Many large enterprises maintain their own private fiber networks for interconnecting data centers and storage networks across multiple geographies. These networks traditionally have been dedicated to telecom and voice PBX traffic with the future potential for more advanced applications as they emerge. The high demand for bandwidth and network performance is driven by data, video and storage, and enterprises must efficiently support and maximize these applications for business gain.

Challenges

Network-intensive applications each have their own set of constraints. Voice requires low-bandwidth, low-latency transport. Video and storage require high-bandwidth, low-latency connectivity, while data has varying requirements depending on the application (email, Internet or data center connectivity). One commonality is that all are managed by separate groups and networks within the enterprise, which is inefficient, complex and costly.

Solution

Enterprises require the economies of a simplified application-neutral network that operates on a single solution platform for management and operation while respecting the diversities of each application. Technologies such as Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) offer a feasible solution to maintain application separation over a single-fiber infrastructure. Advanced application awareness through protocol monitoring enables one group manager to operate the network with visibility and control. Intelligent application switching and multiplexing reduce the costs of transport with bandwidth efficiencies over each wavelength.

Ciena's offerings

Ciena supports a wide range of intelligent optical platforms that are fine-tuned based on service density, distance and cost requirements. All offer the flexibility of full-rate, native protocol transport with intelligent service visibility and efficient bandwidth utilization. Enterprises including research and education, local and national government agencies, hospitals and financial organizations all have benefited from Ciena's leading network convergence solutions.

Benefits

• Application support of native protocols at full rate (voice, data, video, storage and more)
• Intelligent protocol visibility for simplified management and trouble-shooting reducing MTTR by as much as 75%
• Optimized wavelength and bandwidth usage reduces connectivity and hardware costs
• Carrier-grade reliability, refined and optimized for the enterprise