Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire privately-held Centina, a provider of service assurance analytics and network performance management solutions. Centina's technology and engineering expertise will be integrated into Blue Planet, a division of Ciena. The transaction is expected to close by the end of 2019 and is subject to customary closing conditions.
The acquisition of Centina is intended to accelerate Blue Planet's software strategy of providing closed-loop, intelligent automation solutions to help communications service providers improve operational agility while delivering a differentiated customer experience. Specifically, the Centina solution will expand Blue Planet's assurance capabilities by collecting and collating fault, event, and performance data from multiple vendors and network layers, including virtual domains such as NFV as well as more traditional optical, Ethernet and IP/MPLS networks and services. The integration of Centina's robust service assurance capabilities with Blue Planet Multi-Domain Service Orchestration (MDSO) and Blue Planet Inventory (BPI) is intended to allow continuous optimization of service performance, quality and availability on a proactive basis.
"The acquisition of Centina advances Blue Planet's position as an emerging leader in operational support systems (OSS), focused on closed-loop automation. By continuously monitoring the performance of services, Centina's multi-layer, multi-domain service assurance solution will help our customers resolve issues more quickly and optimize network performance," said Rick Hamilton, senior vice president of Blue Planet. "This is a key step to achieving more adaptive networks that are critical in today's digital society where the customer experience is the ultimate differentiator."