Cyan

Cyan, Inc. operated as a provider of networking solutions, specifically targeting the transformation of legacy networks into more agile, high-performance systems. The company was founded on October 25, 2006, by a team of serial entrepreneurs from the telecom sector: Michael L. Hatfield, Steve J. West, J. Richard Johnston, and Eric M. Clelland. These founders leveraged their extensive experience from previous successful ventures, such as Cerent Corp., to address the evolving needs of network operators. Hatfield, who served as President, had a notable career founding multiple tech companies, including Calix, Inc. and Cerent Corp., focusing on creating value in the optical transport space. Eric Clelland's journey involved identifying a market gap for serving small and medium-sized carriers who were often left behind by major hardware innovations.

The business centered on developing and marketing solutions for network virtualization, enabling service providers, data centers, enterprises, and government clients to manage their networks with greater efficiency. Cyan's business model involved selling both hardware and software to these clients globally, helping them accelerate service delivery and enhance scalability. The company's key offerings were its Z-Series packet-optical transport platforms and the award-winning Blue Planet software. The Z-Series was a family of hardware platforms, including the Z22, Z33, and Z77, designed for metro and regional networks to handle various service types like Ethernet and optical services. Blue Planet was a carrier-grade, multi-vendor Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) orchestration platform. Its key differentiator was its ability to automate and manage network services across equipment from different manufacturers, providing a unified view and control over both physical and virtual resources.

A significant milestone in the company's history was its initial public offering on May 9, 2013, when it began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker “CYNI”. This event marked a major step in the company's growth, positioning it to further influence the global shift towards network virtualization. The company's trajectory culminated on August 3, 2015, when it was acquired by Ciena Corporation, a larger network specialist, in a transaction valued at approximately $488 million. Following the acquisition, Cyan's operations and its influential Blue Planet software were integrated into Ciena, forming a new business division led by former Cyan President, Mike Hatfield, to focus on software-led network automation and orchestration.

Keywords: software-defined networking, SDN, network functions virtualization, NFV, packet-optical transport, Blue Planet software, Z-Series hardware, network orchestration, Ciena, Michael Hatfield, multi-vendor network management, telecom infrastructure, network virtualization, carrier-grade networking, metro ethernet, data center interconnect, wide area network, WAN automation, service delivery platform, optical networking