Big Profit Gooses Ciena

"It's been a long journey retooling the company, and we have a lot of work still ahead of us," says CEO Smith.

But clearly it's not bad work, if you can get it.

Ciena has managed to find a way onto the networking blueprints for several large telcos and cable companies including British Telecom (BT Quote), AT&T (T Quote) and closely held Cox.

"We've become specialists in that transition from voice to IP networks," says Smith.

This technology shift has another three or four years ahead of it, says Smith, adding that "when you have a lot of networking migration going on, that suits us."