NetCracker Pitches NFV Migration Story

NEC-owned NetCracker has taken its latest step towards positioning itself as a key NFV partner for network operators by boosting its orchestration (MANO) capabilities and integrating a set of virtual network functions (VNFs) in its Release 10 product suite. (See NetCracker Releases NFV Migration Platform.)

Netcracker Technology Corp. is positioning release 10 as a way for operators to transition from their existing physical infrastructure, to a hybrid platform and then to fully virtualized networks and IT with the help of a single vendor and from a single interface. (See NetCracker Intros SDN/NFV Service & Network Orchestrator.)

According to Sanjay Mewada, NetCracker's VP of strategy, the platform embeds an orchestration layer -- what he calls the "service layer of the future" -- with NetCracker's OSS, so that it can manage both the virtualized network and legacy infrastructure in the "hybrid" phase as operators work their way to full virtualization. Analytics and biometrics are also applied across the board. (See OSS Is Key to SDN, NFV Strategies and How Virtualization Transforms Network Needs.)

"Release 10 offers a single unified platform that helps service providers move towards virtualization with very low risk in the transition from physical to hybrid to virtualization," Mewada says, adding that it ensures operators don't have to buy best-of-breed from other vendors, creating silos.

Of course, this approach also locks operators into NetCracker as a supplier, but Mewada ensures the platform will interoperate with other orchestration vendors. (See Telefónica: SDN Vendors Need to Interoperate .)

Want to know more about SDN and NFV? These will be just a few of the many topics covered at Light Reading's second Big Telecom Event on June 9-10 in Chicago. Get yourself registered today or get left behind!

The most important update on release 10 is the addition of new VNFs from NetCracker and its parent company, NEC USA Inc. . In the company's official announcement it states: "New to NetCracker 10 is a proven, field-deployable suite of virtual network functions, management and infrastructure solutions combining leading innovation from NetCracker and its parent company, NEC." Currently, though, NetCracker seems unable to specify exactly which virtual network functions (VNFs) are included.

Various piece parts of NetCracker 10 are commercially available now, with the complete set of capabilities and functions set to be available during the third quarter of this year.

— Sarah Thomas, , Editorial Operations Director, Light Reading