CIENA Expands Reach of Service Offerings Worldwide, Names NCR Strategic Partner for Global Services.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

CeBIT 2004

LINTHICUM, Md. & HANNOVER, Germany--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 17, 2004

At CeBIT 2004, CIENA(R) Corporation (NASDAQ:CIEN), a leading global provider of innovative network solutions, today announced that it is expanding its reach for engineer dispatch (first line maintenance) and enterprise product deployment services. In conjunction, CIENA announced a strategic partnership with NCR Corporation, a leading provider of networking deployment and support services, which will extend the geographic reach of CIENA's service offerings, effective immediately.

Through its partnership with NCR, CIENA is able to expand its offerings to customers requiring engineer dispatch and on-site resolution, as well as test and turn-up services for enterprise solutions, in more than 120 countries and territories. NCR's support will help CIENA's customers realize increased geographic scope, improved economies of scale, and an enhanced breadth of CIENA product support as the company's solutions portfolio continues to expand toward the network edge. The addition of NCR's broad range of resources further enhances CIENA's ability to meet even the most aggressive service level commitments and customized service requests.

"One of CIENA's principal differentiators in the marketplace is its high level of responsiveness to the always-evolving needs of our customers, so identifying the right partners for growing our service portfolio is critical," said Arthur Smith, CIENA's senior vice president of global operations. "The NCR team has proven its technical acumen and customer focus in multiple international projects for CIENA as well as recent edge solution deployments for our enterprise customers.

"We have chosen a highly respected name in the network support industry as a strategic services partner," Smith continued. "NCR is recognized as a leader in providing the highest levels of engineering knowledge and expertise, allowing our customers to be confident that they can continue to leverage a best-in-class service infrastructure. Together, we look forward to providing as much business value to our customers as possible."

"We understand the importance of flexibility and response to CIENA's customers," said Todd Bollenbacher, vice president of Americas Customer Services at NCR. "The combination of CIENA's innovative network solutions and NCR's long record of success in services expands the offerings of both organizations. As a result, CIENA customers will benefit from an enhanced services portfolio with the world-class support they've come to expect."

Over the past year, CIENA has been augmenting its services business, complementing the internal structure, and completing an exhaustive evaluation process to select global services partners. Now, by providing engineer dispatch and edge solution deployment services through its partnership with NCR, CIENA is able to increase the level of support it offers its customers on a global scale.

ABOUT CIENA

CIENA Corporation delivers innovative network solutions to the world's largest service providers and enterprises, increasing the cost-efficiency of current services while enabling the creation of new carrier-class data services built upon the existing network infrastructure. Additional information about CIENA can be found at www.ciena.com.

NOTE TO INVESTORS

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements based on current expectations, forecasts and assumptions of CIENA (the Company) that involve risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements in this release, including but not limited to the features and benefits of CIENA's products, are based on information available to the Company as of the date hereof. The Company's actual results could differ materially from those stated or implied in such forward-looking statements, due to risks and uncertainties associated with the Company's business, which include the risk factors disclosed in the Company's Report on Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on February 19, 2004. Forward-looking statements include statements regarding the Company's expectations, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future and can be identified by forward-looking words such as "anticipate," "believe," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "should," "will," and "would" or similar words. The Company assumes no obligation to update the information included in this press release, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.