By: Grant Lenahan
Appledore Research Group has been outspoken on the importance of automation and optimization in the Telco Cloud. We have outlined its importance, and the mechanism to minimize both CAPEX and OPEX in recent research. Our belief is that this kind of optimization depends on three critical technologies:
- Analytics to collect data and turn it into useful information
- Policy driven MANO to allow for significant flexibility within well defined constraints, and
- Algorithms capable of identifying the most cost effective solutions, within the constraints (location, performance, security, etc.) enforced by the policies
Here’s an excerpt from recent ARG research outlining the process:
Until now, we have seen relatively little action and innovation in the industry to pursue these goals – but here’s an interesting project that’s right on point. I want to share an exciting TMForum Catalyst; one that investigates the economic power of NFV, and asking “how, in practice…?”
That is not a typo. I did say “exciting” “catalyst” and “TMForum” in the same sentence. I realize that standards and management processes are not usually the stuff that makes your heart beat faster; but if you care about our industry’s commercial future (and like innovative thinking), this one’s different.
The premise is simple: the flexibility inherent in the “Telco Cloud” – underpinned by NFV and SDN, makes it possible and feasible to consider economic factors when deciding how to instantiate and allocate resources across data-centers. This catalyst, involving Aria-Networks, Ericsson NTT Group, TATA and Viavi set out to demonstrate this capability, along with a realistic architecture and contributions back to the TMF’s Frameworks construct.
To me, this is exciting. It says we can use the “MANO+” environment to drive down costs, and possibly even, over time, to create a “market” for resources such that high quality, low cost resources flourish while more marginal ones are further marginalized. This goes straight to the economics, competitiveness, and profitability of our industry and deserves serious attention.
This catalyst team appears well balanced in this regard, with each player bringing expertise in one or more of those critical areas, and one of the leading operators driving the cloud transformation guiding the objectives.
Ericsson summed up the challenge and the objective as follows:
“This TM Forum catalyst project intends to bridge the gap between OSS/BSS and the data silos in finance systems and data center automation controls to enable the kind of dynamic optimization analytics needed to achieve business-agile NFV orchestration.” – Ravi Vaidyanathan, Ericsson Project Lead
At the moment the industry is understandably focused on making NFV and MANO work – even simply. We must all walk before we try to run. Yet its very rewarding and encouraging to see the industry not only attempt to run, but to think about how far they can run. Step #1 in any journey is a destination; hats off to this team for picking a worthy one.
By the way, this team won a deserved award for most important contributions to the TM Forum’s standards. They deserve it for really thinking!