Ciena’s Blue Planet Participating in TM Forum Collaborative Catalyst Project Focused on Edge Automation

Blue Planet, a division of Ciena (NYSE: CIEN), is participating in TM Forum’s renowned collaborative proof-of-concept Catalyst program focused on co-creating innovative solutions to important industry challenges by leveraging TM Forum best practices and standards.

Blue Planet is leading a Catalyst titled “The Edge in Automation” which will be showcased alongside other projects at TM Forum’s interactive Catalyst Digital Showcase beginning online on June 30. Blue Planet’s presentation is Tuesday July 7, 2020 at 10:15am EST and registration is available here. “The Edge in Automation” team will also showcase their proof-of-concept during Digital Transformation World in October.

Blue Planet’s collaborative Catalyst will introduce the concept of Edge Computing as a Service (ECaaS) in a real-world scenario and demonstrate its ability to support first responder situations and large-scale events by dynamically and rapidly reconfiguring network resources at the edge to deliver critical and timely services. This project is championed by BT, Orange, Telecom Italia, Telus, Verizon, Videotron and Vodafone with special advisors AWS, Hansen and Microsoft and brings together Blue Planet, Cerillion, IBM and Optare Solutions.

“Verizon’s participation in the Catalyst program accelerates the standardization of edge computing services,” said Mehmet Toy, Ph.D, Associate Fellow, Verizon. “Using the principles of ‘Lifecycle Service Orchestration’ and ‘Cloud Services Architecture’ from the MEF, this demo shows for the first time how automated and zero touch edge services enable service providers to deliver the agility their customers require today.”

Lester Thomas, Chief Systems Architect at Vodafone Group said, “Edge computing provides a wide range of new services opportunities for communications service providers as well as collaboration opportunities with cloud providers, application developers and other partners. By joining the Edge in Automation Catalyst, Vodafone is furthering our goal to adopt an open platform approach to accelerate the delivery of innovative new edge services.”

In addition to the “Edge in Automation” Catalyst, Ciena and Blue Planet are participating in the “Automating NaaS Lambda (λ) Services” Catalyst and the “Agile and Automated Digital Enterprise” Catalyst with BT and Verizon.

“Networks today need to adapt so that they can deliver and scale mission-critical services,” said Kailem Anderson, Vice President of Portfolio and Engineering for Blue Planet, a division of Ciena. “Blue Planet’s intelligent automation capabilities used at the edge enable service providers to drive efficiency, reduce bandwidth costs, improve services and open new market opportunities.

TM Forum’s Chief Digital Officer John Gillam said, “Catalyst projects showcase the power of collaboration, bringing together a wide range of companies, industries and ecosystems not only in telecom but also in IoT, smart cities, smart energy, industrial manufacturing and more. Championed by the world’s largest service providers, Catalyst projects like Blue Planet’s accelerate innovation, prove the application of new technologies, validate standards and make many other valuable contributions to our industry.”

TM Forum’s Catalyst program provides a unique collaborative environment where companies from around the globe work together to create solutions to key industry challenges. During Digital Transformation World, over 30 Catalyst teams are scheduled to demonstrate their proof-of-concept works.

About Blue Planet
Blue Planet, a division of Ciena (NYSE: CIEN), provides market-leading intelligent automation software and specialized professional services to help customers modernize their IT and network operations. Driven by policy and AI-based insights, Blue Planet delivers the closed-loop automation tools needed to align IT and networking processes—critical to facilitating digital transformation. For updates on Blue Planet, visit www.blueplanet.com.

About TM Forum
TM Forum is an association of over 850 member companies, including ten of the world’s top ten communications service providers, that generate a combined US$2 trillion in revenue and serve five billion customers across 180 countries. We drive collaboration and collective problem-solving to maximize the business success of communication and digital service providers and their ecosystem of suppliers around the world. Today, our focus is on supporting members as they navigate their unique digital transformation journeys, providing practical and proven assets and tools to accelerate execution and platforms to facilitate collaborative problem solving and innovation. Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. Learn more at www.tmforum.org.