AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Experienced telecom networking engineers who are looking for a faster, simpler and cheaper way to learn about NFV setup now have a new resource to solve this problem — the NFV Lab.
The NFV Lab offers on-demand access to a learning lab configured with a private OpenStack environment, TOSCA-based orchestration (Cloudify) and the Clearwater open source vIMS virtualized network function. Credentialed users can gain access, begin learning in minutes, and develop their first VNF orchestration free of charge in the NFV Lab, which was developed and is operated by GigaSpaces.
*** Telecom network engineers can sign up online for access to the NFV Lab On Demand. ***
*** Read the NFV blog post: “NFV Lab on Demand - A Full Scale NFV Environment in a Single Click.” ***
Telecoms are embracing NFV (Network Functions Virtualization) to control the cost of network plant expansion and speed up the pace of launching new services as network demand grows. But even for experienced network engineers, setting up an environment to learn about NFV and the deployment of VNFs (Virtualized Network Functions) is time consuming, expensive and technically challenging.
Until now, if a network engineer wanted to learn about NFV, she had to arrange access to a private, physical lab; secure the environment from Internet access; install the necessary tools; install a VNF; and learn about TOSCA and orchestration. Finally, she could begin working with the VNF. All of this can easily take weeks under good circumstances, requires equipment purchasing and is technically challenging.
However, with NFV Lab, users are up and running in a fully operational environment without that time or expense. Users get a fully functional OpenStack environment on demand, in a few minutes, with the orchestration and vIMS Clearwater VNF already installed and integrated.
The lab is intended for cloud network architects, telecom professionals and solutions architects who are considering NFV and want to learn what is involved with managing and maintaining an NFV environment. The goal of the NFV Lab is to provide access to a live NFV environment and offer a deep, technical understanding of how NFV works while simplifying NFV orchestration.
VNF orchestration in the NFV Lab is provided by Cloudify, an open source, TOSCA-based cloud orchestration platform that automates installation, deployment and post-deployment, including monitoring, remediation and auto-scaling of VNFs or an application stack. The NFV Lab uses the Ravello platform for virtualization of testing environments.
Users of the NFV Lab receive training from GigaSpaces, including an on-boarding session and a short, online training session that includes the use of Clearwater, Cloudify and the OpenStack environment. GigaSpaces engineers can also monitor each user’s experience in the NFV Lab and provide feedback and suggestions. Users also learn how to build TOSCA blueprints to develop their own VNFs.
“We talk to customers more and more frequently who want to learn about NFV, but the logistics, complexity and cost are big barriers,” said Nati Shalom, CTO of GigaSpaces. “We built the NFV Lab to answer that request. A network architect can now go online, and in minutes they have a virtual environment pre-integrated with all the pieces they need. We’ve removed the critical blocker for advancing NFV at operators of large networks.”
About GigaSpaces
GigaSpaces Technologies provides software for cloud application orchestration and scaling of mission-critical applications on cloud environments. Hundreds of tier-one organizations worldwide are leveraging GigaSpaces technology to enhance IT efficiency and performance, including top financial firms, e-commerce companies, online gaming providers, healthcare organizations and telecom carriers. GigaSpaces has offices in the US, Europe and Asia. More at www.gigaspaces.com and getcloudify.org.
