Nokia CloudBand open templating system enables automation of virtualized network function lifecycle management
December 05 2016 - 3:12AM
Nokia has published the industry's first complete
templating system for VNF lifecycle management, designed to
streamline and automate VNF onboarding, integration and lifecycle
management processes.
Today's methods for managing VNF lifecycles - instantiating,
monitoring, repairing, scaling, updating and backing-up - are
costly, cumbersome and time-consuming. To address this, Nokia has
developed an open templating system, aligned with the latest
industry standards and open-source tools, to streamline these
processes. The template specifications allow service
providers and VNF suppliers to take advantage of the automated
lifecycle management capabilities of the Nokia CloudBand
Application Manager, enabling them to integrate more VNFs faster
while reducing the cost and time required to manage VNFs in the
cloud.
Nokia's open templating system builds upon the ETSI NFV
specifications (IFA011 and IFA014), Topology and Orchestration
Specification for Cloud Applications (TOSCA) specifications and
OpenStack tools. It provides key functionality to service
providers, including VNF definitions for better integration and
added support of complex structures, and eliminates the need for
customization when providing VNF information to a generic VNF
Manager and NFV Orchestrator.
By supporting both Nokia and third-party VNFs, the system gives
service providers a much wider selection of virtualized network
services they can offer subscribers.
Nokia is currently collaborating with fellow members of ETSI and
TOSCA to complete development of VNF templating standards to
benefit the entire industry.
Ron Haberman, head of Nokia's CloudBand product unit,
said: "One of the goals of NFV has been to foster an open
ecosystem of VNF suppliers to give service providers maximum choice
in the capabilities they integrate, and to offer subscribers the
best available services. By creating an open system that improves
the management of VNFs, we aim to make it easier for service
providers to quickly add new value-added services to differentiate
their offerings, generate new revenue opportunities, and deliver
better user experiences."
John Maddison, SVP of Products and Solutions at
Fortinet, said: "Vendors are coming together to facilitate
the integration, deployment and management of NFV, which is having
a profound impact on service providers. Virtual security functions
are critical to these efforts and must be fully integrated and
managed within these environments. Nokia's open templating system
facilitates this for Fortinet's VNFs. With these tools, CloudBand
and Fortinet can reduce complexity and streamline integration with
multi-vendor solutions to ensure the success and security of
NFV."
Mallik Tatipamula, VP of Service Provider Solutions at
F5 Networks, said: "Achieving NFV's true promise requires
automated VNF lifecycle management in multi-vendor networks. This
can be accomplished by using a consistent and predictable package
that captures VNF operational aspects while reducing the learning
curve. As a VNF supplier, F5 Networks needs flexibility and agility
to deploy its virtualized network functions/services into
multi-vendor networks. By documenting their open templating system
based on de facto standards and standard tool sets, Nokia has made
it practical to do so."
Caroline Chappell, principal analyst at Analysys Mason,
said: "VNF onboarding is one of the major challenges the
industry must solve to ensure the long-term success of NFV. This
will require a standards-based approach that automates the
onboarding process and minimizes its complexity. Publicly available
guidelines that build upon ETSI NFV ISG and OASIS TOSCA work are an
important resource for the market. They provide an exemplar for VNF
onboarding that can help harmonize the fragmented vendor approaches
we've seen so far."
Additional features of the Nokia CloudBand Application Manager
templating system include:
- Standards-based system built upon common
scripting and description languages - including TOSCA, Ansible,
OpenStack HOT and Mistral - makes it easy for third-party vendors
to quickly integrate VNFs for Nokia CloudBand deployments.
- Automated VNF lifecycle management eliminates
tedious manual processes and costly custom development, and
minimizes the potential for human error.
- Multi-vendor support ensures interoperability
and facilitates the proliferation of new, high-value NFV commercial
services.
Availability
The new VNF lifecycle management templating system for Nokia
CloudBand Application Manager is now available, and the VNF
lifecycle management Template Developer Guide can be downloaded
here. For more information about Nokia CloudBand visit the Nokia
CloudBand website.
Resources:
- Download: VNF lifecycle management Template Developer
Guide
- Website: Nokia CloudBand Ecosystem
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