DEVOPSdigest

Ciena unveiled a new enhancement to its Blue Planet network and service orchestration platform that will give network operators a powerful DevOps-style approach that speeds up the creation and delivery of new on-demand, virtualized services within their SDN and NFV enabled networks.

Ciena’s Blue Planet DevOps Toolkit features a set of software development tools that can be utilized by network operators’ in-house personnel, and in collaboration with ecosystem partners, to modify new services and add new virtual and physical network resources more quickly and easily. The result is a significant reduction in cost and dependence on professional services associated with monolithic, vendor-controlled back-office systems.

For example, with the Blue Planet DevOps Toolkit, network operators can utilize their own product development, IT and network operations teams to collaborate in the creation and on-boarding of new virtual network functions (VNFs) such as virtual firewalls, physical network domains such as Layer 2 metro networks, and virtual domains such as a third party cloud, and ultimately deploy these resources as components of new service offerings.

With a DevOps approach, network operators gain greater control and self-sufficiency in service creation and delivery to meet today’s business challenges. Propelled by the ongoing transformation to SDN and NFV, DevOps enables better collaboration among product development, IT and network operations teams to improve operational efficiency, accelerate innovation, and accelerate “concept-to-revenue” for new services.

Ciena’s Blue Planet DevOps Toolkit consists of a set of software development tools and community resources that allow operators to integrate network resources such as devices, functions, or domains (physical or virtual), as well as customize service templates, with the Blue Planet Network and Service Orchestration software. It is also complemented with the Blue Planet Developer Community portal that facilitates open source-like collaboration between Blue Planet customers and ecosystem partners, online documentation and training tools, and features “libraries” of available resource adapters and service templates.

Available in June 2016, the Blue Planet DevOps Toolkit offers a number of benefits to Ciena customers, including reduced operational costs, less network complexity and service programmability.