OpenStack as part of the telecom virtualization journey – NFV/SDN Reality Check Ep. 92
On this week’s “NFV/SDN Reality Check” we speak with Mark Baker, OpenStack product manager at Canonical, to discuss the importance of the platform for operators looking to deploy network functions virtualization, software-defined networking and cloud solutions, and how the market is evolving in terms of the continued development and deployment of OpenStack-based solutions.
Canonical, which is perhaps best known for its support of Ubuntu deployments, sees the need for companies deploying OpenStack to adopt new models for managing their IT operations. This can include new “tooling” to deal with production-ready OpenStack private cloud projects.
Highlighting telecom operator interest in OpenStack was a difference of opinion that erupted last year between Verizon Communications and AT&T in terms of their deployment plans.
Verizon initially claimed it completed the industry’s largest known NFV OpenStack cloud deployment across five of its U.S. data centers, which created a “production design based on a core and pod architecture that provides the hyperscale capabilities and flexibility necessary to meet the company’s complex network requirements.”
Verizon said the project used OpenStack with Red Hat Ceph Storage and a spine-leaf fabric for each pod controlled through a Neutron plugin to Red Hat’s OpenStack Platform; leveraged Big Switch’s Big Cloud Fabric for SDN controller software man- aging Dell switches; and was orchestrated by the Red Hat OpenStack Platform. The NFV pod design was said to accommodate “unique NFV workloads with unique logical network requirements that share the same physical leaf/spine fabric and [virtual switches].”
However, AT&T took exception to the claim, coming out a few days later in stating its AT&T Integrated Cloud platform, which is where the company runs virtual network functions using OpenStack software at its core, was larger than what Verizon was working with.
Writing on the company’s Innovation Blog, Sorabh Saxena, SVP of software development and engineering for technology development at AT&T, noted the carrier had set up 74 AIC physical locations in 2015, with plans for 105 by the end of 2016 and adding “hundreds more” by 2020.
“We believe AIC is already the biggest OpenStack deployment in the world,” Saxena said. “And it’s going to get much bigger.”
While touting its progress, Saxena did look to downplay any sort of competition between the operators, adding “the more companies that use OpenStack, the more developers will support it and expand its capabilities.”
On this week’s show, Baker discusses Canonical’s view on the current pace of development and deployment of OpenStack solutions by telecom operators, how the platform fits into NFV, SDN and cloud deployment models, the level of collaboration between vendors and operators, and what challenges it sees continuing to face the market in terms of meeting market demand.
Thanks for watching this week’s show and make sure to check out our next “NFV/SDN Reality Check” when we are scheduled to speak with Viptela on the SD-WAN market.
by RCR Wireless News
redhat openstack
