Red Hat Partners with NEC for Network Functions Virtualization Features
By David Ramel
Red Hat Inc. said it's working with NEC Corp. on network functions virtualization (NFV) features for its OpenStack Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) solution with the goal of developing a carrier-grade service for communication service providers (CSP).
This is but one of a string of recent partnerhips Red Hat has made as it positions its OpenStack cloud platform to be a leading contender in the new age of software-defined networking and network functions virtualization.
NFV, along with software-defined networking (SDN), is part of a young movement to revamp network architecture with new techniques to virtualize functionality such as load balancers or other performance or security tools.
Red Hat has partnered with NEC on several other projects and even teamed up with Huawei in December for another NFV collaboration.
NEC will integrate its NFV expertise into OpenStack "to deliver mobile packet core virtualization, also known as virtualized Evolved Packet Core, or vEPC, as well as virtual Customer Premises Equipment (vCPE)," Red Hat said in a statement. It said the companies will continue the collaboration and contribute to open source communities such as the OpenStack project itself and the Open Platform for NFV (OPNFV).
"NEC has commercially delivered SDN/NFV solutions, including vEPC and vCPE, and will continue driving innovation with broader virtualized network functions that promote greater agility, stability and security of services as well as new revenue creation while enabling a wide range of customers to significantly reduce the total cost of ownership," comany exec Atsuo Kawamura said in a statement.
David Ramel is an editor and writer for Converge360.