How Amartus is Empowering NaaS Providers with Open Standards

Driving innovation on Open Standard B2B2X Network API automation based on MEF LSO and TM Forum Open API standards, Amartus is working with leading network providers to automate their entire NaaS supply chain.

Enterprise networks are built from thousands of possible service components (SKUs) that span multiple provider networks (last-mile, transit, edge) and vendor solutions (SD-WAN / SASE), and are wrapped with managed and professional services (design consultancy, service desks etc.).

Unlike Cloud or Software as a Service, which are deployed and operated by individual providers, NaaS requires Network Providers to automate deployment and operation of services across their ecosystem of suppliers to deliver a seamless self-service experience for customers.

As a result, NaaS providers face fundamental decisions regarding their approach to NaaS supply chain automation. Top of mind are the ability to:

Quickly adapt NaaS offerings to address emerging market needs
Offer intuitive self-service (APIs & portals)
Streamline inter-operability with suppliers (internal & external)
Automate the full Day 0-2 life-cycle with suppliers to meet customer expectations
None of which are trivial when there are hundreds of suppliers and thousands of components.

Amartus believes a Decentralized, Open Standards-based architecture is key for success:

Decentralized because it offers NaaS providers freedom to on-board and inter-operate directly (or indirectly) with suppliers without lock-in to a proprietary centralized marketplace
Open Standards because it allows them to standardize inter-operability with all suppliers and customers and avoid the pitfalls of proprietary per supplier and customer integrations
Full-life Day 0-2 coverage because it’s what Enterprise Customers expect

“We built our nBrace™ Open Standards B2B2X Network Automation suite to support these fundamentals,” said Michael Kearns, Co-founder & Chief Strategy Officer at Amartus. “While nBrace™ offers the software components each stakeholder needs to participate in Open Standard NaaS supply chains, it is also interoperable with any providers who implement by other means.”

nBrace™ is in production with leading network providers from across the globe and is the most mature and robust solution on the market today.

While nBrace™ ‘s initial focus was offering standards APIs / processes for negotiation and ordering of products and services between Buyers and Sellers, it has been extended to support operational features including standardized inter-op APIs / processes for Performance Monitoring, Trouble Ticketing & Service Inventory. Key features required for NaaS.

“A key goal of our Corporate strategy is to offer Unified Self-Service APIs and portals based on MEF LSO industry standards to our Enterprise and Wholesale customers,” said David Villegas, Director of Digital Architecture at SES. “We adopted nBrace™ as the solution to offer these capabilities. We started with Performance Monitoring & Streaming, then added business API support, and very soon will go live with MEF’s LSO Trouble Ticketing API, which is integrated with our ServiceNow back-office system.”

In addition, recognition that NaaS supply chains involve providers ranging from large to small, Amartus has introduced capabilities to address their unique needs, for instance:

For providers with TM Forum Open API back-office BSS / OSS systems, Amartus introduced ways to accelerate integration of nBrace™ to expose MEF LSO APIs
For ServiceNow™, whom Amartus is their official partner for MEF LSO APIs, Amartus recently added MEF LSO Trouble Ticketing API support for ServiceNow using nBrace™
For smaller providers who lack back-office systems or a budget to implement a full BSS / OSS integrated solution, Amartus introduced rapid, cost-effective solutions for deploying MEF LSO APIs / processes based on standalone nBrace Buyer & Seller portal solutions allowing them to participate in NaaS supply chains with a low barrier to entry.

Finally, to offer intuitive self-service (APIs & portals) for customers and at the same time isolate them from the complexities of the down-stream supply chain, Amartus has extended the product / service life-cycle supported by nBrace™ to include advanced intent-based, AI-assisted design features. Customers can express their needs in a language they understand and nBrace™ can match their intent to the 1000s of possible supplier components that can fulfill their needs.

Founded in 2003, Amartus is a global provider of Network Service & NaaS Automation software solutions and expert services. Amartus’ nBrace™ Open Standards B2B2X Network Automation software has been adopted by more than 25 Global Tier 1-3 providers (spanning Europe, North America, LATAM & APAC) to enable Buying, Selling & Operation of network services with customers & suppliers.

Amartus is a leading authority on MEF LSO & TM Forum standards for network automation and inter-op between providers having led and contributed to the development of more than 50 standards in these areas. nBrace™ supports the latest MEF LSO & TM Forum Open API standards for inter-op between Buyers and Sellers in network service supply chains.