Evocative embraces ROADMs and open management in Bay Area metro network

The challenge

Unifying legacy from acquisitions and going up to 400G

To meet increased bandwidth needs and continued business growth, Evocative has acquired and integrated other data centers in its Bay Area metro network. Following an acquisition in late 2022, the digital infrastructure provider saw a need to build a new network to support new data centers. At the same time, increased IP bandwidth, rising customer demand for 100G, and greater interest in 400G signaled it was time to upgrade the bit rate as well.

Evocative Vice President of Network Engineering Steve Rubin explains the challenge:

“This was no simple task because of several legacy network elements from other acquisitions in the Bay Area metro. Our existing network had a point-to-point architecture with 10G, interconnecting three data centers we owned and three others that didn’t belong to us. The challenge was how to secure the flexibility to bring everything together in one unified network and at the same time find a future-proof and cost-efficient path to 400G.”

The Solution

Low complexity – high flexibility with ROADM-based solution

Given its strong reputation for flexible and open optical networking solutions, Smartoptics was selected to provide a combination of open ROADMs, transponders and muxponders for maximum flexibility and increased capacity up to 400G.

“With Smartoptics ROADMs, we have the flexibility to connect any data center in an ad-hoc fashion at any speed and any combination of paths. The solution also gives us cost-efficient access to 400G everywhere and we can peel off at 100G where needed. I don't recommend anyone try to build a metro network without ROADMs. People aren't using ROADMs as much as they should. Contrary to what you may think, ROADMs don’t add any extra complexity and open up so much flexibility, especially later with Flexgrid,” says Steve.

the Result

Easy to manage and scale with SoSmart open management software

Following the success of the ROADM deployment in the Bay Area, Evocative is also planning to deploy a similar solution centered around Smartoptics ROADMs in other metro areas with similar challenges involving legacy equipment. Deploying, scaling and managing this solution is made simple with SoSmart, an open management suite with tools to support Smartoptics products in an open multi-layer and multi-vendor environment.

“Smartoptics ROADMs are easier than all the others I’ve tried. With SoSmart, ROADM configuration is point and click and the solution simply works. Smartoptics has already released some cool new SoSmart software features in a short time. One of my favorites is the graphical map view in SoSmart Planner, allowing us to see the actual fiber path as it relates to the route we built for the DWDM waves. The capability to manage a ROADM-based network with an open solution is promising and I look forward to seeing what else lies ahead,” says Steve.

Related case studies