According to a report by The New York Times, an internal Cisco startup called Insiemi, using three of the company’s top engineers, is working to develop a network switch for high-end data centers.

The switch will be designed specifically for software-defined networking - technology becoming more popular thanks to large demands being placed on the network by the Cloud.

The report, which quotes sources close to the project, said that discussions are underway on how Cisco is to move forward with Insiemi, which could soon come under the Cisco brand.

It is not the first time Cisco has used a company spin-off to design products for its own networking lines. The engineers working on Insiemi were behind Adiamo syswstems, a storage networking company and Nuova Systems, which made a fast switch designed for heavy computational loads.

HP provides networking for IDC Frontier

Japan-based data center provider IDC Frontier is using HP Networking solutions for its infrastructure as it ramps up its cloud computing operations.

It said growth in public cloud service NOAH Self Type meant it had to upgrade its network. It is now using the HP 5820 Switch Series which can allow it to scale without increasing network bandwidth across its in data centers. It is also using HP’s Intelligent Resilient Framework which uses virtualization to enable IDC Frontier to provide more direct high capacity connections by making multiple switches act as a single device.

Brand-Rex releases high-speed fiber optic cable

Brand-Rex has released a new high-speed fiber optic cabling product, the MT Connect SuperSet solution it says has ultra-high performance, is pre-terminated and modular, based on mechanical transfer push-on (MT) ferrule connector technology.

It said the solution can future proof the physical network infrastructure for 40 and 100GbE transmission speeds and is ideal for installation where multiple, point-to-point fiber connections between racks need to be installed fast or changed regularly.

Exinda improves university bandwidth

Exinda said it has helped Georgia Southern University in theUS reduce its overall bandwidth consumption by 22% using its Exinda WAN optimization product, designed to prioritize web traffic based on the importance of the content.

It does this using user profiling and precision controls using an assurance architecture specifically designed for the education sector.

"Familiar problems like balancing the network bandwidth demands of critical applications against more spurious sources of traffic, are amplified within universities where today’s students and research professionals expect optimum user experience whatever they are doing,” Kevin Suitor, Exinda VP of Customer Advocacy said.