Close
  • Latest News
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
Read Down
Sign in
Close
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Read Down
Password recovery
Recover your password
Close
Search
Logo
Logo
  • Latest News
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
More
    Home Latest News
    • Networking

    Oracle Expands NFV Capabilities for Service Providers

    By
    Jeff Burt
    -
    June 24, 2015
    Share
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Linkedin
      cloud network

      Oracle Communications is virtualizing its products to help communications service providers more easily make the move to network-functions virtualization environments.

      At the LTE World Summit 2015 in Amsterdam July 23, Oracle officials announced the release of four products—the Oracle Communications Session Border Controller, Converged Application Server, Services Gatekeeper and Policy Management—that they said will bring greater flexibility, scalability and automation to service provider networks as they move to network-functions virtualization (NFV).

      NFV essentially moves the various network tasks—from load balancing and firewalls to intrusion detection and prevention and routing—from expensive hardware and into software that can be run on lower-cost and less complex systems. Doing so will give service providers and telecommunications vendors the ability to more quickly spin out new services and meet the rapidly changing demands of customers. Oracle is planning to virtualize all its network functions.

      However, Oracle Communications officials said that beyond virtualizing the network, communications service providers (CSPs) face a list of challenges, from managing and monetizing their new capabilities to making hybrid network environments work by bridging the physical and virtual divide as they make their NFV journey.

      Helping service providers with that also is part of a larger plan being put in place by Doug Suriano, who last month was named senior vice president and general manager of Oracle Communications after coming to the company in 2013 via the acquisition of Tekelec. The company is one of several that Oracle bought in recent years as the software giant has looked to build out its capabilities in the telco industry.

      In an interview with eWEEK, Suriano said that an advantage that Oracle Communications has is the ability to draw on the expansive cloud IT portfolio the company is developing. He spoke about bringing cloud capabilities to the service provider space while realizing the particular needs of communications customers. Such organizations have demands around areas like latency, reliability, stateful transactions and lifecycle management that are beyond what are found in traditional enterprise IT networks.

      “The telco cloud is still being defined,” Suriano said. “NFV is still being defined.”

      The newly virtualized products will help Oracle Communications as it builds out its cloud for service providers. The latest version of the Session Border Controller is available as a virtual network function (VNF) that can run on an array of hardware platforms, which gives CSPs greater flexibility and agility when deploying it. The new offering also helps service providers to offer a more complete lineup of both fixed line and mobile services, officials said.

      They can choose how to best deploy the Session Border Controller—such as with a purpose-built system, on a virtual machine or off-the-shelf hardware—more quickly respond to changes in traffic volume by more easily ramping up or down network resources, and more quickly roll out new applications and services.

      The Converged Application Service, which also is provided as a VNF, offers a Java-based platform for developing and deploying communications applications. It uses a simple Java interface that will be familiar to any developer experienced with Java Platform Enterprise Edition (Java EE). It also offers fast and reliable data storage through the Oracle Coherence in-memory data grid technology.

      Oracle Expands NFV Capabilities for Service Providers

      The Services Gatekeeper is used to manage the application program interface (API) lifecycle, enabling service providers to use a GUI to generate APIs in a few minutes. This will enable them to speed up application development, quickly on-board partners and accelerate the monetization of assets to drive revenue growth. The virtualized offering can run on commercial hardware, engineered systems or the cloud, officials said.

      A virtualized Policy Management product not only will help service providers continue their migration to NFV and software-defined networking (SDN), but also tighten the integration with charging and billing systems and bring greater network insights through integrated policy analytics.

      The NFV push is part of Suriano’s larger strategy for Oracle Communications. In his short time as the lead executive, he has brought together the resources from Tekelec and Acme (which Oracle bought a month before the Tekelec acquisition) with the OSS/BSS (operations support systems/business support systems), which before had been operating independently. Now they are a single, cohesive unit all under the same product, sales, services and support umbrella that can serve the broad range of communications customers, from enterprises to services providers to over-the-top (OTT) companies.

      “We’re presenting one face to the customer,” Suriano said, adding that internally the challenge is to ensure the company can manage and monetize everything now that they are under the same tent.

      Along with the work to create a communications cloud environment and offer communications customers a single view of Oracle’s communications offerings, Suriano also pointed to other efforts underway, including enabling service providers to offer their customers a better experience through analytics and cloud computing, and improving connections between customers and the growing number of connected devices they’re using while driving down the cost of resources.

      Jeff Burt
      Jeffrey Burt has been with eWEEK since 2000, covering an array of areas that includes servers, networking, PCs, processors, converged infrastructure, unified communications and the Internet of things.
      Get the Free Newsletter!
      Subscribe to Daily Tech Insider for top news, trends & analysis
      This email address is invalid.
      Get the Free Newsletter!
      Subscribe to Daily Tech Insider for top news, trends & analysis
      This email address is invalid.

      MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

      Latest News

      Zeus Kerravala on Networking: Multicloud, 5G, and...

      James Maguire - December 16, 2022 0
      I spoke with Zeus Kerravala, industry analyst at ZK Research, about the rapid changes in enterprise networking, as tech advances and digital transformation prompt...
      Read more
      Applications

      Datadog President Amit Agarwal on Trends in...

      James Maguire - November 11, 2022 0
      I spoke with Amit Agarwal, President of Datadog, about infrastructure observability, from current trends to key challenges to the future of this rapidly growing...
      Read more
      IT Management

      Intuit’s Nhung Ho on AI for the...

      James Maguire - May 13, 2022 0
      I spoke with Nhung Ho, Vice President of AI at Intuit, about adoption of AI in the small and medium-sized business market, and how...
      Read more
      Applications

      Kyndryl’s Nicolas Sekkaki on Handling AI and...

      James Maguire - November 9, 2022 0
      I spoke with Nicolas Sekkaki, Group Practice Leader for Applications, Data and AI at Kyndryl, about how companies can boost both their AI and...
      Read more
      Cloud

      IGEL CEO Jed Ayres on Edge and...

      James Maguire - June 14, 2022 0
      I spoke with Jed Ayres, CEO of IGEL, about the endpoint sector, and an open source OS for the cloud; we also spoke about...
      Read more
      Logo

      eWeek has the latest technology news and analysis, buying guides, and product reviews for IT professionals and technology buyers. The site’s focus is on innovative solutions and covering in-depth technical content. eWeek stays on the cutting edge of technology news and IT trends through interviews and expert analysis. Gain insight from top innovators and thought leaders in the fields of IT, business, enterprise software, startups, and more.

      Facebook
      Linkedin
      RSS
      Twitter
      Youtube

      Advertisers

      Advertise with TechnologyAdvice on eWeek and our other IT-focused platforms.

      Advertise with Us

      Menu

      • About eWeek
      • Subscribe to our Newsletter
      • Latest News

      Our Brands

      • Privacy Policy
      • Terms
      • About
      • Contact
      • Advertise
      • Sitemap
      • California – Do Not Sell My Information

      Property of TechnologyAdvice.
      © 2022 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

      Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.

      ×