Ericsson has extended its partnership with Red Hat to define and deliver “fully ready” open-source cloud infrastructure for next-generation LTE networks.
The pair will collaborate on their hardware and software roadmaps, and look to develop joint offerings for NFV infrastructure (NFVi), software defined networking (SDN) and software defined infrastructure (SDI).
Engineering teams from both will collaborate on upstream open source projects, including Open Platform for NFV (OPNFV), OpenStack, and OpenDaylight, to accelerate development of cloud-based telecoms infrastructure and solutions for 5G and the IoT.
The pair will also collaborate on container technologies in upstream activities run by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) and Open Container Initiative (OCI).
Ericsson is already using Red Hat’s Enterprise Linux and JBoss Middleware solutions in its portfolio of hardware, software and services for the telecoms sector.
It will expand its NFVi solution to include Red Hat’s OpenStack Platform, enabling its customers to implement “fully open and agile” infrastructure, which can be automatically deployed and managed.
They will also work to certify Ericsson’s own cloud platform and solutions, through reference architectures and lab trials. Ericsson will participate in Red Hat’s certification programme for OpenStack applications, and provide service-level agreements for any joint solutions the pair develop.
Paul Cormier, President of Products and Technologies at Red Hat, said: “Red Hat believes that the future of the communications industry will be defined by modern architectures and open source solutions spanning the hybrid cloud, containers, software-defined infrastructure and NFV.
“Ericsson shares that belief, and together we can bring the communications industry into the future with open, more secure and highly scalable solutions that enable customers to transform their businesses and deliver on the promise of IoT, 5G and more.”
Jason Hoffman, Head of Product Area Cloud Infrastructure at Ericsson, added: “The future is open and software defined… Our job is to enable our customers to grow faster in rapidly changing times. This alliance drives exactly this.”