Nokia and Pure Storage have partnered on the telecom vendor’s telco cloud, as powered by Red Hat OpenShift. The move comes as part of a larger play by Nokia to reduce cost, power consumption, and operational overhead across deployments at scale.

Pure Storage provides the data infrastructure layer of Nokia’s cloud platform, which specializes in cloud-native network functions (CNFs). Deployments of the Red Hat platform to date have underpinned Nokia network efforts for the likes of Telia Denmark owner Norlys, Bell Canada, and Vodafone. The solution is also used by Nokia rival Ericsson for various deployments, as well as Telefónica, and T-Mobile.

Beginning with general availability in April, Nokia’s telco cloud will be underpinned by Flash Array, Pure Storage’s unified block, file, and storage platform, promising a standardized, lifecycle-managed platform for edge and cloud deployments instead of more bespoke infrastructure.

Both firms touted a shared vision on cloud-native networks with the development. Dave Bolan, research director for Dell’Oro Group, recently told SDxCentral that mobile network operators (MNOs) expect telco clouds to be cloud native and eventually AI native, with a use case going beyond 5G modernization.

“Cloud-native telco clouds could be 4G or 5G Core. Some MNOs may have upgraded their 4G Core to cloud-native which would provide flexibility and a unified management system for a 4G and 5G Core.

“What MNOs want is a high level of network autonomous operation approaching Level 3 or Level 4 autonomy, making the network more efficient, more resilient, and more autonomous, enabling more functionality for monetization while lowering the cost of operation,” said Bolan.

On the announcement Maciej Kranz, Enterprise GM, Pure Storage, said the firm “will provide the trusted, high-performance data platform underlying Nokia’s next-generation container cloud CNFs and applications, delivering the scale, efficiency, and simplicity service providers demand."

"Nokia selected Pure Storage as the storage solution for our Red Hat OpenShift platform reference architecture due to their industry-leading all-flash technology that delivers the unparalleled speed, scalability, and sustainability critical for today's demanding telecom applications, including Nokia CNFs, applications, and AI workloads. Its inherent efficiency not only boosts performance but also significantly reduces energy consumption," added Marcelo Cheminn Madruga, head of portfolio technology and architecture, Nokia Mobile Infrastructure Cloud and Network Services.