Abel Tong is senior director of solutions marketing at Ciena's Blue Planet division. He is responsible for helping to transform networks through the application of Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV), to deliver value and create new services, and to simplify network operations for Ciena's customers.  Abel has over 15 years of networking and telecommunications systems experience and has been an active blogger, speaker, and thought leader in the industry. Abel joined Ciena through the acquisition of Cyan. Prior to Cyan, Abel ran Marketing for Omnitron and led the launch of several Carrier Ethernet products. Abel has also held positions at Aktino, Calix, ADC and Pairgain. Abel is also a long-time contributor to the MEF. Abel leads MEF's Project UNITE, an industry wide collaborative initiative bringing standards development organizations together to create the building blocks for Lifecycle Service Orchestration and Third Network. Abel is also a member of Open Cloud Connect (OCC), Open Daylight and the Open Networking Foundation (ONF).