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Mirantis to Provide OpenStack for Vodafone's SDN/NFV Transformation

Telecoms such as Vodafone and AT&T are leading the way in network modernization efforts.

• By David Ramel
• 05/08/2017

Mirantis announced it will provide managed OpenStack services to help telecom company Vodafone modernize its global datacenters with cloud computing and new-age software-defined networking (SDN) and network functions virtualization (NFW) technologies.

OpenStack is described as a cloud OS, providing a platform used to control pools of compute, storage and networking resources in datacenters. In this case, such datacenters are being virtualized and linked by global mobile carrier Vodafone as part of its Project Ocean.

"Mirantis will be part of Vodafone Ocean, a framework for developing, testing and deploying Software-defined networking (SDN) and Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) technologies which are open, multi-vendor and managed end-to-end," the company announced last week.

In March, Nuage Networks announced it was also helping Vodafone by supplying its Virtualized Service Platform (VSP) as part of Project Ocean.

Mirantis is now joining Nuage as a Project Ocean network transformation partner, providing OpenStack technology that underpins its Mirantis Cloud Platform.

"Mirantis Managed OpenStack, which will be at the heart of Vodafone Ocean deployments, departs from the traditional software-centric method that revolves around licensing and support subscriptions," the company said. "Instead, Mirantis is pioneering an operations-centric approach, where open infrastructure is continuously delivered with operations service level agreements (SLAs) owned by either Mirantis or the customer. Now, software updates no longer happen once every 6-12 months, but are introduced in minor increments on a weekly basis and with no down time."

Vodafone isn't the only telecom carrier converting is network operations to SDN- and NFV-powered platforms, as AT&T is in the midst of a similar program, but at a much larger scale. For example, as part of the company's goal to move 75 percent of its network into software by the year 2020, AT&T last year announced it was retraining its 280,000-strong workforce to embrace a new software-centric network leveraging SDN and NFV.

As these nascent virtualization approaches mature and move on from proofs of concepts, trials and test labs, they're often being adopted by carriers first, ahead of more generalized organizations. Once provider networks are converted, the models used for such network transformations may well be used by more mainstream enterprises following similar paths.