Lenovo Betting Big on Telecoms, to Develop Next Gen DCs for Carriers

Lenovo has launched an ambitious drive to develop powerful integrated solutions specifically for the telecommunications industry that provide the backbone for rich mobile content, 5G networks and IoT workloads.

The company will help clients in this sector build out next-generation data centers using Open Source technologies to address the growing demand for agile, cost-effective and flexible architectures.

As part of this initiative, announced here at the Red Hat Summit, the company unveiled plans for Open Platform@Lenovo (OP@L), which will be powered by Red Hat’s software stack for network function virtualization (NFV) and run on hardened, OCP-compliant infrastructure. NFV is an emerging telecommunications cloud architecture that leverages IT virtualization technologies adopted in mainstream data centers.

Lenovo Joins OPNFV as Platinum Member

To advance its plans for the telecommunications industry, Lenovo is joining the Open Platform for NFV (OPNFV) project as a Platinum member. OPNFV is a carrier-grade, integrated Open Source platform that is spawning advanced solutions and services using NFV. As a Platinum member, Lenovo will hold seats on the project’s Board and Technical Steering Committee.

Joining OPNFV elevates Lenovo’s growing presence in the Open Source community. The move underscores the company’s commitment to open standards across its data center solutions portfolio, which is a critical element in its drive to become the industry’s most trusted data center partner.

Lenovo’s offerings leverage Red Hat, Linux, OpenStack and OPNFV technologies, among others. The company already is a member of Open Compute Platform (OCP), and its work within OPNFV will build upon this foundation. Leveraging OP@L, Lenovo plans to advance open NFV architectures that can be customized and are highly secure to address the demanding needs of service providers.

As part of its efforts, Lenovo plans to work with Red Hat to develop a certified solution stack based on Red Hat’s NFV Platform, built on Red Hat OpenStack Platform. The integration of Red Hat NFV platform with Lenovo’s OP@L is the latest development in an expanding strategic collaboration between the companies, which was announced late last year.

Now, the two companies are collaborating to develop and deliver open and flexible solutions for service provider clients, as well as those in other industries. Lenovo already offers Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization and CloudForms software within its portfolio, and published reference architectures and deployment guides to enable faster design and delivery of solutions running Red Hat software on its infrastructure.

Brian Connors, VP, Next Generation IT & Business Development, Lenovo, explained, "Working within the framework of the OPNFV and OCP communities, Lenovo is aggressively investing in product enablement, system architecture, and research and development to create the best user experience. Together with Red Hat, a leading enterprise OpenStack provider, we’re helping reduce complexity and cost, while enabling even greater flexibility and value. Our engagement with the OPNFV project as a Platinum member will help accelerate development around NFV platforms for our shared service provider customers."

Philippe Davy, VP, Global Telco, Lenovo, said, “We understand how important Open standards and integrated operability will be for data centers to support 5G and IoT. Our Telco customers are on the cutting edge of this major industry disruption, and Lenovo is committed to delivering Open Platform@Lenovo and working with industry-leading partners to provide the foundation for next-generation data centers.”

Heather Kirksey, Director, OPNFV, explained, “I’m delighted to welcome Lenovo as the newest Platinum member of OPNFV. Joining the project is a true testament of Lenovo’s commitment to open standards and working collaboratively to develop a more robust NFV Infrastructure for the industry as a whole.”