Ciena^® (NYSE: CIEN) is extending the benefits of its market-leading 6500 Packet-Optical Platform to significantly increase network scalability and accelerate the move to open, virtualized, SDN-based architectures. Ciena’s 6500 T-Series is purpose-built for the Terabit world, offering significantly reduced power consumption and space requirements. It enables service providers to scale their metro and regional networks to support today’s voracious demand for web-scale applications like streaming video, cloud computing and virtualized, software-based  networking capabilities.

Verizon is in the process of deploying Ciena’s 6500 T-Series to scale its next generation 100G metro network from both a capacity and an operational perspective, as well as efficiently distribute customizable content to end users and provide an on-demand, superior customer experience.

Executive Comments:

• “More powerful smartphones, tablets and the proliferation of streaming video from consumers and businesses alike are pushing networks to the brink of current capabilities. T-Series adds powerful new capabilities to our market-leading 6500 Packet-Optical Platform family and builds on its widespread installed base to help our customers build larger, more agile and robust networks that cater to rising web-scale demands today and well into the future.”
  -  Scott McFeely, Senior Vice President, Networking Platforms Division, Ciena

• “Service providers must build networks that can connect consumers and businesses to ever evolving cloud and virtualization services as well as respond to the viral nature of today’s web-scale world. Ciena does this in the 6500 T-Series by leveraging the latest technology to deliver industry leading packet-optical density. This announcement is a big deal - the 6500 T-Series extends on the success of the 6500 in the marketplace and simultaneously demonstrates Ciena’s leadership in both converged packet & OTN switching and photonics.”
  -      Andrew Schmitt, Founder and Lead Analyst, Cignal AI

Available this month, Ciena’s 6500 T-Series provides up to ten times more port density, scaling from 2.4 Tb/s to 24 Tb/s in a single chassis, and to more than 100 Tb/s in a multi-chassis nodal configuration, ensuring service providers can efficiently meet exploding bandwidth requirements for years to come.

Additional 6500 Enhancements:

Ciena is also adding greater levels of openness and programmability to its entire 6500 Packet-Optical Platform family, giving service providers the ability to quickly deliver new customizable services and respond to unpredictable traffic demands.  Specifically, Ciena is adding open API support and the ability to leverage its Emulation Cloud, which allows service providers to create, test and fine-tune customized applications in a virtual networking environment, giving them the power to innovate and speed time-to-market for new services.

Ciena is also integrating 6500 into its Blue Planet software, enabling service providers to automate services – from creation through orchestration and delivery – across both physical and virtual domains as well as multi-vendor environments.

Ciena’s 6500 converges packet, OTN, and flexible WaveLogic photonics capabilities in a single platform, as well as across multiple shelf configurations with a single software stream, helping to streamline operations and optimize footprint/power/capacity to site requirements. In addition, Ciena has consistently ranked #1 in IHS/Infonetics’ Optical Vendor Leadership survey in the “Top Packet-Optical Supplier” category.

Upcoming Event:

• On Thursday, March 31 at 11:00 a.m. ET, Ciena will host a live webinar, “New Metro Architectures Driven by Web-scale Effect.” To register for the webinar, click here.

About CienaCiena (NYSE: CIEN) is the network specialist. We collaborate with customers worldwide to unlock the strategic potential of their networks and fundamentally change the way they perform and compete. Ciena leverages its deep expertise in packet and optical networking and distributed software automation to deliver solutions in alignment with its OPⁿ architecture for next-generation networks. We enable a high-scale, programmable infrastructure that can be controlled and adapted by network-level applications, and provide open interfaces to coordinate computing, storage and network resources in a unified, virtualized environment. For updates on Ciena news, follow us on Twitter @Ciena or on LinkedIn. Investors are encouraged to review the Investors section of our website at www.ciena.com/investors, where we routinely post press releases, SEC filings, recent news, financial results, and other announcements. From time to time we exclusively post material information to this website along with other disclosure channels that we use.

Note to Ciena Investors
Forward-looking statements. This press release contains certain forward-looking statements based on current expectations, forecasts and assumptions that involve risks and uncertainties. These statements are based on information available to the Company as of the date hereof; and Ciena's actual results could differ materially from those stated or implied, due to risks and uncertainties associated with its business, which include the risk factors disclosed in its Report on Form 10-Q, which Ciena filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 9, 2016. Forward-looking statements include statements regarding Ciena's expectations, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future and can be identified by forward-looking words such as "anticipate," "believe," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "should," "will," and "would" or similar words. Ciena assumes no obligation to update the information included in this press release, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.