Dell today unveiled a series of new products for communications service providers designed to facilitate network-cloud-based operations and simplify the deployment, automation and support of disaggregated network cloud infrastructure.
Drawing on decades of experience working with telecom providers, Dell said the new Telecom Infrastructure Automation Suite is designed to automate orchestration and lifecycle management of multi-vendor network cloud infrastructure. It is based on open standards and APIs and can be easily integrated into existing networks, increasing the flexibility for CSPs to deploy and manage the infrastructure of their choice in a distributed, multi-vendor environment.
Andrew Vaz, vice president of product management for Dell's Telco Systems business, said, "All major operators are evaluating network virtualization with proof-of-concept or limited deployments. "When telecom operators don't ask if they should transform, but how, we're taking an important step forward. ”
Dell says the infrastructure automation suite can save days or weeks on server configuration and declarative automation, which specifies desired outcomes or goals, but doesn't clearly define the specific steps to achieve those outcomes or goals.
Through open APIs and Dell Services, infrastructure discovery and automation can be drilled down to the network infrastructure layer, enabling integration with telecom business support systems and operations support systems. Telemetry covers device temperature, CPU, and memory utilization, allowing users to quickly reallocate resources when temperatures rise or memory usage impacts performance.
Another important announcement is Dell Telecom Infrastructure Blocks for Red Hat, which combines Dell servers such as the Dell PowerEdge XR8000 with Red Hat's Openshift and Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes.
It supports 5G core workloads running at the edge, building on existing 5G core and radio access network support, enabling CSPs to deploy a proven and consistent cloud platform from core to edge. The package is integrated with the Telecom Infrastructure Automation Suite to manage and orchestrate the infrastructure of a multi-vendor environment.
Intent-driven coordination
"The underlying layer is compute, storage, [containers-as-a-service] and network services," Vaz said. "In the middle is a set of services that orchestrate and manage these functions. We want to make it as flexible and unified as possible. "Intent-driven alignment comes from Cloudify, which Dell acquired last year.
According to VAZ, the infrastructure automation suite is "highly scalable and API-driven, and its (Continuous Integration Continuous Deployment) model lays the foundation for AIOPS," a discipline that combines AI with traditional IT operations. He said an early customer deployed the suite for closed-loop automation of power management and resulted in a 23 percent increase in server utilization, a 15 percent reduction in capital expenditure, and a 20 percent reduction in total cost of ownership.
The telecom infrastructure automation suite will be available globally in April, and the telecom infrastructure blocks for Red Hat will be available in May.