Blue Planet Blog

Federation: Building the single source of truth for your network

Recently, Australia-based service provider Telstra International shared how they have dramatically simplified management of network resources with a new, dynamic inventory management system based on Blue Planet Inventory. Telstra calls its new system “Veritas,” which fittingly means truth in Latin. In this article, Marie Fiala details how Telstra’s adoption of BPI has also enabled the company to minimize risk of change, lower OpEx, and improve service delivery for its customers.

TIME dotCom Accelerates Troubleshooting Network Issues by 47% with Blue Planet

To provide a more reliable service to connect Asia with the rest of the world, Malaysia’s leading internet service provider upgrades its network with Blue Planet software. Dion Leung, Ciena’s regional managing director for ASEAN, discusses how route optimization enables digitalization for TIME dotCom’s growing customer base.

Become a hero for your customers and colleagues: how to troubleshoot and fault-fix your network faster

Understanding traffic flows across your network can be a massive help when it comes to managing routing changes and optimizing your peering. But Jürgen Hatheier, CTO EMEA at Ciena, points out that by adding performance data, and being able to correlate that performance data with traffic and routing data across the network, you can troubleshoot and fault-fix service degradation faster – and become a hero for your customers and colleagues.

Rethinking NaaS as a journey to openness and automation

NaaS can feel like an abstract concept, and various misconceptions abound on what it is and what is possible. But as Blue Planet’s Kailem Anderson explains, NaaS has measurable and quantifiable benefits that are achievable today.

Are you missing a major opportunity to take your network operations to the next level?

Modern IP MPLS networks are highly dynamic, which is great news in terms of handling incidents and keeping your customer-facing services online. Unfortunately, though, being ‘dynamic’ also means rapid routing changes, which create a raft of challenges when it comes to troubleshooting, fault-fixing, and even planning for new service deployments.Jürgen Hatheier, CTO EMEA at Ciena, explains how many service providers are constrained by unconnected monitoring systems and manual processes to correlate on network, traffic, and routing performance. And why this could be a major missed opportunity to speed up troubleshooting and fault fixing, while also optimizing resource utilization, route performance, and new service planning.

Planning for 5G Success: A Tale of Two Operators

The industry is moving forward with 5G deployments, motivated by differentiated service offerings. Here's how 5G Automation is helping two mobile network operators plan their own path to 5G success.

Today’s virtual world is making inroads into the 5G world

Over the last months, we’ve all adapted to new ways of working, socializing, and living, as coronavirus pandemic precautions have been instituted across the globe. The relative ease with which our communications networks have dealt with the corresponding shifting connectivity demands is positive foreshadowing of networks’ ability to handle the dynamic, bandwidth-hungry applications of the 5G world. Industry experts discussed our state of preparedness at a recent FutureNet World panel.

Q&A with LightRiver Software COO Travis Ewert: Enhancing multi-vendor, multi-layer visibility and automation

Blue Planet’s Kailem Anderson talks to Travis Ewert, COO of LightRiver Software, about how the combination of Blue Planet and LightRiver netFLEX to enhance visibility and automation across multi-vendor, multi-layer networks.

Blue Planet opens to ONAP

Blue Planet is stepping up its ONAP collaboration in an effort to help leading CSPs accelerate their adoption of open, automated network operations and policy-driven orchestration. Blue Planet's Kailem Anderson explains how and why.

How quickly can you activate new MPLS services?

MPLS tunnels are the go-to technology to deliver network services. But provisioning and activation can take days or even weeks. Blue Planet’s Mitch Auster details how intelligent automation can solve the many complexities of MPLS service activation.

More speed for 5G with Zero-Touch Network Slicing

The network slicing capabilities in 5G networks promise to open a plethora of new use cases around guaranteed speeds, low latency, reliability, and more. Here's how zero-touch slice lifecycle management plays a critical role.

Automation: Take the fast lane on the path to 5G

For years we’ve been hearing that 2020 would be the year that 5G networks would begin to be deployed. Well, it’s finally here, and MNOs are indeed starting to roll out 5G services. But beyond new phones and RAN technology, it’s going to be those that embrace automation who will ultimately drive faster transitions to 5G. To that end, Blue Planet has unveiled new capabilities for 5G automation.

How automation is transforming managed SD-WAN services

The rapid rise in the popularity of SD-WAN has many service providers scrambling to operationalize and integrate new SD-WAN solutions into their existing managed business services portfolios. Lee Doyle, principal analyst at Doyle Research, details how modern orchestration software can provide the answer. This guest blog is sponsored by Ciena Blue Planet.

Multi-Layer Networking: Unifying IP and optical network management

Multi-layer networks pose a unique challenge in moving to network automation, as the IP/MPLS and optical layers in a multi-layer network are typically managed by independent network operations (NOC) teams working in silos. Bill Kaufmann details how Blue Planet's Multi-Layer Topology Insight collects and processes routing paths, traffic flows, and performance metrics from the IP layer, and correlates it with underlying optical paths to provide actionable intelligence for network engineers, planners, architects, and NOC teams.

5 outcomes our Ciena Optimization Service brings to your network

Need more comprehensive visibility into your network infrastructure? Tim Wilson details how Ciena Optimization Service can help by incorporating powerful advanced analytics capabilities consumable in a convenient SaaS delivery model.

Is automation enough for digital transformation?

Many leading service providers are already concluding that automation is not enough to drive complete digital transformation. Complex decision making at super-human speeds requires intelligent automation, machine learning, and AI, all of which are fundamental for controlling and operating communications networks of the future. Blue Planet's Shelley Bhalla looks at why.

Closing the Loop: Ciena closes acquisition of Centina

Ciena has officially closed the acquisition of Centina Systems, which will be integrated into our Blue Planet division. Kailem Anderson, VP of Portfolio and Engineering for Blue Planet, details the crucial set of capabilities Centina brings that allow Blue Planet to fully execute on its closed-loop automation vision.

Move over technology, it’s all about customer experience

At last week’s SDN & NFV World Congress, the event that ushered in SDN and NFV technologies back in 2012, it was acknowledged that software control and virtualization have matured to the point that they are now considered table stakes in today’s world of hyper-scale computing and networking. Service providers are keenly focused on delivering the services their customers need, with the performance they demand. Blue Planet’s Marie Fiala discusses the current services trends.

Are broken inventory systems stalling your automation strategy?

Automating your network’s operational processes is the goal, but you can’t automate what you can’t see. Here's why the foundation of a successful automation strategy starts with fixing your legacy inventory systems and processes.

Better Inventory Visualization Slashes Costs and Accelerates New Technology Introduction

Legacy inventory systems can be a major inhibitor to service provider operations. Here's how one major CSP transformed its operations by moving to a single federated inventory environment that provides a complete and current visualization of their network.

When time is money, banks can’t afford a network outage

To deliver a higher quality customer experience, banks of all sizes are deploying innovative digital applications and partnering with FinTechs to bundle new services. Learn how Ciena’s Blue Planet Route Optimization Assurance (ROA) product can help banks ensure that their IP/MPLS networks are agile enough to support them.

When the lights go out: How utilities can better assess the impact of outages on their network assets

Do you have access to real-time data and an end-to-end network view to know what network resources are impacted during a power outage? Mitch Simcoe explains how utilities can get a single dynamic view of the current state of their network and service resources to help bring the lights back on.

How to bend the IP cost curve in your favour, using software

The most pressing problem to solve for IP networks today is not scaling bandwidth alone, but achieving sustainable operations. That's where Adaptive IP can help, says Weng Cheong Loke, Director of Packet Network Business, Asia Pacific & Japan, Ciena.

On-Demand Services for our On-Demand World

Anand Santhanam, Vice President, Communications, Media & Entertainment, Americas, of Infosys and Blue Planet’s Kailem Anderson, Vice President of Software and Services, discuss the value that on-demand services bring to network operators, and to the enterprises they serve.