HANOVER, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Blue Planet, a division of Ciena (NYSE:CIEN), has launched a major enhancement to its intelligent automation software portfolio with the first-of-its-kind Blue Planet Cloud Native Platform. Leveraging Kubernetes (K8s) technology to support multiple modular Operating Support System (OSS) applications, the new platform will allow Communications Service Providers (CSPs) to simplify and automate their OSS environments. Converging inventory, orchestration, and assurance applications on a common platform, it provides a game-changing strategy to improve operational efficiency and streamline service lifecycle automation.

CSPs want to transform into software-driven, AI-informed connectivity engines optimized to help end-customers access cloud, commerce, broadband, mobile and more. Modernizing their OSS is key to achieving this vision because it reduces customizations and complexity and automates operations resulting in increased agility and much lower costs. Blue Planet’s Cloud Native Platform serves as the backbone for this digital transformation journey, simplifying end-to-end automation for critical service lifecycle management processes across any vendor, service, or network type.

Built on a K8s-based architecture, the new platform offers significant advantages to CSPs beyond what Blue Planet is already known for today. These new features include:

• In-service software upgrades (ISSU) and continuous integration / continuous delivery (CI/CD) support, allowing CSPs to embrace a DevOps model and quickly introduce innovative new services.
• Support for any cloud environment, including public, private and hybrid cloud environments, to reduce vendor lock-in and significantly improve operational scale, flexibility, and resilience.
• Common lifecycle management across all Blue Planet OSS applications, delivering a lower total cost of ownership (TCO).
• AI-driven operations by using an AI Studio that can apply machine learning and AI-based capabilities developed by CSP data science teams, Blue Planet, or third parties, to any mix of product applications or operational processes.

The new Blue Planet Cloud Native Platform allows CSPs to deploy individual applications independently or together to address their most important OSS modernization projects at their own pace. These include the Blue Planet Inventory (BPI), Blue Planet Orchestration (BPO) and Blue Planet Assurance (BPA) applications, which are all readily available on the platform today.

Executive Comments:

• “The Blue Planet Cloud Native Platform transcends the traditional approach of custom ‘spaghetti integrations’ that have shackled CSPs’ ability to be adaptable, open and agile. We are pioneering a new level of convergence that embraces the cloud and transforms the OSS to be a competitive differentiator, reducing operational costs and allowing for rapid creation of new business models.”
  - Joe Cumello, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Blue Planet

• “CSPs’ legacy OSS is a complex environment of highly customized, siloed systems that represent a constraint on growth and greater agility. The new Blue Planet Cloud Native Platform consolidates Blue Planet's unique capabilities, telecom experience, and cloud-native vision, giving CSPs a foundation for simplifying and modernizing their operations.”
  - Francis Haysom, Principal Analyst, Appledore Research

• “Communication service providers are digitally transforming their networks by transitioning their OSS workloads to Google Cloud. Utilizing Kubernetes as the foundation of their new platform, Blue Planet will not only streamline service providers' evolution to a modernized, AI-driven and cloud-native OSS, but also help drive faster innovation, lower operational costs, and greatly improve end-user experiences.”
  - Ankur Jain, Vice President, Google Distributed Cloud Engineering & Telco Industry, Google Cloud