ConteXtream, a leading provider of carrier-grade network virtualization solutions, today announced their acceptance into the HP OpenNFV Partner Program. The HP OpenNFV program is a combination of technology and partnerships that give Service Providers freedom of choice and consists of three categories. ConteXtream is one of the first companies selected as an Application Partner to help drive Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) technology for carriers.

NFV is part of an overall industry shift towards network and application virtualization. The shift to NFV is expected to transform carriers’ networking environments, allowing them to deliver new services to their customers more quickly while significantly reducing both operating and capital expenditures.

“As the transition to software-defined-networking continues, service providers need robust, high-performance NFV solutions that deliver network-level performance, scalability, flexibility and programmability,” said Nachman Shelef, CEO of ConteXtream. “We are delighted to be a part of the HP OpenNFV Partner Program as this partnership with a trusted vendor helps carriers embrace these technologies with greater ease and agility, while passing forward the benefits to their end-users.”

This new program participation extends upon the global relationship between ConteXtream and HP building upon the existing partnership. HP is a global reseller of ConteXtream technology solutions and ConteXtream is an HP AllianceOne partner. ConteXtream’s SDN fabric is also integrated with the HP NFV software portfolio including NFV Director and HP Helion OpenStack. In addition, they have collaborated on two European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) proof-of-concepts including virtualized Gi-LAN and SDN-enabled virtualized evolved packet core (EPC). ConteXtream’s solution is currently deployed with tier-1 carriers on HP platforms (C7K and DL series), serving over 100 million subscribers, with more than 50 billion analytic records generated per day.

“Open source and open standards are critical to the adoption of NFV/SDN. Through the HP OpenNFV Program we are committed to providing resources that will help carriers virtualize their network environments and realize the full benefits NFV/SDN can provide,” said Werner Schaefer, vice president, Network Functions Virtualization, HP. “ConteXtream’s OpenDaylight-based SDN Fabric was developed with this same vision and will make an excellent addition to our NFV portfolio.”

The HP OpenNFV program is designed to help the telecommunications industry accelerate innovation and launch services faster, more easily and cost-effectively. The program speeds up partner NFV application revenue and verifies partner applications in the HP OpenNFV environment – an environment that meets the tough standards of ETSI. Through the HP OpenNFV Program and OpenNFV Labs, HP provides a robust ecosystem of NFV technology applications and services partners with a broad choice of application-specific environments, as well as a catalog of completed proofs of concept, to quickly develop applications for cloud-enabled NFV deployments.