VMware Drives Cloud Transformation with Network Functions Virtualization

VMware, Inc. announced new network functions virtualization (NFV) offerings to help communications services providers (CSPs) accelerate their implementations of NFV. This announcement includes the general availability of the VMware vCloud® NFV™ platform, a new VMware Ready™ for NFV accreditation program and new carrier-grade services delivered by VMware and VMware partners. These solutions and partnerships will be featured this week atVMworld® 2015 Europe in Barcelona.

Communication Service Providers (CSPs) are transforming their businesses with NFV that helps them lower costs considerably and enables rapid and agile service innovation. In doing so, they aim to reverse the trend of margin erosion driven by the high cost of infrastructure and lack of service differentiation. Two primary models of NFV deployment have emerged, one based on custom software stacks and the other based on a common virtualization platform. A recent whitepaper published by ACG Research₍₁₎ concludes that in the long run the common platform model advocated by VMware has much more agility and cost savings at scale.

“A common platform approach supports a sustainable business model and is the only approach that breaks the linear connection between growth and cost, freeing operators to innovate at speed and scale,” said Michael Kennedy, principal analyst for ACG Research. “The low-cost NFV nodes of the common platform and ability to produce sustained labor productivity and asset efficiency gains are shown to achieve payback in under a year and produce more than 350 percent ROI over five years.”

VMware vCloud NFV – A Unified, Multi-Function, Multi-Vendor Platform

VMware vCloud NFV brings together the core virtualization and management components required to accelerate NFV deployment. VMware vCloud NFV enables CSPs to deploy a unified, multi-vendor and multi-function NFV platform that supports any application at all stages of cloud evolution. The vCloud NFV platform supports more than 40 virtual network functions from 30 different virtualized network functions (VNF) vendors, the most of any solution on the market. The platform enables IT to leverage existing skills and operational experience with VMware virtualization, providing a faster and smoother implementation and ongoing management of Telco clouds. VMware vCloud NFV includes the following components:

• Production-Proven NFVI Solutions: VMware vSphere® is the company’s industry-defining virtualization solution that delivers high performance, scale and availability for mobility and fixed line services in the cloud. VMware Virtual SAN™ is fully integrated into the VMware stack to support the most demanding mobile core and IMS functions, delivering better performance than a virtual appliance or external device for supporting the storage requirements of network functions and services. VMware NSX® is the industry’s leading network virtualization platform that provides critical L2/L3 networking features in software to help CSPs realize the benefits of server virtualization for the entire data center / central office construct.
• Openness and Choice in Cloud Management: VMware provides flexible options for virtual infrastructure management (VIM) through VMware vCloud Director®-SP and VMware Integrated OpenStack. VMware vCloud Director addresses NFV needs through new self-service provisioning capabilities, vApp enhancements and tenant throttling. VMware Integrated OpenStack is Kilo-based, and includes load-balancing as a service (LBaaS), Ceilometer and Heat Auto Scaling to make VMware-based OpenStack clouds more scalable, performant and resilient.
• Service Assurance with Day 2 and Ongoing Operations: VMware offers CSPs fully integrated and unified operations tools to deliver ongoing service assurance for multi-tenant network functions. VMware vRealize® Operations Insight™ and VMware vSphere with Operations Management™ deliver exceptional Quality of Experience to help achieve end subscriber stickiness and ultimately drive increased revenues.

“VMware’s technology is enabling leading global service providers such as Vodafone, Ooredoo, IIJ, and Vip Mobile deliver mission critical network functions spanning mobile core and cloud,” said Shekar Ayyar, corporate senior vice president and general manager, Telco NFV Group at VMware. “We continue to double down on our efforts to help CSPs create one consistent infrastructure environment to rapidly and securely build, run and deliver any traditional or cloud-native virtual network function.”

Related articles across the web

• VMware Unveils the Easiest Way for Software-Defined Data Center