I recently had the opportunity to be a part of the KubeCon + CloudNativeCon event in Paris. This event, held annually, serves as a crucial forum for the exchange of ideas and advancements in cloud computing—a field that continues to redefine the boundaries of digital infrastructure and services.

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KubeCon + CloudNativeCon brings together industry leaders and innovators to discuss the latest in Kubernetes and cloud-native technologies. These discussions are not just technical; they address the practical challenges and opportunities facing businesses today. The event offers insights into optimizing cloud infrastructure, enhancing application deployment, and ultimately, driving business agility and innovation.

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In this event, we had an opportunity to collaborate with Red Hat, and present at their partner booth. In this collaboration with Red Hat, Aarna Networks addressed the complexities of cloud-native environments through our orchestration solutions. Our focus was on demonstrating the integration of Aarna’s Orchestration product AMCOP with Red Hat's OpenShift, to look at how our technologies simplify the deployment and configuration of infrastructure as well as cloud-native applications. This presentation emphasized the ease of use  for businesses to harness the benefits of cloud capabilities using OpenShift.

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The key takeaways from our presentation—and indeed, the event as a whole—is the critical role of cloud-native technologies in modern digital strategies. Here’s what those who engage with our presentation can expect to gain:
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• Simplified Infrastructure and Cloud native network and application  Management: Insights into overcoming the complexities of deploying infrastructure and  cloud-native environments, enabling more efficient and flexible management of digital infrastructure, with gitops baked into the solution.
• Practical Applications: Examples of how businesses can deploy and manage applications more effectively with the right tools and strategies.
• Future-proofing Strategies: Understanding the trajectory of cloud technologies to ensure that your business remains competitive and agile in a rapidly evolving digital landscape.

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As we navigate the complexities and possibilities of the cloud, it’s clear that collaboration, innovation, and a focus on practical solutions are key to unlocking its full potential.

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For businesses looking to thrive in the digital era, embracing these technologies is not optional—it’s essential. I invite those interested in driving their digital strategies forward to explore our presentation and discover how Aarna Networks can support your journey. For a deeper understanding, please view the complete demonstration video and review the presentation materials.

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For any inquiries or further discussions on this topic, please don't hesitate to reach out. We are here to assist and look forward to connecting with you. Contact us here.

At the recent IEEE Workshop on Network Automation, I had the opportunity to share insights on the advancements in automating cloud infrastructure and network functions using Nephio. This blog post aims to encapsulate the essence of that presentation, delving into the transformative potential of Nephio in the telecommunications industry.

• Recent Trends in Telco Network Automation - Move to Cloud Native
• Telco Cloud Moving to IaaS
• Scale
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Telecommunications networks are evolving rapidly, driven by the increasing demand for faster, more reliable connectivity and the emergence of technologies like 5G and edge computing. Telco network automation plays a pivotal role in this evolution, enabling operators to streamline operations, enhance efficiency, and deliver superior services to end-users.

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Challenges in Traditional Approaches: 

Traditionally, telcos have relied on manual configurations and management of network infrastructure, leading to inefficiencies, human errors, and slow response times. The complexity of modern networks exacerbates these challenges, necessitating a paradigm shift towards automation to meet the demands of today's digital landscape.

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Enter Nephio: 

Nephio emerges as a game-changer in the realm of telco network automation, offering a comprehensive platform equipped with advanced capabilities to automate cloud infrastructure and network functions seamlessly. Nephio empowers operators to achieve unparalleled levels of agility, scalability, and performance in their networks.
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In this talk we had a deep dive into Nephio concepts and discussed below in detail: 

• Config Injection
• Package Specialization
• Condition Choreography
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Then we talked about some of the industry relevant use cases like orchestrating bare-metal servers, deploying different kinds of workload on top of them.

At the end we discussed the next steps and how we can use the power of AI along with Nephio.
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The Kubernetes Nephio framework is ideal for using GenAI for human-machine interaction due to its declarative intent and we can use AI for :

• Prompts to declare intent (instead of YAML files)
• Prompts to interact with logs/metrics (instead of looking at dashboards)
• Prompts to get solutions to system anomalies 
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In conclusion, the presentation on "Automating Cloud Infrastructure and Network Functions with Nephio" at IEEE Telco Network Automation underscored the significance of embracing innovative technologies like Nephio to navigate the complexities of modern telecommunications networks effectively. As the industry continues to evolve, Nephio stands at the forefront of driving digital transformation and empowering telcos to thrive in an increasingly competitive landscape.

At the Partner Reception at GTC last week, Jensen stated that the computer architecture is changing for the first time since 1964 with the advent of accelerated computing. 

I tend to agree. After 60 years, the server architecture is changing from retrieval based to generative for the first time. The below diagram captures my thinking, which is centered around the Human Machine Interface (HMI).

From the mid 60s to mid 80s, the HMI was CLI and the “servers” were minicomputers and mainframes built by companies such as IBM, Digital Equipment Corporation, and HP using highly proprietary architecture. The focal point was the CPU. From the mid 80s to the mid 20s, the HMI of choice has been a GUI (largely based on Xerox PARC research) or REST APIs, which led to client server and its variations such as the current front-end↔back-end split. This era has been dominated by industry standard servers with a CPU focus. The winner has been the x86 CPU and its ecosystem. Networking, memory, I/O, storage, and datacenters have undergone a tremendous renaissance during this era. 

Moving forward, the interface will be GenAI. It’s no longer going to be highly structured ways of interfacing with computers to retrieve information, but rather human-like communication based on dynamic generation of responses. Both input and output will be based on GenAI. After all, when we talk to humans, we don’t provide inputs through point-and-click screens and view outputs through dashboards. This era will be dominated by accelerated computing where the winner will be the GPU and its ecosystem. This doesn’t mean the CPU disappears. In fact, the CPU will always be needed, it’s just that it will take a back-seat. 
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In my mind, there are three key tenets to this new architecture:

• CPU, memory, I/O, networking, storage, datacenter all have to cater to the GPU and will change in fundamental ways
• Utilization has to be 100% given the cost of GPUs; utilization has not been a concern so far
• Use of completely greenfield technology stack
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This new world creates massive new opportunities for us (Aarna):

1. The infra needs to be orchestrated and managed in new ways. In the NVIDIA context that could take the shape of DGX-as-a-service and MGX-as-a-service.
2. Workload orchestration and management will take a front-row seat given the utilization concern. Sophisticated techniques are required such as bringing in secondary workloads on the same GPU cluster when the primary workload is easing up. The GPU owner may need to sell off GPU capacity to aggregators as a “spot instance” during periods of underutilization. 
3. Given our use of the Kubernetes-Nephio framework, greenfield is music to our ears. We don’t have to worry about VMs or bare metal instances based on old operating systems.
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I’d love to hear your thoughts on these topics. Do reach out to me for a discussion.

The Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2024 in Barcelona brought together leaders from the telecommunications industry to discuss the future of digital connectivity. This event served as a platform for sharing advancements and exploring new technologies that are shaping the way we connect.
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Aarna Networks participated in MWC 2024, with
‍Amar Kapadia and Subramanian Sankaranarayanan showcasing the work in edge and private 5G management. We demonstrated the capabilities of NVIDIA Grace Hopper Servers and our AMCOP's orchestration abilities in collaboration with NVIDIA and IEEE. These demonstrations aimed to show practical applications of our technology in improving network performance and scalability. For those interested, we have made a demo video available here.

‍The congress highlighted several key developments in the industry. The evolution of 5G technology was a major topic, with discussions on how it can improve connectivity speeds and reduce latency. The use of artificial intelligence (AI) in network operations and service delivery was also emphasized, pointing towards more efficient telecommunications infrastructure. Quantum computing's potential in enhancing data security and processing power was explored, and there was a notable focus on sustainability, with talks on making operations more energy-efficient. These discussions at MWC 2024 indicate a move towards more efficient, secure, and environmentally friendly digital connectivity.
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MWC 2024 offered a clear view of the current state and future possibilities in telecommunications, highlighting the industry's ongoing efforts to improve and innovate. Aarna Networks is excited to contribute to this progress, focusing on solutions that enhance connectivity and pave the way for future advancements.

We are often asked "why automation or orchestration is needed for Edge computing in general, since Edge computing is not a new concept". In this blog, you'Il learn about the role of an orchestrator in unleashing the true potential of Edge computing environments. 
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Recapping the uniqueness of Edge environments, a blog 'Why Edge Orchestration is Different' by Amar Kapadia highlights the following attributes:

1. Scale
2. Dynamic in nature
3. Heterogeneity
4. Dependency between workloads and infrastructure
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We will see the challenges in accomplishing them, and it will be obvious why automation plays a critical role in this process. Also, as explained in the previous blog, the Edge environments include both Infrastructure and the Applications that run on them (Physical or Virtual/Cloud-native). So all the above factors need to be considered for both of them in case of Edge computing. 
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The scale of Edge environments clearly prohibits manual mode of operating them since this will involve bringing up each environment, with its own set of initial (day-0) configurations, independent of each other. The problem is compounded when these environments need to be managed on an ongoing basis (day-N). This also brings up the challenge of the dynamic nature of these environments, where the configurations can keep changing based on the business needs of the users. Each such change will result in potentially tearing down the previous environment and bringing up another one, possibly with a different set of configurations. Some of these environments may take days to bring up, with expertise from different domains (which is another challenge), and any change will mean a few more days to bring it up again, even for a potentially minor change. 
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Another challenge with the Edge environment is their heterogeneity in nature, unlike the public cloud which is generally homogeneous. This would mean that multiple tools, possibly from different vendors, need to be used. These tools could be proprietary or standard tools such as Terraform, Ansible, Crossplane and so on. Each vendor of the Infrastructure or the applications/network functions could be using a different tool, and even in cases where they use standard tools, there may be multiple versions of the artifacts (eg., Terraform plans, Ansible scripts) that need to be dealt with. 

The workloads on edge may need to talk to or integrate with some applications on the central location / cloud. This would need setting up connectivity between edge and other sites as may be desired. The orchestrator should also be able provision this in an automated manner.
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Lastly, as we saw in the previous blog, there may be dependencies between Infrastructure and the workloads, as well as between various workloads (eg., Network Functions such as 5G that are used by other applications). This will make it extremely difficult to bring them up manually or with home-grown solutions. 
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All these challenges will mean that unless the Edge environment is extremely small and contained, it will need a sophisticated automation framework or an orchestrator. The only scalable way to accomplish this is to specify the topology of the environment as an Intent, which is rolled out by the Orchestrator.  In addition, the Orchestrator should constantly monitor the deployment, and make necessary adjustments (constant reconciliation) deployment and management of the topologies in the Edge environment. When there is a change required, a new intent (configuration) is specified which should be rolled out seamlessly. The tool should also be able to work with various tools such as Terraform/OpenTofu, Ansible and so on, as well as provide ways to integrate with proprietary vendor solutions. 
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At Aarna Networks, we offer open source, zero-touch, Intent based orchestrator, AMCOP (also offered as a SaaS AES) for lifecycle management, real-time policy, and closed loop automation for edge and 5G services. If you’d like to discuss your orchestration needs, please contact us for a free consultation.

This is a follow up blog to the earlier blog “From RAGs to the Riches” from my colleague, Amar Kapadia. 

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Setting up the GenAI for an Enterprise involves multiple steps, and this can be categorized as: 

• Infrastructure Orchestration, which includes the servers/GPUs with cloud software, virtualization tools and the networking infrastructure. There may be additional requirements depending on the Enterprise needs, such as: 

• SD-WAN setup between their locations
• Access to the Enterprise data from their SaaS infrastructure (Confluence/Jira/Salesforce etc.)
• Connectivity to public clouds, if needed
• Connectivity to the repos where the GenAI models are present (Huggingface etc.)
• If this is set up on Cloud Edge DCs (such as Equinix), there may be a need to configure the fabric to connect to other Edge locations or the public clouds, using network edge devices (routers/firewalls that run as xNFs)

• GenAI Orchestration, which includes bringing up the GenAI tools, either for training or for inferencing. 
• RAG Orchestration, which includes building the necessary Vector DB from various Enterprise sources, and using that as part of the Inferencing pipeline. 

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All of the above requires a sophisticated Orchestrator that can work in a generic manner, and provide a single-click (or a command) functionality. 

The flow will be as follows: 

• The Admin creates a high-level Intent that describes the necessary infrastructure, connectivity requirements, site details and the tools 
• The Orchestrator takes the Intent as input, and sets up the necessary infrastructure and applications
• The Orchestrator also monitors the infra/applications for any failures/performance issues, and makes the necessary adjustments (it could work with one of the existing tools such as TMS for this function).
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I hope this sheds some light on the topic and gives some clarity on how to go about setting up the underlying infrastructure for RAGOps. 

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AMCOP can orchestrate AI (and more specifically, GenAI) workloads on various platforms.  At Aarna Networks, we offer open source, zero-touch, orchestrator, AMCOP (also offered as a SaaS AES) for lifecycle management, real-time policy, and closed loop automation for edge and 5G services. If you’d like to discuss your orchestration needs, please contact us for a free consultation.

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Next Steps

Contact us for help on getting started with RAGOps. The Aarna Networks Multi Cluster Orchestration Platform orchestrates and manages edge environments including support for RAGOps. We have specifically created an offering that is suitable for NSPs by focusing not just on the FM and related ML components, but also on the infrastructure e.g. using Equinix Metal to speed up deployment and Equinix Fabric for seamless data connectivity. As an NVidia partner, we have deep expertise with server platforms like the NVidia GraceHopper and platform components such as NVidia Triton and NeMo.