Future-Proof Telecom Modernization with SUSE Telco Cloud

“The future of the telecom infrastructure is fast moving and often difficult to predict,” said Keith Basil, SUSE Edge General Manager. “Telecom operators are looking for flexible solutions to modernize their existing networks, help rollout 5G networks quickly and adopt open frameworks, such as Open RAN, while navigating disaggregation of their networks.”

SUSE has built SUSE Telco Cloud, which has a flexible and adaptable infrastructure that future-proofs next-generation networks to support novel applications and use cases expected to arise from 5G, Multi-Access Edge Computing and general Edge computing.

What is SUSE Telco Cloud?

SUSE Telco Cloud is a telco-optimized edge computing platform that enables telecom companies to innovate and future-proof modernization of their networks. It achieves this with an open and flexible infrastructure that adapts easily to future needs, is optimized for telco-grade performance, and simplifies operations at scale.

Unlike current solutions in today’s market, SUSE Telco Cloud is built for the telco edge from the ground up. SUSE Telco Cloud enables faster rollouts with a highly scalable and programable management solution for telco-grade infrastructure. As the largest European player in the international open-source infrastructure software market, SUSE has developed this platform in close collaboration with the leading European telco operators such as Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telecom Italia, Telefonica, and others.

What are the key attributes and benefits of SUSE Telco Cloud?

Future-proof design minimizes risk and helps you thrive in a highly competitive environment

• Adaptable. SUSE Telco Cloud is a telco-optimized edge computing platform that packages the key infrastructure components – Linux, Kubernetes, security, and management tools – in a customizable form, so Telco operators can easily adopt it for a broad range of use cases across mobile and fixed networks.
• Modular. Designed to thrive in a multi-vendor environment, SUSE Telco Cloud includes modules that can be used together or individually to suit operators’ requirements. As an example, SUSE Telco Cloud is ideal for supporting and enabling future-looking cloud frameworks, such as LF Europe’s project Sylva.
• Support Existing Infrastructure. The operators can minimize risk by using their existing infrastructure, given SUSE Telco Cloud’s support of a wide range of hardware. Choice of OS (SLE Micro, SLE Server) and management tools (SUSE Manager, Rancher Prime) enables you to manage your existing infrastructure or adopt cloud-native methods. SUSE can meet you wherever you are in your transformation journey.

Telco-grade Performance

SUSE Telco Cloud delivers telco-grade performance attributes across the entire stack. Its Operating System layer provides low latency, real-time performance, and a fast data path. The Kubernetes layer ensures performance-sensitive applications run optimally, with full lifecycle container security delivered by SUSE Security. Additional functional attributes include:

• Built for Edge from the ground up, so customers can get optimal performance without the technical debt from legacy systems. SUSE Telco Cloud delivers lightweight Kubernetes distributions fit for resource-constrained or remote devices in strictly regulated environments. Immutable Linux is optimized to support containers and microservices, making it an ideal container and virtualization host at the edge. With security seamlessly integrated across the full stack – from applications to Kubernetes to operating systems, the data center level of security is made available to every device, wherever it is located.
• Optimized for Telco: SUSE’s Kubernetes and Linux are optimized for Telco functions – workloads can be scheduled based on underlying hardware functionality, direct access is allowed to network interfaces from Kubernetes Pods, a broad range of hardware enablement is made available, and telecom-specific protocols are supported.

Simplified Operations at Scale

SUSE Telco Cloud utilizes Rancher Prime, a market-leading Kubernetes management solution that is known for its simplicity, robustness, and outstanding user experience. SUSE has made key enhancements to Rancher Prime to support telecom use cases, with the following benefits:

• Faster rollouts. SUSE Telco Cloud utilizes GitOps to help users manage and consistently deploy thousands of Kubernetes clusters easily. With integration of CNCF’s Cluster API, operators can further speed the process with programmatic APIs that also offer a vendor-neutral integration point.
• Unified management. Manage Linux and Kubernetes from a single pane of glass. Save operating costs and administration overhead, while increasing the efficiency of lifecycle operations at scale.
• Zero-touch provisioning. Save costs with simple zero-touch onboarding of enterprise-grade edge hardware, eliminating the need for skilled technical staff onsite – connect power, network, and switch on device: the software does the rest.

Architecture

SUSE Telco Cloud is a massively scalable management solution for telco-grade cloud native bare-metal and private edge infra­structure. The architecture white paper “Future-Proof Telecom Modernization with an Open and Flexible Infrastructure Platform” guides you through the various design elements of SUSE Telco Cloud.

Our vision for the next generation of telecom infrastructure is that 5G and Edge computing will enable a new class of novel applications and use cases. SUSE Telco Cloud is purpose-built to enable telecom operators in transforming their networks by delivering flexible, adaptable infrastructure to support this new class of applications. SUSE helps solve the challenges of managing large numbers of diverse and varied clusters scattered across bare-metal infrastructure, public and private clouds. We do that while delivering the feature set and security posture you would expect from a vendor who has been delivering business-critical Linux solutions for more than 30 years.

Learn More

• Vision for Telecom at the Edge – White Paper
• SUSE Telecom Industry Solutions
• SUSE Edge Solutions