Infinera, Fujitsu, Cisco, Ciena see strongest growth, support in optical market, says Infonetics

Infinera (Nasdaq: INFN) may have been a late bloomer in the broader optical hardware market, but according to a new Infonetics scorecard, it has gained high ratings for innovation, reliability, service and support.

A key part of Infinera's success has been ongoing sales of its DTN-X platform. During the fourth quarter of 2013, sales of the DTN-X drove up its revenues 24 percent year-over-year from $128.1 million in the same period a year ago.

In the fourth quarter of 2013, Infinera said it "added three new DTN-X customer commitments in the quarter," including one customer new to the company.

Not far behind Infinera are Fujitsu and Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO), which both reported strong 2013 revenue growth and packet-optical sales to Tier 1 North American service providers.

One of the interesting revelations of the scorecard was Ciena (NYSE: CIEN), which ranked only fourth on the scorecard. Although the vendor continues to get high scores in market share and momentum, its ranking was offset by a low financial stability rating.

"Looking at the results, what really sets the vendors apart is financial stability and changes in market share as a result of some vendors capitalizing on the shift to optical transport networking (OTN) and coherent networking," said Andrew Schmitt, principal analyst for optical at Infonetics Research. "Service provider feedback was also a key differentiator, particularly positive for Ciena, Fujitsu, and Infinera."

For more:
- see the release

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