Telcos are at an inflection point. The pressing need to reduce costs, improve return on investments, increase operational efficiency, and boost agility calls for the implementation of a modern architecture that includes the flexibility of virtualization, the transformative power of cloud-native technologies, and the innovative options of a multi-vendor ecosystem.
But for telcos dependent on a monolithic stack, such calls for rapid change crash into the daunting architectural task of network modernization at scale. Network functions and services need to be deployed and operated across a web of data centers that bridge physical and virtual systems while catering to interoperability across a multi-vendor ecosystem.
The rigors of designing and managing services combined with the complexity of coordinating virtual network functions (VNFs) and cloud-native network functions (CNFs) demand horizontal infrastructure that supports deploying, running, and managing VNFs and CNFs with consistency, efficiency, and automation.
Solidifying Transformative Capabilities into a Unified Platform
VMware Telco Cloud Platform Release 4.0 is a major milestone. This release solidifies numerous capabilities into a unified platform that gives you the flexibility to modernize your telecommunications network as you see fit and to tap the automation and assurance capabilities you need right now to do just that.
To streamline the process of adoption and modernization, VMware by Broadcom is simplifying how you implement and deploy our VMware Telco Cloud products. As such, beginning with this version of VMware Telco Cloud Platform, the automation capabilities vary by two packages: the VMware Telco Cloud Platform Essentials package and the VMware Telco Cloud Platform Advanced package.
The Fast Path to Modernization
The VMware Telco Cloud Platform Essentials package gives you a fast, easy way to deploy infrastructure and manage it with the following fundamental automation capabilities from VMware:
- Registration of pre-deployed clouds as virtual infrastructure
- CaaS Manager for lifecycle management (LCM) of Kubernetes clusters
- CaaS Dynamic Infrastructure Policies Integrator
- Infrastructure Automation
- Network Function Automation (VNFM) for VNFs only, not CNFs
- Role-Based Access Control
- Multi-Tenancy
- API Integration
The Full Path to Automation and Assurance
The VMware Telco Cloud Platform Advanced package includes the automation capabilities in the Essentials package and adds the following capabilities to furnish a comprehensive automation and orchestration solution for core telecommunications networks:
- Multi-Cloud Support
- Network Function Automation, including VNFs, CNFs, LCM, designer, catalog, and Dynamic Infrastructure Policies as well as third-party VNFM support
- Network Service Automation (NFVO)
- Workflow Support, which runs pre- and post-instantiation workflows for network functions and services
- Workflow Hub
- Network Slicing
- GitOps support for lifecycle management of cloud-native applications
Network Monitoring, Visibility, and Analytics
In addition, the VMware Telco Cloud Platform Advanced package provides comprehensive assurance capabilities to deliver multi-domain, multi-layer monitoring, visibility, and analytics in a unified dashboard. Here are some key capabilities for core networks:
- Fault and performance management
- Automated root-cause analysis
- Assurance for physical network functions (PNFs), VNFs, and CNFs as well as the VIM and CaaS layers
Key Changes in Release 4.0
To support the deployment and management of VNFs and CNFs, VMware Telco Cloud Platform 4.0 includes features from the latest versions of VMware vSphere, NSX, vSAN, Tanzu, and Cloud Director.
Lifecycle Management Enhancements
This release introduces several new features to simplify the lifecycle management of the platform for CNFs, including CaaS automation upgrades with Workflow Hub enhancements, and support for multiple versions of VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid.
Lifecycle management (LCM) improvements introduce feedback on CNF LCM operations and allows you to monitor CNF LCM operations for debugging.
Kubernetes Enhancements
This release also continues the additional one year support for a single Kubernetes version (1.27), allowing users to remain on a Kubernetes version for a longer period and plan for upgrading to a newer version.
There is now support for multiple Tanzu Kubernetes Grid releases (2.1.1 and 2.5). This feature allows users to continue to use Kubernetes 1.24.x clusters from the previous Tanzu Kubernetes Grid release (2.1.1) while being able to create new workload clusters with the new Kubernetes version from the new Tanzu Kubernetes Grid release (2.5).
Cluster rehoming enables selective upgrading of legacy Kubernetes workload clusters to the latest Kubernetes version. This feature avoids the need to upgrade all legacy workload clusters soon after the management cluster upgrade, providing flexibility on maintenance windows. Keeping the source management cluster (Tanzu Kubernetes Grid 2.1.1) allows support for all LCM/CRUD Operations on Kubernetes 1.24 clusters until end of life.
Security and Scalability
In addition, this release adds key security features, such as preventing network function deployment into a Kubernetes system namespace, providing granular security defaults at the user namespace level instead of system-wide.
Ready, Set, Deploy: Fast Track Innovation with a Multi-Vendor Ecosystem
Rapidly deploying flexible telecommunications networks that establish a fabric for innovation call for a multi-vendor approach. Ultimately, the success of your 5G network will hinge on your ability to disaggregate your networks, roll out new services, and operate at a faster pace and a larger scale with efficiency, simplicity, and — critically — reproducibility.
Using network functions validated by the VMware Ready for Telco Cloud program lets you quickly onboard and deploy VNFs and CNFs from multiple vendors to save time, money, and integration work. The program delivers flexibility and automation to accelerate your 5G deployments, benefit from cloud-native technology, and simplify your multi-vendor networks. In addition, if you are a VMware partner, you can bring your network functions to market faster and speed up their deployment in 4G and 5G networks.
Find Your Path to Network Modernization
How can we help you discover your path to network modernization and the benefits of flexibility, agility, and a multi-vendor ecosystem? See all the additions and enhancements in the VMware Telco Cloud Platform 4.0 release by reading the release notes or find out more about how VMware can put you on the fast path to network modernization and back it up with full automation and assurance at https://telco.vmware.com/products/telco-cloud-platform.html
