News

VMware Integrated OpenStack 5 Provides 5G and Edge Computing Support to Telecom and Enterprise Customers

• By Wendy A. Hernandez
• 05/22/2018

Based on the OpenStack Queens release, VMware Integrated OpenStack 5 is now generally available, VMware Inc. announced yesterday. With two Editions available (Carrier and Data Center), VMware Integrated OpenStack 5 "will introduce new features to help customers simplify, scale and secure production OpenStack environments," according to the statement.

Communications services providers (CSPs) and enterprises will be able to take advantage of vendor-neutral API access to VMware's virtualized infrastructure. This, in turn, will provide them with a platform based on "an open architecture to accelerate production network functions virtualization (NFV) workload deployment and service innovation," according to the company.

Bringing simplicity and automation to CSPs deploying NFV-based network services, the VMware Integrated OpenStack 5-Carrier Edition includes the following key new functionality, according to the announcement:

• Accelerated Data Plane Performance: Will enable customers to achieve significant improvements in application response time, reduce network latencies, and breakthrough network performance via support of NSX Managed Virtual Distributed Switch in Enhanced Data Path mode and DPDK, as well as optimized data plane techniques in VMware vSphere.
• Elastic Multi-Tenant Resource Scaling: Will provide resource guarantee and resource isolation to each tenant to help ensure no other tenant can either consume from a given resource pool nor access the resource pool. It will also support elastic resource scaling, allowing CSPs to add new resources dynamically across different vSphere clusters to adapt to traffic conditions or transition from pilot phase to production in place. This will enable CSPs to isolate one type of workload/VNF from another, as well as assure resource availability as the load increases.
• OpenStack "In a Box" for 5G and Edge Computing: Small footprint and highly resilient micro datacenter form factor will enable deployment "in a box" for 5G and edge computing. Customers will have full control over these micro datacenters and apps at the edge via automated API-driven orchestration and lifecycle management. The solution will help tackle enterprise use cases such as utilities, oil and gas drilling platforms, point-of-sale applications, security cameras, and manufacturing plants and Telco-oriented use cases such Multi-Access Edge Computing (MEC), latency sensitivity Virtual Network Functions (VNF) deployments and operational support systems (OSS).
• Self-Driving Operations and Service Assurance: Will provide 360-degree visibility with real-time insights, root cause analysis (RCA) and remediation for OpenStack-based environments, including advanced workload analytics, predictive resource scheduling and balancing, and high-scale monitoring for VMs and containers across a single virtualized infrastructure manager (VIM).

Enterprise and CSP customers can also expect to see additional capabilities that take advantage of the Queens release so that they can more easily support mission-critical workloads across cloud-native and container-based application environments. According to VMware Inc., the added development includes:

• Massive Scale: Up to 500 hosts and 15,000 VMs can be run in a single region, and will introduce support for multiple regions at once with monitoring and metrics at scale.
• High-Availability for Mission-Critical Workloads: Enhancements to the Cinder volume driver allow customers to create snapshots, clones and backups of attached volumes to dramatically improve VM and application uptime.
• Unified Virtualized Environment: ability to deploy and run both VM and container workloads on a single VIM and with a single network fabric based on VMware NSX-T Data Center.
• Advanced Security: Enhancements to Keystone, including the use of application credentials and system role assignment enables customers to consolidate and simplify user and role management. VMware Integrated OpenStack 5 will take security to new levels with encryption of internal API traffic, Keystone to Keystone federation, and support for major identity management providers including VMware Identity Manager.
• Optimization and Standardization of DNS Services: Customers will be able to auto-register any VM or VNF to a corporate-approved DNS server instead of manually registering newly provisioned hosts through Designate.
• Improved UI: Multi-tier and L3-routed network implementations are simplified via the latest Horizon dashboard. Developers can tailor the network to fit their apps via the ability to enable/disable NAT on the OpenStack NSX tenant router and association to Neutron availability zones directly from the Horizon UI.

"VMware Integrated OpenStack 5 will enable customers to achieve the massive scale required to power Telco and private clouds globally, and address NFV and edge computing use cases as telecom networks evolve toward 5G," said Gabriele Di Piazza, vice president of products and solutions, Telco NFV Business Unit, VMware, in a prepared statement.

Pricing information was not included in the announcement, but the availability of VMware Integrated OpenStack 5 is expected by the end of VMware's Q2 FY2019, which ends on Aug. 3, 2018.