INDUSTRY WATCH
Shekar Ayyar , Executive Vice President & General Manager , Telco and Edge Cloud Business Unit , VMware
As CSPs evolve from NFV networks to cloud-native and containerised networks , VMware is evolving its VMware vCloud NFV solution to Telco Cloud Infrastructure , providing CSPs a consistent and unified platform delivering consistent operations for both Virtual Network Functions ( VNFs ) and Cloud-native Network Functions ( CNFs ) across telco networks . Telco Cloud Infrastructure is designed to optimise the delivery of network services with telco centric enhancements , supporting distributed cloud deployments and providing scalability and performance for millions of consumer and enterprise users . These telco centric enhancements enable CSPs to gain web-scale speed and
THE NEED FOR CSPS TO INCREASE SERVICE AGILITY AND TRANSFORM OPEX ECONOMICS WILL REQUIRE THEM TO MAKE NETWORK AUTOMATION A KEY PART OF THEIR DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION STRATEGY .
66 INTELLIGENTCIO agility while maintaining carrier-grade performance , resiliency , and quality .
Tightly integrated with Telco Cloud Infrastructure , VMware ’ s Telco Cloud Automation intelligently automates the end-to-end lifecycle management of network functions and services to simplify operations and accelerate service delivery while optimising resource utilisation . Telco Cloud Automation also now supports infrastructure and Containers- As-a-Service ( CaaS ) management automation to streamline workload placement and deliver optimal infrastructure resource allocation . It also significantly simplifies the 5G and telco edge network expansions through zerotouch-provisioning ( ZTP ) whenever capacity is required .
“ 5G is providing a catalyst for CSPs to transform their business . The need for CSPs to increase service agility and transform OPEX economics will require them to make network automation a key part of their Digital Transformation strategy ,” said Anil Rao , Principal Analyst , Analysys Mason . “ CSPs will require a true agile network infrastructure and operations enabling them to achieve zero-touch provisioning , automate expansion of network services and on-going lifecycle operations of the network and services to deliver significant OPEX savings and enable greater innovation .”
To speed up the deployment of network functions and services by CSPs , VMware recently expanded the Ready for Telco
Cloud programme to add support for VMware Telco Cloud Automation . With the release of VMware Telco Cloud Platform , VMware is further expanding the scheme to accelerate network functions readiness for deployment .
The programme scope extends to container-based network functions and these workloads conformance with VMware ’ s Cloud-native stack as well as the automation offered by the stack .
CSPs can expect that Network Functions which passed certification will be quicker to onboard and deploy on the VMware Telco Cloud Platform while accelerating CSPs time to revenue . To date , more than 35 partners have received more than 180 certifications as part of the programme .
VMware has also announced Telco Cloud Operations , a real-time automated assurance solution designed to bridge the gap between virtual and physical networks . The solution provides holistic monitoring and performance management across multiple layers of the network , including SD-WAN , for rapid insights , lower costs and improved customer experience . It integrates Machine Learning based performance analytics and vivid reporting dashboards for proactive assurance . Complemented by the Uhana solution from VMware that provides intelligent automation for Radio Access Networks ( RANs ), CSPs can have comprehensive operations visibility across their entire network .
“ In a 5G world , complexity from dynamic network functions and configurable services requires automated collection , analysis , and control of operations data to establish customer insight and service management boundaries ,” said Karl Whitelock , VP Communications Service Provider Operations and Monetization , IDC Research . “ Advanced assurance solutions such as VMware Telco Cloud Operations are essential for providing automated analysis of network and performance data that can simplify operations , provide end-to-end visibility and improve the customer experience .” •
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