Incumbent service provider Windstream will use Ciena’s Blue Planet network functions virtualization (NFV) orchestration platform to automate and manage the delivery of its gigabit Ethernet (Gig-E) services to customers.

Windstream also will use Blue Planet’s open architecture to integrate with third-party SDN controllers and enable orchestration across the company’s long-haul and metro network. Besides Gig-E, Windstream also offers time division multiplexing (TDM), synchronous optical network (SONET), and optical wave transport services.

Windstream is using a DevOps-style approach to automating its network so it can develop and provision new services more quickly, and it says Blue Planet will help it with that goal.

In May Ciena introduced a DevOps toolkit for Blue Planet that is similar to a software development kit (SDK) and can be used by network operators’ in-house personnel to modify new services and add new virtual and physical network resources.

During its fiscal third quarter earnings call with investors last month, Ciena executives reported growing interest in Blue Planet and noted a growing trend toward openness in the optical domain. The company also said that it was conducting multiple Blue Planet pilots with multiple service operators (MSOs), Tier 1 providers, and data center operators.

CenturyLink is another one of of BluePlanet’s high-profile customers. CenturyLink uses BluePlanet’s orchestration for its programmable services backbone that makes it possible to deliver virtualized services to its enterprise and SMB customers.