Nokia announced its latest CloudBand Infrastructure Software to give communication service providers (CSPs) and other customers sharper cloud management solutions that improve service delivery and significantly reduce operating costs as 5G deployments get underway.
CloudBand Infrastructure Software gives CSPs the capability to unify their Network Function Virtualization Infrastructure/Virtualized Infrastructure Manager, or NFVI/VIM, in order to support centralized and distributed edge cloud deployments and workloads.
The CloudBand Infrastructure Software upgrade streamlines operational procedures by providing a single NFVi/VIM for all cloud deployment needs, such as support and management for both VM and containerized workloads. In a 5G digital services era, there is greater dependence on containers in the cloud and Nokia CloudBand Infrastructure allows CSPs to gain experience with cloud-native architectures without introducing completely different tool chains.
Addressing a combination of IT and Telco use cases enables Nokia CloudBand customers to reduce cost and complexity compared to proprietary siloed approaches.
“Operators risk unwanted complexity and costs in their OpenStack infrastructure by creating new virtualized silos, and they stand to benefit from a unified approach,” said Peter Fetterolf, CTO of ACG Business Analytics. “By streamlining process definition, execution, and maintenance across multiple vendors for activities like onboarding Virtual Network Functions, deploying and updating software, and troubleshooting using disparate tool chains, operators can reduce the cost of managing and maintaining cloud infrastructure by 92% over a five-year period and total cost of ownership by 56% over the same period.”
Nokia CloudBand Infrastructure Software includes OpenStack software directly from the open source community to address several challenges facing OpenStack adopters; for example, providing timely maintenance and feature updates and localized infrastructure security compliance. It also includes full Software Defined Networking domain controller pre-integration to give customers an end-to-end solution with lower integration costs and improved time-to-market.
Guy Shemesh, Head of CloudBand at Nokia, said, “Nokia's latest CloudBand Infrastructure Software improves on OpenStack's operational state and removes risk and complexity for CSPs. CloudBand Infrastructure Software supports a combination of IT and Telco network cloud deployments, including stringent radio requirements, as well as Enterprise cloud needs. It is the best-in-class solution for converged cloud management solutions. This next-level solution is being swiftly rolled out for Nokia customers.”
Nokia's CloudBand management and orchestration (MANO), including CloudBand Infrastructure Software, have been key components in several multi-year customer deployment agreements in 2018. These have included StarHub to accelerate mobile data speeds to 1Gbps; BSNL to support the roll out of 4G and Voice over LTE services in India; and T-Mobile to support their nationwide, multi-band 5G network rollout across the United States.
