BARCELONA, Spain – Microsoft’s telecom future has coalesced around its newly bolstered Azure for Operators Nexus platform that's designed to centralizes years of internal work bolstered by telecom-focused assets from AT&T. The public preview comes as rivals Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google Cloud continue to push similar efforts targeting the global telecom market.

The Microsoft Nexus platform sits under the broader Azure for Operators product the hyperscaler has been working on for a couple of years. It's also an updated iteration of the Azure Operator Distributed Services (AODS) platform Microsoft unveiled early last year.

Nexus provides operators with a pre-validated telecom platform that can run from the cloud to the edge and allows operators to select where to run their network functions in support of their 5G or 4G LTE network. The cloud is Microsoft’s Azure public cloud, with the edge being an operator’s on-premises location housing validated server hardware.

“The question of where do you want to place a network function is a decision that the operator can decide,” Yousef Khalidi, corporate VP of Azure for Operators at Microsoft, explained during a press conference at this week’s MWC Barcelona 2023 event.

Khalidi explained that the platform is purpose-built to run on Azure and host carrier-grade network functions. This includes mobile core and virtualized radio access network (RAN) network functions that can run in different on-premises environments and in Azure regions.

For on-premises, customers can purchase the hardware components from Microsoft partners, which include established hardware providers like Dell Technologies and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE). For the public region option, Microsoft handles all of the hardware in those centers.

For the overlaid network functions, Microsoft pointed to support for vendors like Ericsson, Nokia, HPE, Juniper Networks, and Mavenir, and system integrator support from partners like Accenture, Amdocs, NEC, and Tech Mahindra.

“It's not a DIY platform where you have to go pick up a hypervisor and maybe OpenStack and what have you and build it yourself,” Khalidi said. “Instead, it's a system from Microsoft with our own optimized distribution, container technologies, very similar to what we have done in the public cloud, but carrier-grade and built for network functions.”

Khalidi added that the platform also taps into Microsoft’s Azure Arc, Mariner Linux, and Hybrid AKS (Azure Kubernetes Service) to support the containerization and management of network functions.

Microsoft has been working on its Azure-based telecom plans for several years. That initial work was to link its private Azure Edge Zones service, its Azure IoT Central platform, virtualized evolved packet core (vEPC) software it gained by acquiring Affirmed Networks, and cloud-native network functions it brought onboard when it acquired Metaswitch Networks.

These efforts were further boosted when Microsoft struck a deal to acquire AT&T’s extensive Network Cloud technology business in mid-2021.

Igal Elbaz, SVP and network CTO at AT&T, explained at the MWC event that the carrier was currently running its entire 5G network on its initial virtualized cloud-based platform operating inside of its own data centers and on its own hardware, but plans to begin tapping into the new Microsoft iteration as it bolsters its 5G standalone (SA) service.

Elbaz also noted that the Azure Nexus platform brings in automation and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities that are becoming increasingly important to manage complex 5G network architectures.

“It's table stakes today,” Elbaz said of the need for automation. “It's critical to the success of building large-scale networks. We are continuing to introduce large-scale technologies into the network and when we design and we architect these we always think about how we're going to operate this. What's the level of automation, what's the level of possibly AI over time, we all have this vision of autonomous networks.”

Jason Zander, EVP for strategic missions and technologies at Microsoft, noted that the company’s AI work is also being influenced by its ChatGPT platform that it’s bringing “to the operator space.” He noted some of this is already happening with the GitHub Copilot service.

Google countered Microsoft’s move this week by updating its own telecom-focused products running on Google Cloud. This includes the capability for operators to now run their RAN functions as software on its Google Distributed Cloud Edge (GDC Edge) platform.

Google launched GDC Edge for general availability last April. Like Microsoft’s Nexus, GDC Edge is targeted at telecom providers wanting to run 5G core and RAN assets at the edge. It includes hardware and software components.

The new RAN support taps into Google’s also newly launched Telecom Data Fabric and Telecom Network Automation products that provide AI and automation to help facilitate virtualized RAN (vRAN) and open RAN deployments.

Google has touted Verizon and Bell Canada as two telecom operators using the GDC Edge platform. The Verizon deal was announced in 2021, where Google joined its cloud rivals Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure in supporting the carrier’s broad edge initiatives. Bell Canada added Google to its ongoing work with AWS.

Microsoft and Google’s moves both come on the heels of AWS updating its own 5G telecom plans.

The company last week unveiled its fully managed AWS Telco Network Builder service that is targeted at telecom operators or enterprises wanting to deploy private wireless networks with a minimum of network management requirements. T-Mobile US quickly jumped on that launch by becoming the first U.S.-based carrier to integrate the AWS service into its Advanced Network Solutions portfolio to power 5G edge compute services.

AWS has also been working with many carriers to host different levels of their 5G network deployments.

“Our goal is I want to make AWS the best place to run 5G networks,” Jan Hofmeyr, VP for AWS’ EC2 said during an interview at AWS’ recent re:Invent show. “That is the overarching objective. How can I make AWS, whether we are running it in the region, in a Local Zone, on an Outposts, on a Snow device, how do we make it the best place to run a 5G network, and then provide that infrastructure.”