June 20168 By Steve Alexander, SVP-CTO, CienaFocusing on Your Core CompetenceThe telecom industry is undergoing a constant change. This is why we at Ciena continue to foster innovation by focusing on what we do best and create an environment that encourages open lines of communication with our customers and employees.Focusing on what you do best is essential. For example, much of Ciena's success can be attributed to our focus of being an industry specialist. We are an organization that focuses on specific segments of the networking market. This has led to impressive innovations from our research and development teams. For example, at the `GLIF 2014 conference' in New Zealand we demonstrated the ability to transport a live, encrypted, 4K video stream spanning approximately 30,000 km with latency of less than one-quarter of a second. This is truly amazing when one considers the possible real life applications for enabling a state of the art telemedicine practices. It is also important for companies to create an open communication en-vironment where every voiceis con-sidered. The relationship with our cus-tomers have taught us that productive business relationships are not transactional. They are involved in col-laborative engage-ments that helps us understand what's happening within the cus-tomer network, and what the impact is­or could be­to their business. This methodology has become some-thing very cultural to Ciena, and has resulted in trust being earned over the long term.The company culture promotes meaningful relationships inside the organization whichis also incredibly important. The employees who develop the products and solutions are the people who deserve the recognition for Ciena's innovation. Ciena's Technical Awards of Distinction program, which celebrates the customer-driven ingenuity of Ciena's engineering community, is an example of employee recognition. Last year, we recognized a group of Ciena scientists who hold a combined 300 plus patents and have a history of innovation in the telecom industry. We value these programsas they portray our company's commitment to its employees.When people work for an organization that value its employees, they don't feel like they are walking on eggshells, instead there is a form of candor where people can speak their mind. In such an environment, information and authority flow freely, there is a velocity about getting things done that is special, and there is a form of commitment from individuals to the organization.Defining Internet of Things in Telecom Terms The Internet of Things (IOT) will cause a substantial shift in the way telecom networks are designed, deployed and operated. The concept of the IOT is to install sensors on consumer or commercial hardware to communicate application-relevant information to a centralized storage or decision-making facility. This means that the IOT is dependent on the network­without the ability to share the newly created data, it becomes useless. It is only once a high quality connection is in place that the IOT and its applications becomes a powerful tool that both consumers and commercial actors are sure to benefit from. The Networks began by connecting places (as telephones do), then evolved to people (as mobile devices do). Now we are targeting atconnecting devices. As more `things' become Collaborative Customer Engagements Fuelling Productivity Steve AlexanderCiena is a network specialist offering a wide range of solutions such as Network modernization, private optical networks, mobile backhaul ,cloud networking and other services.IN MY VIEW
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