Ryan Perera has over 16 years of industry experience. He started his career with SingTel Optus in Australia and has since held key positions in the organisation, leading functions like operations, engineering, planning and product marketing. Perera joined Ciena India in 2010, with the company?s acquisition of Nortel?s Metro Ethernet Networks business, where he went on to hold various leadership positions in Asia-Pacific.
As country head of Ciena India, Perera is responsible for managing and developing the company?s business across the country, which includes sales, business development, engineering and operations support. Perera claims that over the past four years, Ciena has expanded its business significantly in India, with five out of the seven leading operators in the country using its products. ?Ciena currently leads the 100G deployment in the country. We are also engaged with various Digital India government and defence sector network initiatives,? he says.
Perera attributes Ciena?s successful run in India to its strong R&D base. Outside North America, Ciena?s second-largest R&D facility is located in Gurgaon, and has an R&D staff of over 700. The Gurgaon facility supports processes such as software design and development, product verifications, integration, interworking and customer trials.
According to Perera, operators are challenged by the ever-increasing demand for bandwidth and the plateauing of revenues. To address these challenges, they need to cha-nge the cost curve, which cannot be achieved by reducing equipment and operational costs alone. Network-wide re-source virtualisation is a nec-essity, leveraging SDN techniques. To stay ahead of the competition, Perera follows industry developments closely. According to him, the industry is already witnessing consolidation. Going forward, he expects three to four ?super groups? to dominate the infrastructure space. Another key trend is the deployment of 100G in the long haul. In fact, some customers have already started deploying 200G and are trialling 1 Tbs. ?With 3G and 4G taking off, wireless backhaul networks will require a significant overhaul. A purpose-built packet transport access network with the right level of protection and operations and management capabilities at the right price points will play a key role in addressing these needs. The industry will also witness the coming of age of SDN and network functions virtualisation to deliver resource virtualisation in select segments of the network.?
