By Leonard Luna, Senior Marketing Manager, Cisco Service Provider Solutions

Cisco's one-two punch for IP Optical Convergence in 2015 began with an impressive showing in March at OFC in Los Angeles, and crescendos with our annual Spring Packet Optical Networking Conference (PONC) being held May 12 -14 in Dallas TX -shaping up to be our most comprehensive and informative PONC ever.

Highlights from OFC

Day one of OFC could not have started on a higher note -Verizon announced Cisco as a key partner in the deployment of its next generation100G metro network. Bill Gartner, Cisco VP, Optical Systems and Transceivers Group, noted below:

The Cisco booth highlighted the Cisco Service Provider Architecture model, featuring a presentation theater where Cisco experts presented a variety of topics throughout the day. Visitors experienced physical and virtual solutions from the Cisco Evolved Programmable Network (EPN) and Evolved Services Platform (ESP) portfolio of Service Provider solutions.

Demonstrations included: the Cisco Network Convergence System (NCS) 4000 Multi-Chassis solution, 100G and beyond Cisco NCS 2000 WDM transport solutions, Circuit Emulation technology, Cisco CPAK Silicon Photonics technology, Multilayer SDN solutions, Cisco EPN Manager, and network design tools to name a few.

Cisco Spring 2015 Packet Optical Networking Conference(PONC)

PONC 2015 in Dallas has many compelling characteristics that makes it exceptionally exciting to be part of this year:

• Keynote featuring Kelly Ahuja -Cisco Sr. VP Service Provider Solutions
• Host Bill Gartner, Cisco VP Optical Systems and Transceivers Group
• Industry Presenters including Verizon's Glenn Wellbrock and OARNet's Paul Schopis
• Twelve Workshops for attendees to choose from covering a variety of topics including Packet, Optical, Multilayer SDN, Network Management and Orchestration Solutions
• 4 Bonus Technical Tracks providing in depth training opportunities
• A Demonstration Exposition providing up-close access to Cisco solutions and subject matter experts
• And much more.

If you plan to be part of the PONC dialog this year, we look forward to seeing you in a few weeks. If you would like to attend, please reach out to your Cisco account team. If you can't make it this year, look for communication from the event on social media and please make plans to join us next year. You can stay connected to PONC news by visiting our PONC website.

Thanks and we will see you at a future Cisco event!

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