VMware already has its VMware Integrated OpenStack (VIO) distribution, but now it’s created a telco-oriented version of VIO: its new VIO OpenStack-Carrier Edition.

“We are adding telco specific features,” said Gabriele Di Piazza, VP of telco NFV at VMware. “It’s for telcos that like VMware infrastructure but are requesting an OpenStack interface. We can take to market the best of both worlds: the richness of VMware NFV infrastructure, together with the openness of standardized OpenStack interfaces facing the northbound components in the network.”

The VIO OpenStack-Carrier Edition is based on the latest OpenStack release Ocata. The software acts as a virtual infrastructure manager (VIM) in VMware’s latest version of its NFV platform.

Di Piazza wanted to stress, “We’re absolutely not abandoning the previous VIM. VIO is the VIM layer for those customers that want OpenStack. We’re just offering customers choice.”

The carrier-specific features include advanced multitenancy, scalability for traffic in real time, and cloud resource reservation. It’s a more enhanced version of VIO.

VMware claims it now has more than 90 network functions virtualization (NFV) deployments by more than 50 service providers.

The company also recently announced its version 4, Ocata-based edition of VIO for data centers. It will be available in November. Earlier editions were free for vSphere customers. But VMware is retiring the free SKU and moving to a paid-for SKU. The carrier edition will have some additional licensing.

VMware + OpenStack

At the OpenStack Summit in Boston earlier this year, there was a lot of interest in VMware’s VIO. Some people seemed kind of surprised that VMware offered an OpenStack distribution given the fact that the open source cloud platform basically competes with some of VMware’s core products.

“We’re not new to OpenStack,” said Di Piazza. “But it’s a fair statement that people weren’t that familiar with VIO. We’ve worked very hard in this last nine to 12 months to make sure VIO is the best platform for telecom implementations. We’ve been working directly with customers and accounts on the roadmap.”