WakeMed Health & Hospitals Increases Network Capacity and Lowers Costs with Ciena Packet Networking Solutions

HANOVER, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Ciena^® Corporation (NASDAQ: CIEN), the network specialist, today announced that WakeMed Health & Hospitals recently upgraded its backbone network leveraging Ciena’s packet networking solutions. Using principles of Ciena’s OPⁿ architecture, WakeMed’s network is now more scalable and programmable, ensuring the network will support high-performance applications of the future. The enhanced network equips WakeMed’s hospitals, clinics and data centers with greater capacity to support high-bandwidth clinical and business applications. Since deploying Ciena’s solutions, WakeMed has reduced network real estate and power consumption expenses by roughly 70 percent, which has resulted in approximately 60 percent reduction of the total operating cost for its network.

“Ciena’s packet networking solution offered a cost effective alternative to our legacy DWDM equipment, reduced the complexity in the network and delivered increased bandwidth.”

Key Facts:

WakeMed is an 870-bed private, not-for-profit health care system based in Raleigh, North Carolina. The health network encompasses 15 locations, providing a variety of services including 24/7 emergency care, outpatient procedures and home health care.
To improve network availability and expand the total capacity of its aging backbone network, WakeMed deployed Ciena’s 5150 Service Aggregation Switch. The upgraded network has quadrupled the health care system’s bandwidth capacity, and provided carrier-grade resiliency and reliability to ensure rapid delivery of critical health care applications and services, such as picture archiving and communications system (PACS), e-ICU, electronic health records (EHR) and administrative applications.
WakeMed leveraged Ciena’s packet networking technology to segment its application traffic into three types of virtual local area networks (VLANs): a VOIP signaling network with high quality of service priority; router-to-router backbone connectivity using resilient G.8032 Ethernet rings; and a data network for other business and healthcare applications.
The 5150’s built-in operational efficiencies, including service-aware operating system and advanced operations, administration and maintenance (OAM) suite, as well as its space-saving, two rack unit footprint, allowed WakeMed to reduce operational and capital expenses. WakeMed now operates its network using less rack space, and with reduced management and maintenance costs.
Ciena Specialist Services provided installation, turn-up and testing. Ronco Communications, a Ciena BizConnect Diamond partner, provided design assistance, technical resources and project management services.

Executive Comments:

“Ciena’s packet networking solution offered a cost effective alternative to our legacy DWDM equipment, reduced the complexity in the network and delivered increased bandwidth.”
- John Tuman, Director Network Services, WakeMed Health & Hospitals
“For a regional health care provider like WakeMed that operates multiple facilities in disparate locations, it is essential to have a reliable network that can connect its facilities to each other, and to data centers, instantly. Using the 5150 to offer high-bandwidth broadband access along with Ronco’s expertise for project management, WakeMed now boasts a reliable, flexible backbone network that can scale to meet a growing array of digital health care services.”
- Chad Whalen, Vice President and General Manager, North America Field Operations, Ciena

Technology Leadership:

A key aspect of Ciena’s OPⁿ architecture, Ciena's packet networking portfolio combines intelligent devices and software to create low-touch, high-velocity Carrier Ethernet access and metro networks creating a common, consistent way to deliver the full range of Ethernet services that significantly accelerates and automates service creation and activation.
A number of health care institutions leverage Ciena’s packet networking solutions for increased network scalability, reliability and flexibility. Among others, these include Children's Hospital Boston; Iowa Health System; Saint Francis Hospital in Connecticut; Denver Children’s Hospital; and UC Health in Ohio.

Supporting Resources:

Product Overview: Carrier Ethernet Solutions
Webinar: Carrier Ethernet Solutions Overview
Data Sheet:5150 Service Aggregation Switch
Data Sheet: Ciena Specialist Services
White Paper: The Strategic Imperative of an Ethernet Metro Aggregation Network
Video: G.8032 – Ethernet Ring Protection Switching
Service Description: Ciena BizConnect Partner Program

About WakeMed Health & Hospitals

WakeMed Health & Hospitals is a private, not-for-profit health care organization based in Raleigh, N.C. The 870-bed system comprises a network of health care facilities throughout Wake and Johnston Counties. Centers of excellence include cardiac and vascular care, women’s and children’s services, physical rehab, emergency and trauma, orthopedics, neurosciences, home care and numerous wellness and community outreach programs. WakeMed’s team of 7,750 employees, 1,000 volunteers and more than 1,000 affiliated physicians serve the residents of North Carolina using the most advanced technologies to ensure the finest in health care. For more information, visit www.wakemed.org.

About Ronco

Founded in 1965 and headquartered in Tonawanda, New York, Ronco Communications & Electronics, Inc. is an integrator of innovative communications products and services, with a strong focus on IP communications and unified technologies. From telephone systems to data networks, customized professional audio solutions to Internet access, carrier services and provisioning, Ronco is one of the strongest solution providers on the East Coast. For more information, please visit www.ronco.net.

About Ciena

Ciena 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 OPⁿ, its approach for building open 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. We routinely post recent news, financial results and other important announcements and information about Ciena on our website. For more information, visit www.ciena.com.

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 September 5, 2012. 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.