Virgin Media O2 Deploys Charmed OSM to Accelerate Network Functions Virtualisation for Cloud Workloads
By operating cloud workloads with Charmed OSM, VMO2 will benefit from increased agility and scalability, as well as an optimised migration to network functions virtualisation (NFV).
A new approach to service lifecycle management in telco
The challenge of network hosting in telco clouds and the desire to shift service management to more automated systems has given rise to tools like ETSI Open Source MANO (OSM). OSM reduces the complexity of service lifecycle management and minimises errors and operating costs.
Virgin Media O2 (VMO2), the UK’s largest telecommunication service provider, has chosen Charmed OSM, Canonical’s upstream distribution of ETSI Open Source MANO, as their production-ready orchestrator for hybrid workload deployments. Charmed OSM helps VMO2 reduce costs from Day-0 to Day-N by providing a generic approach to network function management and orchestration and simplifying their initial configuration and daily operational tasks. Mavenir, a cloud-native network software provider is delivering the NFV solutions to VMO2.
“Telco Cloud is our strategic, on-premise platform that hosts core network functions, like 5G. Telco Cloud enables us to provide the best services for millions of Virgin Media O2 customers. We use charmed OSM from Canonical, a technology agnostic NFV Orchestrator, to help our product teams onboard new applications. OSM plays a key role in allowing us to play at pace for our customers.” Alex Boyd, Head of Telco Cloud, VMO2
OSM is an open-source project hosted by ETSI, the European standards body making globally applicable standards for ICT products and services. OSM brings to communication service providers a generic approach to network functions management and orchestration in physical, virtual, containerised and hybrid environments.
Charmed OSM is a carrier-grade, model-driven OSM, with enterprise support and long-term security updates, for the community, partners and telcos. It accelerates the migration to NFV by automating real production complexity and covering the end-to-end lifecycle of network services through both service and resource orchestration. Canonical supports Charmed OSM under a subscription that offers telco-grade SLAs. Charmed OSM can be deployed in a highly available mode, resilient against failures and allows telcos to meet their availability goal. This makes Charmed OSM a prime choice to drive digital transformation efforts in telco.
“We’re proud to collaborate with innovative customers like VMO2 in their charge to use advanced Network Orchestration throughout their Mobile Networks, and will continue to support their ambition to drive the state of the art in the production use of Open Source projects like ETSI Open Source MANO. VMO2 are at the forefront in leveraging technology and automation to unlock the economies of scale needed in a modern mobile network operator to remain competitive. We’d like to congratulate O2, Mavenir, Minsait and all other collaborating partners” Arno van Huyssteen, CTO CSP, Canonica
Simplified deployments yield more speed and agility
VMO2 has onboarded telco workloads with Charmed OSM and is successfully managing the lifecycle, including virtualised and containerised deployments by multiple vendors like Mavenir and Oracle. To reduce integration efforts between vendors, Charmed OSM consumes open published information and data models aligned with ETSI NFV standards.
Mavenir, a cloud native network software provider, has deployed their signalling firewall and is currently in the process of deploying their cloud-native virtualised IMS (IP multimedia subsystem) for its fixed deployment with VMO2 using Charmed OSM.
“Mavenir is pleased to support VMO2’s transition to virtualised, cloud-native environments. Our cloud-native IMS, is a mobile-first architecture that evolves today’s mobile voice services, building on existing 4G networks for a successful 5G transformation.” Javier Gavilan, CTO for Telefonica Global Accounts, Mavenir
Minsait, an Indrac ompany and a leading firm in Digital Transformation Consultancy and Information Technologies in Spain and Latin America, carried out the project’s deployment. Minsait successfully completed the integration between multiple Charmed OSM sites and then onboarded network services from different vendors. Charmed OSM’s model-driven architecture enabled Minsait to instantly deploy VMO2’s MANO infrastructure.
“OSM is becoming a key enabler of the deployment of 5G for our clients. The compliance with standards, maturity and independence of any network function vendor make it the best fit to the current needs of Telco operators. We are very pleased to have helped Virgin Media O2 to leverage its Telco Cloud platform using Canonical Charmed OSM.” Francisco Rodriguez. NFV Projects Manager, Minsait
Learn More
- Contact Canonical to accelerate your migration to NFV using Charmed OSM.
- Tutorial: Install Charmed OSM in a few steps
- Building and orchestrating network functions
