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VMware vCloud NFV OpenStack released

Kirsten Doyle
By Kirsten Doyle, ITWeb contributor.
Barcelona, 12 Sept 2017

VMware had introduced VMware vCloud NFV OpenStack, which it says delivers the fastest path to deploying production NFV services on OpenStack.

The platform includes VMware Integrated OpenStack-Carrier Edition, the company's new OpenStack Ocata-based distribution that is fully integrated, tested, and certified with VMware's NFV infrastructure platform. Ocata is the latest version of the OpenStack Foundation's cloud software.

According to VMware, by using VMware Integrated OpenStack as a network functions virtualisation (NFV) Virtualized Infrastructure Manager (VIM), network architects can deploy, upgrade, and operate an OpenStack cloud on top of VMware's carrier-grade network functions virtualisation infrastructure platform.

During his keynote address at VMworld in Barcelona this week, Pat Gelsinger, CEO of VMware, says it's a competitive environment for telcos. Communications service providers (CSPs) are facing massive traffic growth coupled with fast-changing customer expectations, and are accelerating the adoption of NFV, he added.

Industry momentum for OpenStack in NFV deployments has continued gaining traction, with telcos seeing the potential for benefits, including use of open architectures, increased flexibility and pace of innovation for cloud-based networks, access to a global community of OpenStack developers, and the standardised northbound interfaces - NFV Orchestration and VNF-Manager, he said.

The company's Integrated OpenStack-Carrier Edition was developed to address the requirements of CSPs deploying NFV-based network services on OpenStack. The solution provides native support for container-based virtualised network functions (VNF) through integrated container management, enabling VM and container-based VNFs to run on a single VIM.

The solution leverages Ocata's specific functionality to give CSPs tools to deploy NFV networks, and functionalities include multi-tenancy and VNF resource reservation, which offer resource-level tenant isolation and guaranteed resource availability for each tenant.

It also promises elastic scaling of network resources that enable CSPs to create elastic service constructs that can scale network functions up or down, in and out, based on usage patterns in order to respond to real-time network traffic conditions, which in turn optimises resource management and lowers capital and operational costs, he said.

In addition, the company says enhanced networking support and platform awareness brings carrier-grade, low latency data-plane performance, enabling CSPs to maintain network performance to deliver a high quality of experience, and optimise resource utilisation.

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