Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s (HPE) pending acquisition of Juniper Networks is set to bolster their collective telecom ambitions, but that’s not stopping each vendor from separately adding to their respective offerings to gain new customers. The most recent additions revolve around automation and virtualized radio access network (vRAN) technologies.

HPE’s automation play is through its new Telco Core Automation service, which is designed to help telecom operators automate end-to-end processes. It provides prebuilt orchestration and assurance to manage network functions (NFs), and combines intent based networking  automation and artificial intelligence (AI)-based assurance to standardize the lifecycle management of core network functions.

Andrew Border, head of product for service provider OSS and public 5G solutions at HPE, explained in a blog post on the new service that operators are increasingly challenged to manage network functions running in different cloud environments.

“Each technology and vendor (Kubernetes, OpenStack, OpenShift, EKS, AKS and others) has its own approach to managing workloads,” Border wrote. “Even different release versions of the same NF or underlaying cloud introduce more complexity. And managing these heterogenous environments in a siloed, manual way increases the risk of error.”

HPE: Removing complexity

Border added that the HPE platform “removes the complexity of managing diverse technologies and vendor stacks with a single pane of glass that enables you to deploy, reconfigure or move any NF with as few as two clicks. It helps service providers drive greater efficiencies for any leading 4G/5G mobile core network function by delivering closed-loop automation and combined service monitoring and configuration capabilities with incidents reduction, anomalies prediction and new services time-to-market reduction.”

The automation package joins HPE’s Telco RAN Automation platform that it unveiled nearly two years ago. That platform orchestrates the lifecycle of virtual distributed units (vDUs) and virtual centralized units (vCUs) to allow operators to dynamically manage spectrum frequencies and radio resources across their cellular deployments. This includes cross-vendor support for operators that are tapping into multiple platforms to power their 5G networks.

The latest HPE automation capabilities are similar to those unveiled by Dell Technologies earlier this week. That move was through Dell’s Telecom Infrastructure Automation Suite software that automates the deployment and management of multivendor deployments. It uses declarative automation to simplify server configurations and software deployment, and open APIs and Dell services to automate integration with embedded operating support and business support systems (OSS/BSS).

Juniper: Removing physical routers

Juniper is also keeping its telecom efforts fresh by working with Samsung Electronics and Wind River on a virtual cell site router (vCSR). The package uses Juniper’s cloud-native router with Samsung’s vDU running on Wind River’s Studio Cloud platform.

The combination allows operators to run multiple network elements on a single vRAN server, which eliminates the need for the physical router hardware at a cell site. It also provides operators with a pretested vCSR package that eliminates some of the guesswork for integrating disparate virtual router components.

HPE + Juniper = telecom opportunities

Both of these efforts boost what is expected to be an enhanced telecom portfolio should HPE successfully complete its pending $14 billion acquisition of Juniper.

Both have been players in the growing 5G ecosystem: Juniper with its networking and open RAN support systems and HPE with its automation and private 5G moves.

Juniper CEO Rami Rahim touted the combination of 5G-related assets during the announcement press conference, stating it “gives us way more of the building blocks necessary to put together a comprehensive 5G and O-RAN solution for our customers.”

“Today, one of the challenges with 5G O-RAN is the ability to piece together these components into a seamless, fully integrated solution for our customers,” Rahim added. “I think, post-close, we will have a much better opportunity to provide these comprehensive solutions to capture that opportunity in the market.”

HPE CEO Antonio Neri, thankfully, agreed.

“Rami will get access to more capabilities than the ones that he traditionally has in the core, the metro or the edge,” Neri said. “This is a massive opportunity that will reignite and grow their service provider business with more assets than ever before.”

Ron Westfall, research director at the Futurum Group, noted in a recent podcast that the combined assets will help both players, especially as they look to battle rivals.

“Juniper definitely has an established, proven telecom business. In fact, it could be Juniper helping HPE pulling through more business on the telecom side because of these existing relationships,” Westfall said, later adding, “I think the combination with HPE can help Juniper’s telecom fortunes. And the fact is when you’re looking at the overall 5G space, I think there are simply new opportunities that will give the new HPE-Juniper opportunities that aren’t going to be unique to Cisco or, say, players like Dell and Lenovo, that is looking at O-RAN specifically.”

Westfall noted Juniper’s progress with its open RAN intelligent controller (RIC), which operates in the middle of an open RAN deployment as a kind of linkage to the wider network. It allows operators to deploy so-called xApps that then allow operators to design and control RAN functions, providing administrative RAN sovereignty over functions that are typically implemented as proprietary features on base stations.

“I think [this] is one area where they can make competitive inroads and that Cisco doesn’t have a dominating market position in at all at this juncture,” Westfall said of Juniper’s open RAN position. “And specifically, Juniper’s RAN intelligent controller … brings that intelligence and programmability to the RAN by enabling third-party applications. This is going to be important [to] improve service experience, reduce costs and deliver new business models.”

HPE can also further this progress by tapping into its wider influence.

“I think HPE can help through the channels to support the third-party applications, more influence with the developers and so forth to help drive more open RAN innovation, let alone overall open 5G innovation,” Westfall added.

This open RAN innovation is set to accelerate this year as more operators throw their financial weight behind the technology. The most recent example is AT&T’s announcement late last year that it plans to spend up to $14 billion over the next several years to roll out open RAN across its network.

“Those types of scenarios, I think, both HPE and Juniper can play a more key role in,” Westfall said. “Also, I think that the fact that HPE offers RAN automation software can definitely enhance the new combined portfolio. So HPE and Juniper in this case are actually complementing each other as they noted for what is a key motivation for this deal.”