EC News DeskVMware has showcased how communications service providers, CSPs, across the world, including Millicom, Singtel, Telecom Italia, Telia Company and TIM Brasil, are adopting VMware’s Telco Cloud platform to accelerate time to revenue, automate service lifecycle, and simplify operations management. The company also unveiled new capabilities across its Telco and Edge Cloud product portfolio, including innovations to its telco cloud core, edge and RAN offerings.
VMware’s Network Functions Virtualisation platform is relied upon by more than 100 operators to deliver their telecom services to 800 million subscribers globally. Today, several customers highlighted why they chose VMware’s Telco Cloud platform as the foundation for their digital transformation.
VMware Telco Cloud Automation, previously announced at VMworld 2019 Europe as Project Maestro, is a software solution for telco cloud orchestration and automation. `VMware has now announced the general availability of this cloud-first orchestration solution.
VMware Telco Cloud Automation helps CSPs:
- Accelerate time to revenue: Accelerate service time-to-revenue with a simplified, vendor-neutral and standard-compliant approach for designing and onboarding virtual network functions, cloud native network functions, or network services.
- Automate operations with multi-cloud agility: Define and apply policies using a comprehensive decision engine to automate day zero through more complex day two operations.
- Enhance customer experiences: Deliver a new level of experiences with adaptable and resilient services. The solution combines real-time decision-making capabilities with holistic Telco Cloud awareness for optimal close-loop actions that help deliver improved service quality.
- Transform to cloud-native networks: Evolve network architectures from OpenStack to cloud-native applications with seamless onboarding and orchestration over VMs and container-based infrastructure for a future-proof service delivery foundation. Distribute workloads at the core and edge and from private to public clouds for modern, unified network orchestration.
- Streamline orchestration: Streamline the CSP orchestration journey with native integration into VMware cloud technologies and Virtualised Infrastructure Managers for operational consistency and ease of deployment while maximising infrastructure resource utilisation.
- Simplify interoperability: Built as a modular and model-driven solution, the Generic VNF Manager and NFV Orchestrator components of the solution integrates any compliant ETSI MANO architecture. Telco Cloud Automation allows standards-based integration with OSS/BSS systems and Service Orchestrators through ETSI compliant interfaces. VMware further enhances interoperability and facilitates onboarding by expanding partner VNF certifications to cover infrastructure and orchestration through the VMware Ready for NFV programme. To date, Telco Cloud Automation has been tested and integrated with VNFs and CNFs from Affirmed Networks, Altiostar, Altran, Avi Networks, Mavenir, Metaswitch, and VeloCloud.
VMware and MobiledgeX announced today that the MobiledgeX Edge-Cloud R2.0 offering is now certified to run on VMware’s Telco Cloud platform, enabling CSPs and their customers to more seamlessly push services and applications to the edge. By bringing cloud to the edge and integrating with the cellular infrastructure, operators and their customers alike are able to create new and improved user experiences. In addition, the companies will work with leading ISVs and channel partners to integrate leading vertical-specific applications into this solution.
VMware and Deutsche Telekom announced the companies are collaborating on an open and intelligent virtual RAN platform, based on O-RAN standards, to bring agility to radio access networks for both existing LTE and future 5G networks.
The solution, which is planned to undergo testing and validation at Deutsche Telekom’s Bonn, Germany headquarters, leverages standards-based Intel processors and FlexRAN, a vRAN software reference platform, to run vRAN workloads on top of VMware’s telco cloud platform, optimised for real-time and low latency workloads.
VMware is at the forefront of helping service providers evolve their cloud and network service portfolios, create new revenue streams and accelerate their customers’ wide area network transformation. In fact, VMware SD-WAN by VeloCloud can help service providers’ customers achieve faster WAN deployments, lower costs and improve application and network performance compared to their existing WAN.
“5G is the future and in order to take part in the new cloud economy and become digital service providers, CSPs must evolve. Telcos around the globe are choosing VMware to drive their digital transformation forward by adopting a software-defined, automated and virtualised infrastructure built on NFV,” said Shekar Ayyar, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Telco and Edge Cloud, VMware. “We continue to push our pace of innovation to offer a comprehensive telco and edge cloud portfolio that addresses our customers’ challenges of today and prepares them for the opportunities of tomorrow.”
Millicom is a leading provider of cable and mobile services dedicated to emerging markets in Latin America. Xavier Rocoplan, CTIO, Millicom, said, “Bringing next-generation digital services to our geographically-dispersed customers in an agile and cost-efficient manner requires a telco cloud foundation. We selected VMware as a strategic partner in this endeavour and are working with them to design and deploy a consistent platform for service and application delivery for all of our subsidiaries. Once operational, our cloud-based, 5G-ready network will help us continue building and expanding our digital highways across Latin America.”
Singtel, one of Asia’s leading communications technology groups, provides a diverse range of services including fixed, mobile, data, internet, TV, infocomms technology and digital solutions. Mark Chong, Group CTO, Singtel, said, “As part of our Networks 5.0 Vision and journey to Network Virtualisation, we are working with a number of Cloud and Network Function vendors. VMware’s Network Functions Virtualisation platform provides us with flexibility in deploying virtual network functions from multiple vendors on a consistent and open platform, enabling us to design a network architecture that suits our unique needs and delivers new capabilities that support the needs of the consumer and enterprise business.”
Telecom Italia is the largest telecommunications company in Italy serving more than 31 million mobile customers across the country, according to the company. Michele Gamberini, CTIO Telecom Italia, said, “We are playing a critical role in Italy’s digital transformation by extending our 5G, fibre optic and LTE networks, and the potential they offer. VMware is key partner in this effort, we already operate a variety of virtual network functions leveraging VMware Telco Cloud infrastructure, and are looking to extend the partnership as we evolve our network in the future.”
Telia Company is the leading Nordic and Baltic operator serving millions of customers every day in one of the world’s most digital and connected regions. Mauro Costa, Director of Network and IT Infrastructure, Telia Company, said, “We’re constantly looking to make our networks smarter and smoother to give our customers the best possible experience using our services. This requires a reliable technology partner that can help us transform our network to deliver next-generation services, we’ve found that partner in VMware. We leverage VMware’s NFV platform to orchestrate and deliver a range of virtual functions and services to millions of customers across six countries. Using a single platform to manage a variety of functions, including the IP Multimedia Subsystem, voice over 4G VoLTE) the new Virtual Mobile Packet Core and other value-added services, has helped us streamline delivery of services to customers while reducing operational complexity.”
TIM Brasil, a subsidiary of Telecom Italia, is one of the fastest growing mobile service providers in Brazil serving more than 54.5 million mobile customers across the country, according to the company. Leonardo Capdeville, CTIO, TIM Brasil, said, “We are able to deploy a wide variety of network functions from multiple leading VNF vendors on top of VMware’s NFV platform. The platform’s interoperability with myriad VNFs ultimately provides us with the flexibility we need to seamlessly deliver new services to our customers faster than ever before. As the current leader in 4G coverage across Brazil, we feel we’ve built a solid telco cloud foundation, in partnership with VMware, to be able to support 5G core services in the future.”
VMware is continuously enhancing its telco cloud offerings across all areas of the telco network, including core, edge and RAN, to help customers achieve their long-term strategic 5G vision and immediate 4G business goals.
