Telco Cloud

Evolution of the Telco Cloud

The telecommunications industry is undergoing rapid transformation as Communications Service Providers (CSPs) seek the benefits of the cloud in their networks. Telco cloud allows CSPs to dynamically manage their networks, add services, respond to changes in demand, and increase efficiency. Telco cloud is a critical element for digital transformation and the benefits of the telco cloud are impossible to ignore. In fact, operators that don’t embrace the telco cloud will find themselves unable to compete in an increasingly “cloudified” ecosystem.

The concept of telco cloud has evolved from VNFs (Virtual Network Functions) based on VMs (Virtual Machines), to CNFs (Cloud Native Network Functions) using Kubernetes for orchestration and automation. The move toward container-based architectures has facilitated the moving of telecommunications operational support systems (OSS), business support systems (BSS), and IT workloads to the cloud. Increasingly, CSPs are considering intent-based automation to simplify large scale edge deployments and are looking at projects like Nephio to help them achieve it.

Orchestrate Telco Clouds for Heterogeneous Environments

Manage and automate telco cloud network infrastructure and leverage private, public, and hybrid clouds for seamless orchestration, multi-vendor compatibility, and powerful business differentiation using AMCOP — the number one 5G orchestrator for edge, 5G, and the telco cloud.

Flexible Cloud Deployments

Telco clouds are heterogeneous and we now see a blurring of lines between traditional private, public, and hybrid clouds. Telco cloud network infrastructure needs to be managed and orchestrated including monitoring, visualization, and closed-loop automation. This entails things like bare metal compute orchestration and management, transport provisioning and management, and Kubernetes deployments.

Clouds allow for automation of virtual network functions (VNFs) and increasingly cloud native network functions (CNFs). For traditional telco operators, Physical Network Function (PNF) management continues to be challenging as it involves a plethora of protocols, devices, and switches that need to be orchestrated and managed within a telco cloud environment.

Private Clouds: Private clouds are dedicated to a single customer and offer several cloud computing benefits but with additional access, security, and resources controls. This includes on-prem Kubernetes offerings such as Red Hat OpenShift, Wind River Studio, VMWare Tanzu, and SUSE Rancher. Private clouds are often the default choice for CSPs when bound by customer data regulations.

Hyperscalers: The cloud is now firmly entrenched in the telecom sector with CSPs leveraging hyperscalers like AWS, Azure, and GCP for computing and storage infrastructure (edge or core). Public clouds are becoming integrated with IoT devices and network gateways and are also being offered in telco-specific packages like Wavelength (AWS), Azure Edge Zones (Microsoft), and Anthos for Telecom (Google Cloud).

Hybrid Multi Clouds: Hybrid clouds offer flexibility and the ability to match workloads to ideal hosting environments, e.g., using a private RAN cloud with a public Core cloud. Multicloud means that operators will use clouds from multiple vendors to deliver different services. For example, a telco might use one cloud provider for their customer-facing applications, another for their data storage, and yet another for their network infrastructure. Importantly, telco clouds can be both hybrid cloud and multi cloud simultaneously.

Operators will increasingly find themselves to be cloud brokers, where the telco cloud becomes a hybrid, multicloud environment.

Nephio

Nephio is a Linux Foundation project donated by Google with the goal of delivering carrier-grade, simple, open, Kubernetes-based cloud native intent automation and common automation templates that materially simplify the deployment and management of multi-vendor cloud infrastructure and network functions across large scale edge deployments. Nephio is a powerful tool for orchestrating edge computing in multi-vendor environments — including infrastructure, 5G, network services, and edge computing applications.

Aarna Networks is leveraging our deep experience with Nephio to offer a commercial support package for upstream Nephio R1 – Aarna Nephio Support 1.0 (ANS). ANS makes it easy to get started with a comprehensive support to help you deploy, configure, and manage Nephio. We believe that companies who start using the Nephio project sooner rather than later will enjoy a powerful business differentiator in the marketplace. Get started with Nephio or see the Nephio Executive Guide to learn more.

AMCOP: The Ideal Telco Cloud Orchestrator

The telco cloud journey is a complex undertaking involving strategic technology and business decisions. Therefore, it’s critical to select the right industry partners and solutions to accelerate development, testing, and deployments.

Aarna Networks’ AMCOP is the number one orchestrator for the telco cloud. We partner other industry leading companies and leverage tools like Google Anthos and Red Hat OpenShift for full stack telco cloud solutions. We are a leading participant in the Nephio project and are leveraging this powerful tool for orchestrating edge computing in multi-vendor environments.