Corning Inc. and Cisco Systems Inc. announced a strategic alliance to deliver IP+ optical solutions to their service provider customers. With Corning's experience in optical fiber and photonic products, combined with Cisco's experience in Internet scale optical networking solutions, the companies hope to speed-up the deployment of optical infrastructures. These solutions are expected to reduce service providers' time-to-market and the cost of deploying the optical network. "Optical networking is revolutionizing the Internet and creating unprecedented opportunities that benefit the Internet ecosystem," said Mike Volpi, senior vice president and chief strategy officer at Cisco Systems. "Corning's expertise in optical fiber and photonic products, coupled with Cisco's expertise in building IP-based networks is a powerful combination that will enable service providers to deliver rich new services." Through this nonexclusive alliance, Corning and Cisco will form teams to develop pre-engineered optical solutions consistent with customer requirements. Products included with this effort are Cisco's core products, Corning's full line of optical fiber products, including the latest generations of Corning LEAF and MetroCor optical fiber, and Corning's photonic products including MEMS-based optical switches and Raman amplifiers. In addition, Corning will supply optical amplifiers to Cisco.