Nokia and Red Hat have announced a partnership aimed at delivering top-notch telecommunications solutions based on Red Hat’s infrastructure platforms and Nokia’s core network applications. This collaboration will allow Nokia to utilize Red Hat as its primary reference platform for developing, testing, and delivering its core network applications.
Under the agreement, Nokia and Red Hat will work together to support and enhance existing Nokia Container Services (NCS) and Nokia CloudBand Infrastructure Software (CBIS) customers. They will also develop a migration path for customers to transition to Red Hat’s platforms gradually. By leveraging Red Hat’s infrastructure platforms, Nokia aims to expedite the development and testing of its extensive core network portfolio.
While Nokia customers will continue to receive support directly from Nokia, Red Hat will provide ongoing development, services, and advanced care for Nokia NCS and CBIS. In line with evolving customer cloud strategies, Red Hat and Nokia will facilitate a smooth transition for customers who choose to migrate to Red Hat’s platforms. In addition, specific Nokia cloud infrastructure teams will move to Red Hat to ensure continued roadmap evolution, deployment services, and support on behalf of Nokia’s customers.
The partnership between Nokia and Red Hat comes at a crucial time when service providers are exploring various opportunities presented by 5G technology, such as core network advancements, open RAN, multi-access edge computing (MEC), and application modernization. To seize these opportunities, service providers require flexibility and options to deploy applications and services on infrastructure that suits their needs. Integration and interoperability within the ecosystem play a critical role in achieving this goal.
The key highlights of this collaboration are as follows:
- Nokia will adopt Red Hat as its primary cloud infrastructure platform for developing, testing, and delivering core network applications.
- Nokia will continue to support its core network applications on the Nokia NCS and CBIS platform offerings.
- Nokia’s core network applications will be tightly integrated with Red Hat OpenStack Platform and Red Hat OpenShift, which is a leading hybrid cloud application platform powered by Kubernetes.
- Nokia will certify its core network cloud-native network functions (CNFs) and virtualized network functions (VNFs) on Red Hat OpenShift and Red Hat OpenStack Platform, providing customer deployment options on bare-metal, virtualized, and public cloud telco infrastructure offerings, including those from major providers like Amazon Web Services, Google, and Microsoft.
Customers of Nokia’s cloud infrastructure platform will have access to Red Hat’s open source ecosystem, benefiting from its extensive service and support. They will also gain access to Red Hat’s transformative 4G and 5G technologies and use cases. By combining Nokia’s expertise in 5G with Red Hat’s open hybrid cloud vision, customers can transform their core network infrastructure and applications to become fully cloud-native and future-ready, with ongoing service and support from Red Hat as the industry continues to push toward the edge.
Here’s what some of the key individuals involved in the partnership had to say:
Fran Heeran, Senior Vice President & General Manager of Core Networks, Cloud and Network Services, Nokia, expressed excitement about the agreement, stating, “This agreement further demonstrates Nokia Cloud and Network Services’ continued momentum to rebalance its portfolio. It will allow us to provide customers with our best-in-class core network applications, together with best-in-class cloud infrastructure from Red Hat, a global leader in open source infrastructure technology.”
Darrell Jordan-Smith, Senior Vice President, Telecommunications, Media and Entertainment & Edge, Red Hat, emphasized Red Hat’s recognition of the transformative impact of 5G. He stated, “5G is revolutionizing how businesses and people interact with the development of next-generation applications, services, and use cases.” He further explained that through the partnership with Nokia, Red Hat is offering its multicloud, cloud.
