information at application and network layers as they digitize data consumption and processes. The trial verifies data can be successfully encrypted at the network and application layer, thereby providing additional security provisions.
According to the companies, this new encryption technology is ideal for organizations with sensitive data, including finance, healthcare, defense and government sectors, and data centers. The aim of the test was to verify encryption functionality as Telstra preps for commercialization.
“This demonstration shows that customer services with large bandwidth requirements can be secured and data transported across virtually any distance and over an underlying network that uses multiple vendors. This means we can provide service consistency regardless of the cable system used. Customers will also be able to protect their data not only at the application layer, but also at the network layer without any reduction in quality,” said Darrin Webb, executive director of international operations and services at Telstra.
“Enhancing our network leadership in the Asia Pacific region is a priority for us and this innovation continues our commitment to providing customers with a world-class network experience,” he added.
Another major stepping stone for encryption came earlier this year with the debut of IBM’s universal z14 mainframe, or IBM Z. According the the company, the z14 mainframe is the first system that can encrypt data attached to an application, cloud service or database at anytime. It can handle and run 12 billion encrypted transactions daily, serving as a potential solution to the rise of global data breaches.
