Ciena Adds Six Partners to Blue Orbit Ecosystem to Drive SDN, NFV Adoption

Ciena has announced that six new organizations have joined Blue Orbit, an ecosystem of partners focused on delivering applications and infrastructure platforms for real-world, multi-vendor software-defined networking (SDN) and network functions virtualization (NFV) deployments.

Formed in June 2013, Blue Orbit accelerates real-world network operator SDN and NFV deployments.Partners are added to the Blue Orbit Ecosystem based on customerdemand and interactions. As customer proof of concept trials and deployments develop, Blue Orbit partners provide applicable solution elements to Ciena’s Blue Orbit Lab. From this facility, Ciena, Blue Orbit partners and customers are able to test and demonstrate the viability of SDN and NFV solutions.

“As the industry heads toward open and software-defined multi-vendor networks, it is essential to assure that new virtual functions can run in live networks without disruption,” said Kevin Sheehan, vice president, Global Customer Operations, Blue Planet Division, Ciena. “We are excited to welcome these leading SDN and NFV solution providers as ournewest partners in the Blue Orbit ecosystem.”

Blue Orbit’s newestpartnersinclude:
• Active Broadband Networksprovides software applications for delivering and managing packet services at the edge of the fixed broadband networks. The vEdge is all-software control and packet processing applications, running on cloud server hardware, managed by cloud orchestration, simply connecting broadband customers directly to the cloud.

• Calix, Inc. is a global leader in access innovation. Its Linux-based Access eXtensible Operating System (AXOS) is built for the specific needs of the software-defined access network.

• Centina Systemsprovides strategic service assurance and innovative network performance solutions. Its vSureTM Service Assurance for virtual networks provides end-to-end and top-to-bottom visualization and assurance of NFV and SDN services.

• Dellcombines the latest SDN technologies with the economic advantages of virtualized x86 compute platforms, deployed strategically throughout the service infrastructure. Its solutions are paving the way with NFV solutions for telecommunications providers, cable operators, and mobile operators.

• Qwiltopen caching NFV solutions optimize operator networks for OTT video with a unified, turnkey solution that combines open caching, video delivery, and analytics technologies deployed at the subscriber edge.

• Silver Peakdelivers WAN solutions that give enterprises and service providers the flexibility to securely connect users to applications via the highest quality and most cost-effective source of connectivity available.

ExistingBlue Orbit partnersinclude:

• VNFs: BlackRidge Technology, Brocade, Certes, EXFO, Fortinet, GENBAND, Metaswitch Networks, PowerDNS, Spirent Communications, Versa Networks

• Physical Network Elements: Accedian, Omnitron Systems, RAD, Telco Systems

• Virtual Infrastructure: ADI Engineering, Aria Networks, Arista, Boundary, Canonical, Intel, Mellanox, Pica8, Red Hat, Ryu, VMware, Wind River

“Simplification at scale is the key benefit of cloud technology. What could be simpler than connecting the broadband edge to the cloud to unlock the cost, service and productivity benefits?Cloud and edge orchestration are key to realizing this simplification, we are pleased to partner with Ciena Blue Planet,”
said,­ Adam Dunstan, President and Chief Executive Officer, Active Broadband Networks.

“An enormous opportunity exists in extending end-to-end rapid service creation across the access network, leveraging Ciena’s exceptional work in service automation, management, and optimization in core and metro networks. By facilitating this leap from controlled network environments and dedicated fiber connections, to businesses and homes connected over a mixed fiber and copper infrastructure, we will see the benefits derived from physical and virtual systems connected to the Ciena Blue Orbit ecosystem amplified by orders of magnitude. Calix is excited to be working closely with Ciena to enable service providers to reach more subscribers more quickly,” explained,
Shane Eleniak, Vice President, Product Line Leadership, Calix.

“NFV marks a momentous technology shift – and opportunity – for telecommunications providers. Now, in an increasingly disaggregated world, the technology options can be overwhelming. Dell wants to simplify this and cut through the clutter. In supporting efforts such as Ciena’s Blue Orbit, our goal is to deliver the most open, flexible and practical NFV platform by combining our technology with a strong partner ecosystem to help service providers streamline service creation and delivery,” said, Tom Burns, Vice President and General Manager, Dell Networking and Enterprise Infrastructure.