One of the biggest drivers of cloud computing is its simplicity. But let's face it, there's a world of difference between consuming apps in a public cloud and creating your own private telco cloud network, especially when that network needs to span the globe and serve millions of subscribers. For communications service providers (CSPs), creating a 5G-ready telco cloud network is an exciting challenge that brings together multiple vendors. Dell Technologies established the Open Telecommunications Ecosystem Lab (OTEL) to facilitate collaboration between vendors such as Nokia, Red Hat, and Intel for the integration, testing and validation of innovative cloud-native 5G solutions.

OTEL Drives Cloud Transformation

Recently, Dell and Nokia completed testing of Nokia's cloud platform solution on Dell PowerEdge servers powered by Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors running on Red Hat® OpenShift®. The testing, which was conducted at Dell's OTEL facility, marks the first time that Dell, Nokia and Red Hat have come together to validate their technology at OTEL. It follows Nokia's recent announcement that Dell Technologies would become a preferred infrastructure partner for Nokia's AirFrame servers, helping transition customers to Dell PowerEdge servers. Prior to that, in 2023, Nokia announced Red Hat OpenShift as its primary platform of choice for developing, testing and delivering its core network applications; a partnership that continues to make solid progress today. Building on previous certification work done for its Nokia Container Services (NCS) and CloudBand Infrastructure Software (CBIS) solutions at OTEL, Nokia now has a documented and certified reference architecture for Red Hat OpenShift, on Dell's PowerEdge bare metal servers.

The initial certification testing at OTEL was completed across several months and involved testing teams from Dell, Nokia and Red Hat. It represents a significant milestone: the first time that the joint Dell, Nokia and Red Hat solution has been validated on an Intel® Xeon®-based server, the Dell PowerEdge R660. As with many programs at OTEL, it was a valuable learning experience focused on identifying and resolving potential issues. A key goal of the testing is for future customers to reap the benefits of having a documented and validated reference architecture that can be used to accelerate the deployment of their own telco cloud-native solutions featuring elements from Nokia, Dell and Red Hat.

Continuous Testing Between Dell, Nokia and Red Hat Underway

Dell and Nokia will continuously run lifecycle certification and testing at OTEL. Currently, OTEL is running certification tests for NCS, CBIS and Nokia Cloud Platform (NCP) on Dell's latest-generation servers powered by Intel Xeon Scalable processors. Since completing its initial tests with Nokia, Dell's OTEL team has optimized the testing process and can now run certification tests on new Nokia releases in a matter of weeks. The goal is to achieve a certification cycle that matches the continuous testing and integration of other agile software development processes. Each time that Nokia releases new features in their products or refreshes the supported firmware matrix, OTEL plans to run a certification test to validate the platforms.

The value of OTEL for partners and CSPs isn't just about deploying proven solutions, but about proving that an open approach to a telco cloud is the right path for CSPs. OTEL is unique in the industry in that it provides a neutral testing facility where vendors can come together and leverage Dell's broad expertise in networking, storage, and compute to solve real-world challenges in their solutions before those solutions go out into the real world. We mirror a CSP's pre-production network for pre-Day 0 integration and validation activities.

As more CSPs turn to cloud-native solutions for their telco clouds, we expect OTEL to be at the center of joint innovation for years to come. If you're a partner or a CSP with a cloud-native solution, please join us on that journey -our doors are always open.