Ciena has cut some staff as the company continues to make changes in its professional services business.

One source told Light Reading 75 employees were cut from Ciena VP of Global Services Ricardo Warfield's group. The cuts affected the company's Regional Technical Support, Emergency Technical Support and Global Product Support teams and those employees were told last week, our source said.

Ciena did not confirm the number of jobs cut but did acknowledge that it has made some staff cuts as part of a larger plan. "We recently outlined several strategic drivers that play a key role in our growth and market share opportunities. One of those is our global network services business, for which late last year we appointed a new leadership team and began a multi-year transformation process designed to enhance the overall services experience for our customers," a Ciena spokeswoman writes to Light Reading.

"As part of that transformation, we recently implemented a targeted organizational alignment to help us achieve that goal," the spokeswoman writes. "We do not take decisions of this nature lightly and are always sure to take several measures to support affected employees' transitions."

In a note to clients late last month, Jefferies analyst George Notter wrote that Ciena's cuts are part of a bigger turnover happening to grow that part of the business. "Interestingly, we point out that there are currently 245 job postings on Ciena's website and 58 of those were posted in the last two weeks," he writes.

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— Phil Harvey, US News Editor, Light Reading