Open Source MANO issued its first community software release today, indicating the fast pace at which the group is working to develop a common open source approach to network orchestration and management in the virtualization era. (See Open Source MANO Issues First Release.)

Cleverly called OSM Release ONE, the initial software release is coming out less than six months after the Open Source MANO Community (OSM) 's first meeting, and is intended to be quickly and easily installed in operator labs, according to the community's press release. OSM was launched with software code largely provided by Telefonica, one of its founding operator companies.

"Release ONE substantially enhances interoperability with other components (VNFs, VIMs, SDN controllers) and creates a plugin framework to make platform maintenance and extensions significantly easier to provide and support," according to the release.

Heavy Reading Senior Analyst James Crawshaw notes the rapid development of this first software release is an indication that "open source is living up to its reputation for fast development, even under the auspices of a traditional standards organization that has traditionally moved more cautiously," namely European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) , under whose auspices OSM is operating. Ultimately the OSM work will be fed into the ETSI NFV ISG.

He notes the new release is impressive in substance as well.

"My understanding is that Release One is substantially different to the code that Telefonica originally contributed from its OpenMANO initiative and the scope extends beyond the original ETSI NFV MANO spec to include more of an end-to-end service orchestration," Crawshaw says.

The list of technical features which are part of this initial release include native support for multiple virtual infrastructure managers (VIMs) including OpenStack, OpenVIM and VMware Inc. (NYSE: VMW), which is a new member of OSM. There is support for OpenDaylight and Floodlight OpenFlow-based controllers, but also a plugin model to facilitate addition of future VIMs and SDN controllers, for added flexibility.

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OSM Release ONE includes multi-site network services, an operator requirement and a one-step installer which uses containers and Juju modeling for simpler testing and deployment of OSN in customized ways. It allows Day-Zero virtual network function configuration through extended VNFs and network service models.

"The addition of VMware support should reassure those operators unsure of the maturity of the open source VIMs, while the addition of a plug-in module to easily add SDN controllers should be welcomed by developers," Crawshaw noted.

According to OSM's press release, this initial set of software is intended to improve things for administrators and developers, and that is one of the keys of the open source processes -- to create a MANO to which developers can work.

As OSM continues its work, so does the other open source effort, OPEN-Orchestrator Project (OPEN-O) , while AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T)'s ECOMP platform continues the process of becoming open source.

"There are rival MANO offerings from AT&T and the Linux Foundation (OPEN-O) so it will be interesting to see, as further details are made public, how these solutions differ and which will garner the most operator and vendor support," Crawshaw says.

— Carol Wilson, Editor-at-Large, Light Reading