Fujitsu Offers Systematic "Network DevOps Solutions" to Assist Telecom Carriers in Creating Network Services

Tokyo, May 12, 2015

Fujitsu today announced that, by leveraging the experience and expertise the company has developed in DevOps (a term combining "development" and "operations")⁽¹⁾ for the cloud, it has systematized a set of products and services that integrate software-defined networking (SDN)⁽²⁾ and Network Functions Virtualisation (NFV)⁽³⁾ technologies under the name Network DevOps Solutions, which are designed to provide telecom carriers with network development and operations-management systems. Fujitsu also announced new additions and updates to its FUJITSU Network Virtuora series of wide-area, virtual network-related products. Virtuora OM and Virtuora RV are being offered as new products globally, along with Virtuora NC, which now has enhanced features.

Network DevOps Solutions systematizes platforms, services, and solutions that provide comprehensive support across the lifecycle of telecom carriers' network services, from planning, design, and development, to deployment, operations, and monitoring. Based on this offering, by combining Fujitsu's network platforms and management products with products from Fujitsu's partners, customers can independently improve their systems and achieve flexible operations management, enabling them to quickly iterate through the lifecycle of creating new services.

As a result, in addition to enabling carriers to quickly adapt their network services to changes in market needs, through continuous improvements in their services, they will be able to improve service quality, as well as address the diverse needs of network users in and create new network services for the IoT era.

Fujitsu is committed to providing total lifecycle support for network services and contributing to a faster pace of innovation for the IoT era.

Background

For telecom carriers, maintaining the quality of the existing network services they offer while at the same time quickly addressing new needs is becoming increasingly challenging.

In its cloud business, Fujitsu has implemented the DevOps approach, which integrates development and operations in systems development, enabling it to compress the time required to offer new services to a matter of days for what used to require several months.

Now, with the advances in SDN and NFV technologies, there is a growing demand for this kind of fast, flexible new-service provision in network services, as well.

Network DevOps Solutions System

Fujitsu has newly systematized its Network DevOps Solutions to support telecom carriers in creating new network services.

Integrating the major technologies listed below that Fujitsu has cultivated to date with Fujitsu's experience with the DevOps approach, Network DevOps Solutions systematize platforms, services, and solutions that provide comprehensive support across the service lifecycle, from planning and development to deployment and operations. This is an application of the FUJITSU Intelligent Network and Computing Architecture, which optimizes ICT platforms on a network-wide level, to the field of wide-area networks.

The system diagram below brings together, across the lifecycle of use by telecom carriers, the products and services being offered, grouping them into three areas. The first area is network platforms, including products and platforms, such as the Virtuora series announced in 2014. The second is the network and system integration services Fujitsu is already providing to telecom carriers. The third, using the first two as a foundation, is network solutions that will be provided in accordance with customer needs.

List of Major Technologies:

• Technologies to modernize core business systems (IT services)
• Technologies for agile development (cloud)
• Technologies for network abstraction and modeling
• Technologies for network virtualization, including SDN and NFV
• Technologies for policy-based network optimization

Virtuora OM and Virtuora RV, new NFV lifecycle management software

The newly offered NFV lifecycle management software products Virtuora OM and Virtuora RV virtualize customer networks on commodity PC servers, provide total support, from infrastructure configuration to service deployment and operations, and enable service deployment in a shorter period of time.

Virtuora OM is software for the centralized management and control of configurations of virtual machines, which are virtual resources on commodity PC servers in a cloud environment, and virtual network functions (VNF). Fujitsu's proprietary service chaining⁽⁴⁾ for selectively connecting communications services enables on-demand network-service setup, while GUI screens bring visibility to maintenance operations, enabling high-quality and efficient virtual network operations even without a high degree of specialized knowledge.

Virtuora RV is virtual platform software that, based on information set by Virtuora OM, connects with OpenStack⁽⁵⁾ cloud operations-management software and a kernel-based virtual machine (KVM)⁽⁶⁾ hypervisor to provide virtual resources for VNF and network services. It provides automated installation functions for operating systems that are not provided by the industry-standard OpenStack or KVM, as well as functions for fixed allocations of CPU cores for VNF, thereby simplifying infrastructure deployment work, and enabling shorter deployment times, the prevention of deployment errors, and stable service operations.

Virtuora NC, upgraded software for wide-area network operations control and management

Virtuora NC is software that centralizes management of network configuration information, designs optimized routes for virtual networks, and centralizes management of settings for communications equipment designated in that routing information.

This software has been enhanced with new functions that implement integrated management and operations of both packet and transport networks. These new functions simplify operations such as checking for free circuits on either network and opening communications, enabling reductions in operating costs and shortening the time needed for the provision of services.

Also, a software-development kit (SDK)⁽⁷⁾ is included so that customers can independently program the network settings needed for provision of new services. In a multi-vendor environment, this makes it possible to automate everything from optimized route settings to settings for communications equipment, so that network parameters can be set for the customer's environment in one-third the time as previous methods.

Pricing and Availability

Pricing and Availability

Product Name	Sales Price (excl. tax)	Availability
FUJITSU Network Virtuora OM	From JPY 22 million	May 2015
FUJITSU Network Virtuora RV	From JPY 5.5 million	May 2015
FUJITSU Network Virtuora NC (enhanced edition)	From JPY 13 million	May 2015

Sales Target

JPY 15 billion by end of fiscal 2017 (Fujitsu's fiscal year ends the last day of March).