Ciena Corporation has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire privately-held network performance management software provider, Packet Design.
Ciena says that the acquisition would help to accelerate its Blue Planet suite of products by allowing the extension of its intelligent automation capabilities beyond Layers 0-2 and into IP. The system itself was attained via the company’s 2015 acquisition of Cyan (see Ciena buys Cyan for its software smarts).
It is intended that the combination of the Blue Planet software platform and Packet Design’s performance analytics and service path computation capabilities form a micro-services-based platform that delivers real-time analytics, optimisation and orchestration capabilities to support the broadest range of closed-loop automation use cases across multi-layer, multi-vendor networks. Rick Hamilton, senior vice president of Global Software and Services at Ciena commented: ‘The addition of Packet Design will enhance our position by enabling customers to realise networks that are more adaptive – capable of self-optimising and self-healing for faster time-to-market for new services, more efficient and lower cost network operations, and the ability to deliver an overall better customer experience.’
The transaction is subject to conditions, but is expected to close during Ciena’s fiscal third quarter this year.
