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The convergence between IT and optical network services is a fundamental step to support new emerging applications, typically distributed and with strict requirements in terms of performance and service reliability. The FP7 GEYSERS project has designed a new network architecture capable of joint and on-demand provisioning of ‘Optical Network + Any-IT’ resources for end-to-end service delivery. This service, referred to as Network + IT Provisioning Service (NIPS), is enabled through the cross-layer cooperation between the Service Middleware Layer (SML) and an enhanced Network Control Plane (NCP+) along the overall service lifecycle. This paper describes the GEYSERS NCP+ architecture that extends standard ASON/GMPLS and PCE solutions to operate over a virtual optical network infrastructure and offer on-demand provisioning of enhanced network transport services between virtual IT resources connected to the network edges. In the proposed architecture, some of the functionalities traditionally provided by the SML, like the selection of the IT end-points, are moved to the NCP+ side, allowing global optimization of the utilization of network and IT resources and of energy consumption. Simulation results are provided to evaluate the benefits of the combined computation of IT end-points and network paths, both in terms of reduced service blocking probability and utilization of the infrastructure resources. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]