Telco Cloud Automation

VMware Telco Cloud Automation is an automation and orchestration platform that accelerates the deployment of services while igniting operational agility through unified, multi-cloud, multi-domain management across the telco cloud: from network slices, network services and network functions to CaaS and infrastructure.

The number of network functions and network services is growing exponentially, especially at the edge. The complexity of these applications is also multiplying through a new diversity of vendors, with multiple formats (virtualized/cloud-native network functions) and instantiated/managed in different clouds running different infrastructure. This increased complexity must be managed with orchestration and automation capabilities that go beyond standard infrastructure management. 4G-based network functions and 5G network features such as network slicing and edge computing all require advanced telco cloud orchestration and automation to be truly effective. You benefit today by implementing these capabilities and those benefits will only increase as the virtualization footprint grows. If you wait, on the other hand, to orchestrate and automate your network you can miss revenue-generating opportunities and will see costs and complexities increase. It comes as no surprise, then, that by 2025 according to IDC Research, the global service management and orchestration market will reach roughly $4B, at a 32.2% CAGR.

When developing an effective automation and orchestration solution, it is essential to keep in mind that CSPs globally find themselves at different stages of network maturity. As such, Telco Cloud Automation manages 4G, VNF-based networks, helps you graduate to 5G, CNF-based networks and, for those that already operate with 5G, cloud-native networks, support cutting-edge automation, such as network slicing, to unlock new revenue sources.

VMware Telco Cloud Automation focuses on the design, onboarding, and management of the application or service while the VIM manages the underlying infrastructure layer. Telco Could Automation decouples the application from the infrastructure while providing the ability to design, onboard and manage complex network services over multiple VIMs, K8s, sites and tenants.

There is no limit to the type of network services supported by VMware Telco Cloud Automation, but the most common services include Mobile Core (LTE/5G), Multimedia Advanced Services, MPN, VoLTE, VoWIFI, SD-WAN/uCPE, Private LTE, and vRAN.

VMware Telco Cloud Automation supports both human and system-triggered automated workflows and policies for network functions and services, including Days 0 – 2 LCM for network functions. VMware Telco Cloud Automation also supports infrastructure, CaaS automation and network slicing management. It also contains pre-built integrations to our bare metal server provisioning tool in VMware Bare Metal Automation, service assurance and monitoring in VMware Telco Cloud Service Assurance and the entire VMware Telco Cloud Platform stack.

VMware Telco Cloud Automation is deployed on-premises.

CaaS Automation allows users to centrally create and manage Kubernetes clusters (worker/management nodes) based on templates across the telco cloud—including multi-cloud environments. CaaS automation also enables Telco Cloud Automation to optimize the Kubernetes clusters configurations to match cloud-native network functions properties during the instantiation. Since the specialization is really applied only when the cluster is used, these “Dynamic Infrastructure Policies” (see the “Dynamic Infrastructure Policies” blog here for more information) configurations allow better cluster consistency, optimized infrastructure resource utilization and reduce the need for corresponding professional services engagements.

VMware Telco Cloud Automation offers Generic VNF Manager (G-VNFM) and NFV/Cloud domain orchestration capabilities. See the datasheet in the Resources section for supported interfaces.

VMware Telco Cloud Automation supports orchestration and automation of network functions in any format (physical, virtual and cloud-native) and from any vendor (compliant to SOL001/004).

Yes, VMware Telco Cloud Automation provides orchestration and automation across the virtual domains, including the core, edge and RAN.

Network Slicing for VMware Telco Cloud Automation supports Communication Service Management Function (CSMF), a domain-level Network Slicing Subnet Management Function (NSSMF) and a cross-domain Network Slicing Management Function (NSMF). Supporting network slicing orchestration on the domain and cross-domain levels, Telco Cloud Automation acts as a centralized management component that controls the lifecycle from infrastructure to the application and service levels. In short, it allows you to extend the level of automation of your networks without the need to invest in costly integrations.

Kubernetes (K8s) has been created for enterprise and consumer applications container management and does not comply, by default, to many carrier-grade telco industry requirements and standards (e.g., ETSI-MANO or integration with 3rd party components like OSS, assurance system, EMS and applications). Telco Cloud Automation provides a singular approach to extend and adapt the standard Kubernetes to a your cloud-native requirements, in addition to providing an abstraction layer to simplify your Kubernetes utilization.