Red Hat Teams with Telefonica, Expands Focus on OpenStack and Telecom
Earlier this month, when Red Hat was busy delivering a flurry of OpenStack-related announcements, news also came from the company that it is collaborating to drive Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) and telecommunications technology into OpenStack. Red Hat is forming alliances aimed at delivering a carrier-grade telecommunications offering based on Linux, Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM), and OpenStack.
And now, huge telecom player Telefonica has announced that it will work with Red Hat and Intel to create a virtual infrastructure management (VIM) platform based on open source software running on Intel-based servers. Telefonica’s Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) Reference Lab will be targeted to help partners and developers build telecom-grade infrastructure and Red Hat will protect the open source focus of the effort.
Red Hat is already collaborating with eNovance, a leader in the open source cloud computing market, to drive Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) and telecommunications features into OpenStack. The NFV Reference Lab from Telefonica will be based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform running on Intel servers. The Lab and the new partnerships could significantly shift the way telecommunications networks are built and operated. Future networks could become much less focused on vendor lock-in.
Enrique Algaba, Network Innovation and Virtualization Director at Telefonica, said in a statement:
”For NFV we need to avoid closed and non-interoperable environments, which would hamper its widespread adoption. For that purpose, we have launched the Network Functions Virtualisation Reference Lab, where Telefónica, along with key players from the industry, is working to enhance baseline virtualization technologies from the open source community and contributing them back to the upstream community, to avoid technological fragmentation.”
Radhesh Balakrishnan, general manager, Virtualization and OpenStack at Red Hat, said in a statement:
“Red Hat is currently the leading contributor to the upstream Linux kernel, KVM, and OpenStack projects which create a foundation for NFV workloads. This deep experience in the open source community, along with Red Hat’s focus on performance, reliability and security, offers CSPs a unique value proposition. We’re thrilled to bring our technical expertise, community experience and product offerings including Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform to the collaboration with Telefónica and Intel to help CSPs reap the benefits of NFV first hand.”