INDUSTRY INTERVIEW: Ciena Government Solutions

Dave Peed
Vice President and Managing Director
Ciena Government Solutions

A: Since that time, we have continued to build our team in alignment with the needs of DoD as well as research and education, and other federal agencies. Our Maryland-based team has more than doubled in size and now totals about 30 professionals. We have aligned these people with our customers based on experience and focus. For example, we recently appointed Jeff Verant as sales director for DoD and special programs. In this new role, Jeff brings rich military experience and networking technology knowledge to supporting the needs of these customers and providing them with best-in-class solutions.

On the product side, Ciena has continued to enhance and expand its portfolio. In our last interview, I mentioned a need to offer capabilities that allow for dynamic provisioning of multiple services. Earlier in 2008, we acquired World Wide Packets, a developer of Ethernet technology. This product line expands network capabilities to deliver many service types rapidly at low cost. Combined with our transport platforms, we call this overall solution a programmable servicedelivery engine.

Q: How has the emergence of cloud computing affected networking equipment?

A: According to the Pew/Internet project, almost 70 percent of all Internet users either store data online or use some form of networked computing. The most common examples are Web mail applications, such as Gmail, and media storage such as Snapfish. Users are attracted to these applications because of the access they offer among multiple devices such as laptop or desktop PCs, public PCs and handheld PDAs. As these applications evolved, network requirements changed from simply needing more bandwidth to also needing bandwidth in a continuous stream. Latency became a critical consideration. Resiliency, security and provisioning speeds are also top concerns. For us, all of this means that we need to design equipment that does more than provide a wide pipe; we need to provide capabilities to manage the traffic contained within the pipe.

Q: In light of that, what role does the network play in helping our warfighters’ mission?

A: The network needs to be globally available yet accessible only to qualified personnel. Our warfighters need access anywhere on the globe even if the enemy is in close proximity. This means the DoD network must make wide use of highly secure fiber-optic backbones that are very immune to intrusion and also very resilient to intentional or accidental failures. The entire system, from design through manufacturing and deployment, must come from a trusted source.

Our involvement in building the DISN lends much credibility to that point. But the access network also needs to be secured through a combination of redundant structures and strong security. Ciena’s platforms all feature operating systems built with a security framework with a focus on protecting the network availability. The intent is to defend, deter and detect intrusion while instilling confidence with our forces that they are obtaining information from a trusted source.

Q: What is the state of the art in the field of high-speed backbone networks?

A: Following the telecom bust, we saw a long pause at 10 G. Interest in capacity expansion never disappeared; purchases were repeatedly delayed due to prior overexpansion. Adoption of 40 G was sluggish, and we came to believe that the demand would move rapidly to 100 G. Our discussions with government and industry customers have validated our view.

With the current softness in the market, we see the timeline for 100 G FOA sliding. However, we are talking with the government on collaborative efforts that would keep development moving forward. Ciena participates in all of these backbone technologies and will remain at the forefront of this technology.

Demand for this bandwidth is driven not only by the continuing trend for increased voice and video service, but also by the distributed computing applications we discussed earlier. Traffic demand includes traditional circuit and data services through Gigabit Ethernet and 10 Gigabit Ethernet. Examples of this include the Internet2, a consortium of research institutions using grid computing for complex applications, and LHCnet, a network providing high-bandwidth connection from the Large Hadron Collider to researchers around the globe.

Q: How are certification standards affecting the development of networking systems?

A: Standards provide a common framework to aid our customers in their procurement decisions. Ultimately, they level the playing field among suppliers and result in systems better suited to provide the reliability and compatibility needed to be useful. Specifically, Ciena builds systems compliant with the needs of the general market and unique customer segments. For the telecom carrier space, we address Telecordia standards. In the DoD arena, we have certified equipment with the JITC. Generally, we design equipment with interfaces and control systems compliant with standards defined by entities such as ITU, TMF, OIF and IETF. At a corporate level, we are compliant with ISO 9001 for quality and next year will achieve ISO 14001 certification, an environmental sustainability standard. ♦

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