Dell Technologies launched a simplified way for operators to deploy its Telecom Multicloud Foundation platform, tapping into work with long-time partner Wind River for a validated and integrated hardware and software package.

Dell Telecom Infrastructure Blocks are a cloud-native package of services designed to meet specific telecom workloads and use cases. They traverse from the network core out to the open radio access network (RAN) distributed and centralized units (DU/CU).

It uses Wind River’s Studio technology to provide the container-as-a-service layer for a distributed cloud and the tools to automate and manage day-two operations at scale. Wind River Studio is the vendor’s cloud-native 5G edge network middleware based on Kubernetes and containers.

Andrew Vaz, VP of product management for Dell’s Telecom Systems Business, during a press briefing described the new product as an instantiation of the vendor’s previously introduced Telecom multicloud Foundation platform that launched at this year’s MWC Barcelona 2022 event.

That platform includes Dell hardware and its Bare Metal Orchestrator software, including modules for network deployment and lifecycle management that deliver pre-integrated telco cloud software from Red Hat, VMware, and Wind River.

Vaz at the time said, “the goal here is to implement this more modern network and cloud-native infrastructure at speed, make it easier to consume, make it easier to digest, and easier to deploy. … If the foundation of the house, if you will, is not strong, not verified, integrated, or secure, it’s very hard to get the upper layers of the stack to work, especially in a repeatable manner.”

Blocking telecom complexity

Vaz said the Infrastructure Blocks product targets the complexity telecom operators are facing when it comes to dealing with the diverse cloud-native ecosystem.

“Instead of dealing with one vendor, now you're potentially dealing with multiple vendors up and down the solution stack,” Vaz said. “How do you work with them? How do you get them to work with each other? How do you get an integrated and tested solution while maintaining your own SLAs as an operator to your end customers? All of these are super critical. And then once this is up and running, how do I automate and manage this? The pure number of nodes that are being managed now, it's not possible to do it manually. It has to be automated, managed, and really that full lifecycle management has to be thought through.”

Dell’s Infrastructure Blocks comes with a curated set of components that operators can use directly or customize to suit their workload needs.

“Think about this almost as a horizontal foundation that a telecom operator can count on to go deliver their next set of solution offerings,” he added.

Dell is handling support for the platform, including all work through the Wind River Studio component. It’s scheduled for global availability beginning November 9.

The new platform launch furthers Dell’s push into the wealthy telecom market. Jeff Clarke, vice chairman and co-COO, last year said the vendor is particularly interested in the telco space due to a confluence of trends that are pulling Dell further into the arena.

“What’s happening is the fundamental change in the architecture. Roughly 70% of the spend is on the radio, and the radio side is being disaggregated and opened up. That’s the opportunity for us,” Clarke said, adding telco infrastructure is opening up, embracing modular hardware, virtualization, containerization, and is on a path to be largely housed in the cloud.

“As it becomes more cloud-like, we now talk about software and it begins now to be very ripe for the opportunity here,” he said.

Dell certification program

Dell also launched a self-certification program to bolster software integration on Dell hardware. The program provides a validation process running on Dell hardware and operating systems using the Dell Open Telecom Ecosystem Lab.

Vaz explained the “low-touch” portal allows partners to manage what they are testing, which environments they want to test for, and which test lines they want to use. This feature taps into Dell’s Solution Integration Platform that can automatically run a series of tests for the partner and provide data that Dell and the partner can study.

The initial batch of certified software vendors include Intel, Litmus, and Versa Networks, which ran its secure access service edge (SASE) software through the program.

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