Microsoft Acquires Hollow Core Fiber Cable Provider Lumenisity

Microsoft announced it has acquired Lumenisity Limited, a provider of next-generation hollow core fiber (HCF) solutions. Lumenisity’s HCF product enables fast, reliable, and secure networking for global, enterprise, and large-scale organizations. The acquisition is intended to expand Microsoft’s ability to further optimize its global cloud infrastructure and serve Microsoft’s Cloud Platform and Services customers with strict latency and security requirements. The technology can provide benefits across a broad range of industries including healthcare, financial services, manufacturing, retail, and government.

Organizations within these sectors rely on networks and datacenters that require high-speed transactions, enhanced security, increased bandwidth, and high-capacity communications. HCF provides enhanced security and intrusion detection and can accommodate large data sets.

Lumenisity’s next generation of HCF uses a proprietary design where light propagates in an air core, which it claims has significant advantages over traditional cable built with a solid core of glass, including:

• Increased overall speed and lower latency as light travels faster through HCF than standard silica glass.
• Enhanced security and intrusion detection due to Lumenisity’s innovative inner structure.
• Lower costs, increased bandwidth, and enhanced network quality due to elimination of fiber nonlinearities and broader spectrum.
• Potential for ultra-low signal loss enabling deployment over longer distances without repeaters.

Lumenisity was formed in 2017 as a spinoff from the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) at the University of Southampton, England, to commercialize breakthroughs in the development of hollow core optical fiber. As part of the Lumenisity acquisition, Microsoft plans to utilize the organization’s technology and team of industry-leading experts to accelerate innovations in networking and infrastructure.