Over the past year, I have written about and demonstrated the operational intelligence framework within VMware vCloud NFV. The intent was to help communication service providers (CSPs) anticipate and mitigate challenges associated with deploying and operationalizing NFV based services. While NFV environments provide a new level of flexibility and service agility, dealing with new layers of operational complexity can often make or break the business viability of a CSP transformation effort.
Several CSPs we work with see the vCloud NFV Operational Intelligence framework as a crucial enabler of the tangible transformation required to deliver best in class services, and somewhere along the way, we realized the need to bring these learnings together in an easily-digestible format. The result is the “Telco Operations in an NFV World” eBook – a free resource to help guide CSP operations through various stages of the NFV services lifecycle.
The eBook first introduces key components in the vCloud NFV Operational Intelligence framework – vRealize Operations Manager, vRealize Log Insight, and vRealize Network Insight.
After getting familiar with the framework and component functionality, we then take a deeper look at the CSP operations lifecycle and the capabilities required at each stage of service evolution. You may find this comprehensive approach to end-to-end service operations particularly useful when calibrating your own approach to complete operations automation. The eBook breaks this down into five phases:
- Phase 1: Onboard Service Operations – Service and resource discovery, Security and alert definitions, Remediation workflows, Multi-tenant dashboards, and Micro-segmentation
- Phase 2: Launch Service and Operate – Unified visibility from apps to infrastructure, Availability, performance, capacity, and security monitoring, Interactive analytics, API/SDK access
- Phase 3: Dynamic Optimization and Issue Avoidance – Automated closed-loop optimization, Predictive Distributed Resource Scheduler (pDRS), Pattern recognition-driven alerts
- Phase 4: Issue Isolation – SLA violations, Performance degradation alerts and recommendations, Network and app visibility, Underlay and overlay traffic routes
- Phase 5: Plan Demand and Expansion – Capacity and utilization, Combined operational and business insights, Procurement planning, Resource reclamation
Within each phase are detailed considerations and links to demo videos that illustrate the operational intelligence built into the vCloud NFV platform. The eBook also contains a reference section with links to other related solution briefs and whitepapers.
Service onboarding, performance monitoring, and dynamic optimization are quickly becoming primary considerations in a well-designed operations management strategy. CSPs must achieve simplification, multi-tenancy, proactivity, and efficiency with a shared infrastructure layer, dynamic re-sizing and movement of workloads, distributed topologies, and owned and leased cloud environments which will drive the need for self-correcting and self-adjusting automation. The eBook attempts to take a critical look at the operational intelligence CSPs need to manage such dynamic environments. I hope you find the eBook a useful resource in your NFV journey.
