The telecommunications industry is at a pivotal moment, with 5G and cloud-native technologies driving unprecedented transformation. As telecom providers shift to cloud-native functions and microservices on Kubernetes, the demand for platforms that are scalable, secure, and cost-efficient is stronger than ever.
This blog looks at how the telco cloud is evolving, the challenges operators face with Kubernetes, and how VMware Telco Cloud Platform helps address them to shape the future of telecom.
Telco’s Evolution to Cloud Native
Telecommunications network technologies initially relied on physical appliances with 2G and 3G, then shifted to virtualization with 4G Virtualized Network Functions (VNFs) over the past decade. More recently, Network Equipment Providers (NEPs) are adopting microservice architectures and are deploying 5G software as containers managed by Kubernetes called Cloud Native Network functions (CNFs) to remain cloud agnostic.
NEPs are embracing cloud-native technologies to expedite time to market and meet the demands of the evolving 5G landscape. At the same time telco network operators are adopting Kubernetes to lower the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), enhance network performance, while choosing the right combination of vendors to meet demanding network requirements at scale.
Unique Requirements of Operators adopting Kubernetes
Network Operators expect Kubernetes and virtualization to deliver significant OpEx and CapEx savings by making more efficient use of compute resources. Delivering on this promise is critical as both 4G and 5G deployments have required more compute, putting pressure on CapEx budgets. However, effectively using Kubernetes has been more challenging for operators due to several key concerns.
- Operational complexity: Telco platform validation is lengthy because of extensive testing and network operator requirements, despite improving NEP vendor cycles. The rapid Kubernetes release cadence and short support policy clash with operator needs. In addition, upgrading stateful CNFs combined with the scheduling of maintenance windows and frequent Kubernetes upgrades, creates operational challenges
- Predictability: Operators optimize CAPEX and OPEX by meticulously planning projects, starting with RFIs, RFPs, and POCs, and ending with vendor selection. Requirements must align across the stack with all vendors before CAPEX purchasing and validation setup. Since the validation cycle can span months to a year, a predictable release cadence is crucial for timely execution.
- High-performance networking: 5G networks are designed for high bandwidth and low latency across applications. This requires specialized high-performance networking within the Kubernetes environment, often including hardware acceleration for data plane network function consumption.
- Network function Standardization : A consistent approach to deploying and maintaining network functions across Kubernetes platforms is crucial for vendor neutrality. NEPs and operators aim to standardize CNF catalogs and lifecycles, which has historically been a challenge.
- Regulatory Compliance: Telco infrastructure is a critical national asset and a frequent target for sophisticated attackers, requiring strict compliance with government security standards for the Kubernetes platform. It supports emergency services, demanding extreme reliability and cost-effectiveness. Maintenance, often done off-peak, must be carefully planned to ensure rapid platform recovery.
VMware Telco Cloud Platform meets telecom network operator needs.
Telco Cloud Platform is an integrated solution that enables customers to deploy and manage VNFs and CNFs reliably at scale. Built on VMware’s proven technologies it includes a CNCF conformant Kubernetes with the components and packages telecom operators need. It is designed to address telcom’s unique challenges.
Release Cadence and Support
VMWare Telco Cloud Platform offers a predictable release cadence, enabling operators to plan upgrades and expansions efficiently. This allows them to anticipate changes across the stack well in advance.
Telco Cloud Platform is released annually, with one kubernetes version per year designated for extended support, giving NEPs time for validation and operators flexibility to stage upgrades during maintenance windows. Seamless upgrades are supported through significant overlap across Kubernetes versions. For example, TCP 5.1 supports seven Kubernetes versions managed by a single Telco Cloud Automation instance.
Network Performance
NSX enhanced data path (EDP) delivers the high network performance needed for data plane workloads by reducing latency and increasing packet processing speed. This makes it ideal for applications that require low latency and high throughput, such as NFV workloads. EDP leverages software acceleration technologies like DPDK for faster packet processing and flow caching for efficient forwarding. Unlike SR-IOV, NSX EDP also provides L2/L3 and edge programmability, better visibility and analytics, plus higher resiliency with vSphere HA, vMotion, and DRS.
Kubernetes Lifecycle Management
Telco Cloud Automation simplifies Kubernetes (K8s) upgrade coordination in large-scale operations with NEPs. It facilitates fail-fast checks on cluster health, manages deprecation and API compatibility, and handles certificate validations. The Workflow Hub assists customers in designing operational workflows, such as upgrades that align with maintenance window requirements. This ensures Telco compliance by using built-in workflows for K8s ES upgrades to guarantee full network functionality post-maintenance cycle.
CNF Automation powered by Telco cloud Automation
NEPs initially offered 4G as VNFs, standardized with ETSI compliant TOSCA templates. With the rise of Kubernetes and CNFs, operators and NEPs began adopting IT methodologies like version control and continuous delivery. Broadcom led this shift by enabling GitOps based CNF lifecycle management, alongside traditional ETSI methods, distributing TOSCA CNF artifacts via Git.
Dynamic Infrastructure Policies (DIP) in Telco Cloud Platform enables operators and NEPs to customize Kubernetes Node and VM properties for specific CNF requirements. This eliminates frequent cluster redeployments due to infrastructure-application misalignment, streamlining validation and operations. For VMs on VMware Cloud Foundation(VCF), customizations are applied instantly with fine-grained control, without requiring time-consuming physical node reboots.
Observability
VMware Aria Operations is a self-driving operations management platform for private clouds. It tracks and analyzes data from multiple sources with advanced analytic algorithms.These algorithms empower Aria Operations to discern and forecast the behavior of every monitored object.
Through management packs, Aria Operations provides contextual insights into Telco Cloud Platform components such as Kubernetes and Telco Cloud Automation. Operators can use dashboards, reports, and views to monitor Kubernetes components and the CNFs deployed via Telco Cloud Automation.
Security and Governance
VMware Telco Cloud Platform with built-in Kubernetes undergoes rigorous engineering security practices and industry-standard security scans before general availability. Compliance checks are built-in to meet regulatory requirements, including TSA, NSA/CISA, CIS, STIG, and CNCF standards.
Telco Cloud automation enforces these with out-of-the-box governance policies backed by a Kubernetes policy manager. Operators can apply policies across entire Kubernetes fleets, with centralized dashboards for configuration, tracking, and violation management.
Automation, reliability, security, performance, and multi-tenancy are built-in to every level of the Telco Cloud Platform’s stack ensuring highly availability, strong security, and carrier-grade performance .
Looking ahead at AI
Network operators are exploring ways to integrate AI into 5G networks. The goal is to enable real-time analysis of large volumes of network data for threat detection and remediation, provide virtual assistants to simplify operations, and deploy AI agents to automate complex tasks. Network operators are also evaluating how to monetize – sovereign cloud datacenters by offering services such as GPU-as-a-Service (GPUaaS) and Machine learning-as-a-Service(MLaaS) to support AI workloads.
The rapid rise of generative and agentic AI will place significant demands on Telco networks, particularly the 5G Core, due to increased uplink and downlink traffic. AI-powered assistants and Augmented Reality (AR) platforms are expected to surpass today’s 5G network mobile data traffic capacities. To prepare, operators are prioritizing network optimization strategies that balance efficient resource management with high performance and enhanced security.
Conclusion
VMware Telco Cloud Platform helps operators overcome the key challenges of adopting Kubernetes. With a predictable release cadence and extended support, high network performance through NSX EDP, robust lifecycle management with Telco Cloud Automation , CNF automation with GitOps and Dynamic Infrastructure Policies, plus built-in security and governance, Broadcom delivers a comprehensive solution tailored to the demanding needs of the telecommunications industry.
To learn more about VMware Telco Cloud platform and its built-in Kubernetes, see the documentation
