Blue Planet Brings Trust to Autonomous Networks with New Configuration and Change Management Solution

Key Terms

operations support system technical

A collection of software and tools that companies use to run, monitor and automate everyday business activities—such as billing, inventory, service delivery and compliance—so operations keep running smoothly behind the scenes. Like the backstage crew of a theater, it isn’t the product customers see but it determines reliability, cost efficiency and the company’s ability to scale; investors watch it because stronger systems can cut expenses, reduce service failures and support future growth.

configuration drift technical

Configuration drift happens when computers, servers, or software that are supposed to be set up the same way slowly become different because of untracked changes, updates, or manual fixes — like identical apartments where each tenant repainting a wall makes them no longer the same. For investors this matters because drift raises the risk of outages, security breaches, compliance gaps and unexpected repair costs, all of which can hurt operational performance and company value.

lifecycle management technical

Lifecycle management is the ongoing process of guiding a product or asset from creation through growth, maturity and eventual phase-out to get the most value from it. Investors care because good lifecycle management—like tending a garden or maintaining a car—extends revenue, reduces costs and can delay or soften declines by adding improvements, finding new markets, adjusting pricing, and meeting regulatory requirements, which directly affects a company’s profits and stock value.

autonomous networks technical

Autonomous networks are communication systems that monitor, fix, and optimize themselves without constant human control, using software, automation and machine learning to route traffic, spot faults and adjust capacity. For investors, they matter because they can lower operating costs, improve service reliability and unlock new revenue by enabling faster rollouts and smarter services—similar to how a self-driving car fleet reduces driver costs and runs more efficiently than individual human-driven vehicles.

policy-driven compliance technical

Policy-driven compliance is an approach where a company uses formal, written rules—internal policies plus external laws—to guide and control its operations, decision-making and reporting. Like following traffic signals to reduce crashes, it helps ensure consistent behavior across the business, reduces the chance of fines or scandals, and makes risks and costs more predictable for investors assessing legal, operational and reputational exposure.

pre-change impact analysis technical

An assessment done before a planned corporate, operational, or regulatory change to predict its effects on costs, revenue, compliance and business continuity. It matters to investors because it helps estimate the likely financial impact, risks and timeline — like a rehearsal that reveals whether a new process will save money, create delays, or trigger regulatory issues — so investors can gauge potential upside or downside before the change occurs.

orchestration technical

Orchestration is the coordinated management of multiple tasks, systems or teams so they work together smoothly, like a conductor ensuring each instrument plays at the right time. For investors, orchestration matters because it improves efficiency, speeds up delivery, reduces errors and operational costs, and makes scaling or changing business processes less risky—factors that can directly affect a company’s profitability and reliability.

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• Improves reliability and visualization of operational data essential for autonomous networks
• Turns disparate configuration changes into governed, traceable workflows with shared intelligence across the OSS
• Uses AI agents to detect configuration drift, manage compliance, and reduce manual review cycles

HANOVER, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Blue Planet, a division of Ciena (NYSE: CIEN), is closing the governance gap in network operations by unveiling Blue Planet Configuration and Change Management (CCM), unifying device configuration, change, and lifecycle management across multi-vendor networks. Backed by Blue Planet’s deep Operations Support System (OSS) expertise, CCM replaces fragmented tools and manual processes with AI-driven workflows to reduce risk, prevent outages, and strengthen the foundation for autonomous networking.

As networks grow more complex, configuration errors and unmanaged changes remain a leading cause of outages. Service providers must manage simultaneous manual and AI-driven automated changes across multi-vendor environments, often with limited visibility and fragmented control. CCM provides a real-time view of network state and activity, enabling service providers to safely scale automation and AI-driven operations. With embedded governance, it closes the automation loop by validating and tracking every change, reducing operational risk and strengthening network reliability.

"All network change carries an element of risk, not only in designing the right change to make, but also in executing the change and ultimately validating it correctly," said Robert Curran, Consulting Analyst, Appledore Research. "Increasing autonomy in network operations depends on progressively building trust in the agents and systems empowered to change the network. Auditability and explainability are essential elements in the autonomous networks vision."

“The industry is moving toward AI-driven autonomous networks, but autonomy requires governance, control, and traceability of network changes,” said Joe Cumello, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Blue Planet. “Designed with input from customers, Blue Planet Configuration and Change Management provides a unified governance layer for network changes. It helps service providers realize the operational benefits of AI-driven automation with trust and confidence.”

Key capabilities of CCM include:

• Centralized configuration and change visibility and governance across multi-vendor networks
• Automated configuration drift detection and policy-driven compliance validation
• Software image and device lifecycle management, with automated workflows, from upgrades to end-of-life
• AI-enabled risk assessment, compliance monitoring, and pre-change impact analysis

CCM embeds governance directly into network operations, with pre-built AI agents for drift detection, compliance validation, and change risk assessment to reduce manual review cycles and improve operational efficiency. Integrated across the Blue Planet portfolio, CCM connects inventory, orchestration, and assurance to ensure every change is informed, executed, and monitored in context. The result is a more controlled approach to network change, helping operators improve outcomes today while accelerating the shift to autonomous operations.

For more information about CCM, see the following blog post.

About Blue Planet

Blue Planet empowers communications service providers (CSPs) to be more software-driven, digital businesses with the industry’s first truly cloud-native operations support systems (OSS) platform. The Blue Planet intelligent automation portfolio helps CSPs automate network and service operations to speed the introduction of new services across any network domain or vendor. A division of Ciena and a key provider for many of the world’s leading CSPs, Blue Planet brings unparalleled expertise in accelerating digital transformation. For updates on Blue Planet, visit http://www.blueplanet.com/.

Note to Ciena Investors

You are encouraged to review the Investors section of our website, 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. This press release contains certain forward-looking statements that are based on our current expectations, forecasts, information and assumptions. These statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results or outcomes may differ materially from those stated or implied, because of risks and uncertainties, including those detailed in our most recent annual and quarterly reports filed with the SEC. Forward-looking statements include statements regarding our expectations, beliefs, intentions or strategies and can be identified by 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.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260617760945/en/

Press Contacts:
Wei Wei Chua
Ciena Corporation
+65 9833 2654
pr@ciena.com

Investor Contact:
Gregg Lampf
Ciena Corporation
+1 (410) 694-5700
ir@ciena.com

Source: Ciena Corporation