Lumina Networks is shutting down, saying that operators took far longer than expected to embrace open source software-defined networking (SDN), and the delay to revenue-generating projects was worsened by the Covid-19 pandemic. The start-up was spun off from Brocade three years ago and had developed SDN and virtualization technologies for telcos, based on the open source OpenDaylight platform. It had raised $14m in venture capital in total, with AT&T and Verizon being its most prominent investors and customers. CEO Andrew Coward told SDxCentral that Covid-19 was the last straw because it delayed several major automation projects, as operators diverted resources to increasing capacity to support the rising levels of usage driven by at-home working. In a warning note for any…