SDxCentral
Join Log In
SD-WAN 2 5G 12 Edge 9 IoT 12 SDN 6 NFV 5 Containers 21 Cloud 14 Security 4 AI 6 Data Center 2 Storage 3 APM/NPM 1 Open Source

Log In to SDxCentral

Log in with your email? Forgot your password?
  • Newsletters
  • eBriefs
  • Podcasts
  • Webinars
  • Videos
  • Directory
  • White Papers
  • Resources
  • Use Cases
  • Support

Join SDxCentral and get information tailored to your particular interests everyday.

Join
Sponsored:
Dell EMC 3 Citrix Riverbed

Tier 1 Telcos Join the Open Compute Project

Tier 1 Telcos Join the Open Compute Project
Linda Hardesty
Linda HardestyJanuary 29, 2016
12:36 pm MT
Email LinkedIn Facebook Twitter Reddit Hacker News

The Open Compute Project (OCP) has created a new OCP Telco Project focused on data center technologies for telecommunications companies. AT&T, Deutsche Telekom, EE, SK Telecom, and Verizon are joining OCP to help drive the project.

The new project will be an open forum for telcos to communicate their technical requirements and bring OCP innovations to their data centers. They’re especially interested in the potential of open data center hardware.

Since it was founded five years ago, the nonprofit OCP has been most famously associated with Facebook, which set up OCP to redesign the data center with non-proprietary, energy-saving gear.

OCP says that momentum is continuing to build around open source contributions for networking, servers, storage, and Open Rack. For example, within the past two months the project has seen acceptance of new OCP switches from Mellanox, Accton, and Inventec, along with a network switch from Facebook called Wedge.

Nokia has announced it will incorporate OCP designs into its AirFrame Data Center Portfolio. In addition, the data center company Equinix and the network software provider Nexius have joined OCP.

AT&T & Verizon

AT&T has a goal to virtualize 75 percent of its network functions by 2020. As part of the OCP announcement, Andre Fuetsch, senior VP of architecture and design at AT&T, said, “We’re becoming a software and networking company. As a result, our central offices are going to look a lot more like data centers as we evolve our networking infrastructure.”

In case there was any doubt about AT&T’s motivations for virtualizing its networks, on this week’s fourth-quarter earnings call AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said, “We’re investing aggressively in the network architecture that is going to give us a competitive advantage in cost. We’re driving the industry to software-defined networks, and I have seen few opportunities over my career to drive down the cost to deliver service like this.”

Notice how he used the word “cost” a couple of times.

For its part, Verizon is actively engaging in open source groups in 2016. Earlier this month, Verizon announced it was joining the Open Network Operating System (ONOS) and focusing on the mobile central office reimagined as a data center (M-CORD).

Related Articles

ONF Launches Acronym-Heavy Open Convergence Initiative for 5G Deployments
ONF Launches Open Convergence Initiative for 5G Deployments
Linux Foundation Launches LF Edge Group With Five Projects
Linux Foundation Launches LF Edge Group With 5 Projects
AT&T Outlines 3 Pillars of Its 5G Strategy
AT&T Outlines 3 Pillars of Its 5G Strategy
North America to Dominate 5G Connections in 2019
North America to Dominate 5G Connections in 2019
DMeyer headshot
5G Competition Is Finally Here (Sort of)
AT&T’s Extensive SDN Plans Pave Way for 5G
AT&T’s Extensive SDN Plans Pave Way for 5G
SDxCentral Daily News

Join your Peers! Subscribe to SDxCentral's Newsletter

Article Tags:

Accton Technology Corporation AT&T Breaking News Deutsche Telekom Equinix Facebook Mellanox Technologies Nokia Networks Open Source Verizon White Box

Linda Hardesty

About Linda Hardesty

Linda Hardesty was the Executive Editor at SDxCentral where she oversaw the news coverage for a team of writers. She's been a trade journalist since the mid-1990s, alternately writing about telecommunications and energy. Prior to SDxCentral, she was editor of Energy Manager Today. Previously, she wrote for Cable World magazine and Communications Technology. Linda can be reached at lhardesty@sdxcentral.com.

Subscribe to Get the Daily News!

About SDxCentral

  • Newsletters
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Work With Us
  • Editorial Team
  • Careers
  • Legal
  • Support

Engage With us

This material may not be copied, reproduced, or modified in whole or in part for any purpose except with express written permission from an authorized representative of SDxCentral, LLC. In addition to such written permission to copy, reproduce, or modify this document in whole or part, an acknowledgement of the authors of the document and all applicable portions of the copyright notice must be clearly referenced. All Rights Reserved.

© 2012-2019 SDxCentral, LLC, All Rights Reserved. SDNCentral™, the SDNCentral logo, SDxCentral™, SDxCentral logo, SDxNews™, SDxTech™, SDx™, the SDx logo, and DemoFriday™ are trademarks of SDxCentral, LLC in the U.S. and other countries.

  • Terms of Service
  • Privacy