Platform9 and Mavenir Announce Strategic Partnership for 5G Webscale Platform
Kubernetes-based containerization will play a pivotal role in building out cloud and edge solutions for open and scalable 5G networks
Mountain View, CA — March 3, 2021 — Mavenir, the industry’s only end-to-end Network Software Provider and a leader in accelerating software network transformation for communications service providers (CSPs), and Platform9, the leading Managed Kubernetes provider for private and edge clouds, today announced a strategic partnership to accelerate the rollout of 5G services.
As part of the partnership, Mavenir intends to leverage Platform9’s Kubernetes solution to deliver a robust web-scale platform that runs containerized cloud-native network functions. Mavenir has integrated Telco PaaS (Platform as a Service) that it contributed to Opensource XGVela (https://xgvela.org/) on top of the Platform9 Managed Kubernetes (PMK) solution to meet the requirements of Open RAN and other telco workloads. Platform9’s Kubernetes solution is also an option for Mavenir’s Private Networks deployments. The open-source and cloud-native capabilities of the platform provide the scale, velocity and agility sought by service providers as they roll out their next generation 5G networks.
Kubernetes is ideally suited for building scalable 5G networks at the edge by running on vendor-neutral hardware and providing open-source orchestration. Based on open interfaces and community-developed standards, Kubernetes avoids the vendor lock-in and lack of flexibility resulting from incumbent proprietary solutions and emerging software/cloud products offered by the large providers.
“With the advent of 5G, there’s a cloud touch to the service provider’s network and ecosystem. It represents an evolution of a cloud-native software platform that offers competitive and differentiated services for many customers,” said Mavenir Chief Strategy Officer, Bejoy Pankajakshan. “We see several use cases for 5G — low latency communications, machine-to-machine communications, AR/VR, IoT, among others. Containerization and effective management of edge infrastructure, resources, applications and services is a critical aspect of success in these markets.”
Pankajakshan continued, “Platform9 and Kubernetes are providing key technology and support capabilities to optimize service delivery for our cloud-native software products and services. We expect to see benefits in simplifying our service delivery, operations, optimize foot-print, lower costs and add tangible value to our customer community.”
According to IDC, there will be 1.1 Billion 5G connections worldwide by 2023.
Increasingly, several use cases such as IoT, AR/VR and retail experiences are moving to the edge, enabled by the 5G network. Applications delivering such workloads are containerized for scale, performance, low-latency, security and cost purposes. Kubernetes provides an efficient way to schedule, manage and dynamically orchestrate containers with its auto-scale capabilities and highly automated environment, but it requires orchestration, management and optimization to be most effectively deployed.
“We are delighted that Platform9’s Kubernetes solution has been included to power Mavenir’s industry leading vision for cloud-native 5G infrastructure,” said Sirish Raghuram, CEO of Platform9. “Our automation technology for Kubernetes can accelerate new site deployments, reduce ongoing operational complexity and provide cloud elasticity for Mavenir’s solutions.”
The combination of Platform9’s Kubernetes solution and Mavenir’s cloud-native network software allows central deployment, management and support of network functions across thousands of cell tower sites and Core infrastructure — opening up opportunities for CSP’s roll out of 5G services at lowered operational costs across the globe at a speed and cost per deployment that would have been unthinkable just a year or two ago.
Platform9 Additional Information and Resources
- Platform9 5G Telco Solutions Page
- Blog: Five Technical Challenges Optimizing Kubernetes for 5G deployments
- Blog: How Containers at the Edge Can Accelerate the 5G Rollout
- Webinar: Networking and Kubernetes in the World of 5G Edge
- Read the Platform9 blog
