Today at Mobile World Congress 2018, VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW) showcased how the company’s portfolio of offerings are helping communications service providers (CSPs) prepare for the imminent 5G world, where the ability to quickly build and launch new services will be critical for success. With VMware, customers can create new revenue streams, drive down costs, and improve customer retention and satisfaction.

CSPs are faced with high customer expectations, a portfolio of undifferentiated voice and data services, decreasing average revenue per user (ARPU), increasing infrastructure costs, and growing competition. Working with VMware, customers can accelerate their network transformation and modernization with network functions virtualization (NFV) to support efficient delivery of virtualized versions of current services such as Voice over LTE (VoLTE), IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) and evolved packet core (EPC). CSPs can also prepare for new service opportunities such as software-defined wide-area networks (SD-WAN), cloud migration, workspace management, and Internet of Things (IoT) services.

“CSPs must deliver new and differentiated services faster in an on-demand model to assist them today, as well as for the 5G future. This will require a transition to a cloud-centric virtualized infrastructure and service delivery model that is agile, automated, open, and software-defined,” said Shekar Ayyar, executive vice president and general manager, Telco Group at VMware. “VMware provides an innovative and production-proven software platform with 20 years of domain expertise in virtualization and cloud to help lead CSPs and telcos into next-generation distributed cloud leadership. Making this transition will enable CSPs to drive top line growth, improve bottom line performance, and retain and grow both their consumer and enterprise customer bases.”

Foundation for CSP Network Transformation and Modernization

VMware provides the essential software foundation that delivers a common infrastructure and operating environment spanning private, public, and Telco Distributed Clouds. VMware offers an optimal environment for telcos and CSPs to run, manage, connect, and secure all their applications and network functions –custom-built, packaged, virtualized, cloud-native, and SaaS. CSPs are increasingly turning to VMware for:

• Production-Proven NFV: VMware vCloud NFV provides common virtualized infrastructure, operations management, and service assurance across private, public, and Telco Distributed Clouds. The vCloud NFV platform enables CSPs and telcos to deploy a multi-vendor and multi-function NFV platform that delivers service automation, high-performance networking, secure multi-tenancy, operations management, and carrier grade reliability. The platform supports traditional and cloud native applications and is expected to expand to offer enhanced, high-performance networking based on DPDK principles.
• Fastest Path to Production OpenStack: Through VMware Integrated OpenStack-Carrier Edition, VMware delivers the fastest path to deploying production NFV services on OpenStack. VMware Integrated OpenStack-Carrier Edition is fully tested, certified, and integrated with VMware’s NFV infrastructure platform. Using VMware Integrated OpenStack as an NFV Virtualized Infrastructure Manager (VIM), network architects can easily deploy, upgrade, and operate an OpenStack cloud on top of VMware’s carrier-grade NFVI platform. VMware vCloud NFV-OpenStack brings native support for container-based Virtualized Network Functions (VNF) through integrated container management, enabling VM and container-based VNFs to run on a single VIM.
• Support for Containers and Cloud Native Apps: Pivotal Container Service™ (PKS) enables CSPs to deliver production-ready Kubernetes on VMware vSphere and Google Cloud Platform (GCP), with constant compatibility to Google Container Engine (GKE). PKS helps operations teams deliver a hardened, maintainable container platform, while giving developers on-demand access to a production-ready environment featuring high availability, security, and multi-tenancy across private and public clouds.
• Integration with Public Clouds: Through VMware Hybrid Cloud Extension, CSPs can extend their VMware-based environments to the public cloud including VMware Cloud on AWS for on-demand capacity, and expand to new locations and geos quickly, without the need to replatform, retest, or change cloud tooling, all while maintaining business continuity, application uptime, network architectures, and performance.
• Industry-Leading VNF Certification Program and Ecosystem Partners: VMware has created a true marketplace for CSP customers to build new services based on best-in-class virtual network functions, with a growing ecosystem of more than 60 Virtual Network Functions from more than 30 vendors worldwide certified as VMware Ready for NFV. By deploying the vCloud NFV platform, CSP customers can build, provision and, sell new services in days instead of months, positively influence customer quality of experience, and significantly improve OPEX and CAPEX. In partnership with Dell EMC, and an extended portfolio of complementary innovative offerings from Dell Technologies, VMware can offer a range of end-to-end solutions for CSPs.

New Revenue Streams through Additional VMware Solutions

VMware offers CSPs a growing portfolio of offerings that can open new high-margin revenue streams, expand opportunities with enterprise customers, and unlock opportunities to further develop services that include consultative/strategic, deployment, support, and managed services offerings. VMware’s expanded portfolio for telcos includes:

• Branch Networking (SD-WAN): With VeloCloud Cloud-Delivered SD-WAN, VMware equips CSPs with the ability to service enterprise needs as a managed service provider. SD-WAN managed services provide a less costly and complex network connectivity option that complements a CSPs existing services portfolio. And VeloCloud Cloud-Delivered SD-WAN can be deployed as a turnkey service or as a VNF on customer premise equipment (CPE), increasing agility, improving time to revenue, and reducing operational costs. In a multi-cloud world, where enterprises will have applications and services residing in their private cloud as well as in the public cloud, VeloCloud enables CSPs to provide the connectivity with the reliability and security that enterprise customers demand.
• Empowering the Digital Workspace: VMware enables CSPs to offer a range of enterprise mobility and workspace management services for customers at all stages of the digital workspace journey. VMware Workspace ONE, powered by AirWatch technology, enables management and security of all customer devices, including BYO devices and those sold by the operator. CSPs are also adding digital workspace services through Workspace ONE, which optimizes mobile user productivity and convenience by enabling an any app, any device experience. By offering all applications—mobile, web, Windows, virtual, or cloud—through a single app portal with identity integration for single sign-on, CSPs can further maximize revenue from enterprise data usage, software resale, and services opportunities.
• Public and Hybrid Cloud Extension: Hybrid Cloud Extension enables CSPs to offer enterprise customers instant connectivity to large-scale clouds for their IT as well as network function workloads. Hybrid Cloud Extension enables CSPs to help enterprise customers utilize the best of connected cloud data centers with the most current VMware SDDC offerings while maintaining business continuity, application uptime, network architectures, and performance.

Cost-Effective, Scalable IoT from the Edge to the Cloud

VMware helps CSPs maximize the opportunity for IoT internally, and with customers, by streamlining how they deploy, manage, monitor, and secure IoT infrastructure. VMware supports customers across the entire IoT value chain – things, edge, data, network, applications, and users – with secure, enterprise-grade, end-to-end operations management, and infrastructure solutions for IoT. With VMware, customers can manage across millions of things as easily as one, operate smarter with an accurate health of all things, and innovate faster by speeding up delivery of IoT use cases.

Today at Mobile World Congress 2018, VMware unveiled the next chapter of its IoT strategy which will focus on delivering new edge computing solutions including asset management, smart parking, and smart surveillance. These edge solutions will feature VMware vSAN hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) software and VMware Pulse IoT Center, and are planned to be developed in collaboration with industry-leading partners including Axis Communications, Wipro, and Dell Technologies, among others.

Customer and Partner Commentary

A1 Digital is part of the Telekom Austria Group. A set of innovative and scalable Cloud and IoT services qualify A1 Digital as a partner of choice for digital midmarket projects. “Partnering with VeloCloud (as part of VMware) is a significant expansion of our digitalization offering. Our business customers are challenged to digitize their processes faster and more effectively in order to be closer to and more flexible for their customers, to exploit new growth potentials and to reduce their costs. With our new network-out of-the-cloud (SD-WAN) service, we have the right answer,” said Elisabetta Castiglioni, CEO of A1 Digital International. “We are looking forward to this partnership. It was received openly and with interest by our customers.”

ASOCS, Inc. is a pioneer in virtual Radio Access Networks (vRAN). “Following core and edge virtualization, radio functions are the next frontier for Network Functions Virtualization (NFV). ASOCS Cyrus, an on-premises mobile cloud solution built on VMware infrastructure, enables operators to alleviate many of the problems facing mobile networks that frustrate enterprises and cellular carriers alike,” said Gilad Garon, CEO of ASOCS, Inc. “Cyrus is integrated with VMware’s production-proven virtualized infrastructure for mobile edge clouds that can scale as customers’ demands for capacity grows. At Mobile World Congress, ASOCS will demonstrate with VMware a fully virtualized, ONAP-compatible base station solution with automated life cycle management and orchestration.”

Globetouch is a leader in global connectivity services for connected car and the IoT applications that has deployed the Affirmed Mobile Content Cloud (vEPC) and VMware vCloud NFV for their mobile core network. “Globetouch sees a future with millions and millions of connected cars, drones, trains, and vehicles still in development,” said Riccardo Di Blasio, CEO of Globetouch. “But creating the networks to deploy, manage, and operate this vast connected world requires that we rethink the network as we know it today. Working with partners such as VMware and Affirmed Networks, we will drive the rapid transition from hardware to software-defined networks, helping to make the currently underserved and unmet potential of IoT a reality.”

Macquarie Telecom is a full-service provider of data, voice, mobile and colocation services in Australia. “Partnering with VeloCloud, Macquarie Telecom pioneered the delivery of SD-WAN services in the Australian market,” said Luke Clifton, group executive, Macquarie Telecom. “SD-WAN has given us a chance to provide enterprises a dramatically enhanced network experience, separating for the first time the performance of the network away from simply the choice of the access provider. On a broader level, Macquarie Telecom and VMware share a vision for where the software-defined cloud network needs to go to support the new application economy.”

Tech Mahindra is a leading provider of digital transformation, consulting and business reengineering services and solutions. “Tech Mahindra and VMware will help CSPs accelerate time to market, monetize new innovative services, streamline operations and reduce network infrastructure costs in the core, at the edge, and on the customer premises,” said Arunmozhi Balasubramanian, senior vice president of Network Services Solutions and Strategy. “With 4G and LTE in full swing and with the imminent arrival of 5G, Tech Mahindra’s telco transformation expertise coupled with VMware’s innovative NFV solutions portfolio can help CSPs with their digital transformation.”