Mirantis, the pure-play OpenStack company, today unveiled a network
function virtualization (NFV) initiative with partners Citrix,
Metaswitch Networks and Overture Networks that will unlock
communications companies from expensive proprietary hardware, enabling
them to launch new services with greater velocity and lower cost.
NFV enables carriers to virtualize network functions by running them as
software instances on any hardware platform anywhere within their
networks. Mirantis has been implementing NFV projects with
telecommunications customers since the technology's inception and will
offer an NFV reference architecture and OpenStack validation program for
partner virtual network functions (VNFs).
"Telecommunications companies are increasingly drawn to NFV because it
frees them from expensive proprietary hardware platforms, reduces
operational expenses, and facilitates the launch of new applications and
services quickly," said Heather Kirksey, director, OPNFV. "Developers
can spend less time on administrative tasks and more time delivering
innovative applications and services to consumers."
Mirantis is
the largest OpenStack provider
for companies in the $1.6 trillion telecommunications industry.
Engagements include the largest OpenStack deal on record with Ericsson,
and some of the largest companies in the U.S., Germany, France,
Australia, Saudi Arabia, and the U.K.
"The telecommunications industry is in the midst of a massive
transformation. It faces a ballooning customer base consuming massive
amounts of data, and competition from a new wave of startups born out of
the Web," said Mirantis VP of Product and Partner Marketing, Kamesh
Pammaraju. "These companies must innovate, and to do so, their
networking needs to be agile, scalable and cost effective. The best way
to do this is through NFV, which is why NFV investments will reach
nearly $21 billion by 2020."
Mirantis' NFV initiative will offer a whitepaper and a deployment guide
for customers looking to deploy NFV solutions on OpenStack, and
Mirantis OpenStack
validation for partner VNF solutions under the Unlocked Technology
Partner Program. New partner validations have been completed for:
Mirantis' NFV initiative will also add critical NFV features to Mirantis
OpenStack, making it a carrier-grade OpenStack distribution that offers
a small physical footprint, high availability (HA), single root I/O
virtualization (SR-IOV) and other NFV features that support high
performance VNF deployments.
Mirantis joined
OPNFV,
a carrier-grade, integrated, open source platform to accelerate the
introduction of new NFV products and services, as a silver sponsor in
Fall 2014, and will continue to be an active sponsor, offering
real-world implementation experience to the community.