Part 4 of 8:pre-integrated solutions right out of the gate is the way to go.
I’m not just trying to make you smile here…(did I?!) … I’m trying to make you think back to that feeling of wanting to step out of line, wanting to go it your own, but knowing that Mrs. Whatsherface would be very disappointed in you if you did, SIGH.
It’s a bit like that in the wild, wide world of 5G NFV. Successful telco operators have always put predictability, reliability and service excellence first. They still have to.
What Tier 1 Telecom Operators Say About 5G NFV
In their fourth NFV ebook “Consider a pre-integrated solution” Ericsson recounts how at first, Telco Tier 1 operators went about picking whichever NFV strategies and components they felt were best-of-breed….. and how that completely failed, due to the incredible complexity of NFV.
It turns out that up-front collaboration between operators on cross-compatible components was necessary (I hate realising afterward that’s I’ve learned the hard way…).
So now of course, Ericsson is recommending that the rest of us start with pre-integrated solutions right out of the gate (“Yes, Mrs. Whatsherface”). Ebook #4 has some good deployment model descriptions and reminds us that going pre-integrated, while it does limit your choices somewhat, does not mean vendor, hardware or software stack lock-in.
You are going to have to pay for it of course, and it is going to seem expensive. Remember that DIY in this case is likely to lead to a very expensive fail and cost twice as much to do it right the second time.
What should your requirements be for pre-integrated solutions? Ericsson’s suggestions are a good place to start:
- Open-source technologies
- Open-source presence in NFV
- Based on ETSI standards
- Automated for operational efficiency
- Redundancy
- System-tested
- Scalable
- Future-proof (Umm, is anything truly? But yes, has to be attempted)
- Includes edge computing and multi-cloud capabilities
There’s a lot of heavy persuasion going on in this ebook, to the point, where you get the feeling that the DIY experience must have been *really* painful.
But I have to agree with most of Ericsson’s reasons-why for going pre-integrated, because if everyone did go this way, it would absolutely add up to us end-customers getting 5G sooner, and with a better experience.
As I mentioned earlier, there’s a complete series of eight ebooks from Ericsson, which break the transition down step-by-step. I recommend you grab all eight of them and consume them at your own pace, in bite-sized chunks to avoid choking – this is a long-term strategic play, you’ll need your strength. Grab your copy of all eight free NFV eBooks from Ericsson here => ericsson.com/nfv
That’s it for part four in this eight-part series, thanks for reading, and I’ll see you in part five.