A month after Open Source MANO (OSM) released its first generally available code, Rift.io today rolled out the first commercial software based on that code.

Rift.io was founded in 2014, and it has raised $18.5 million in funding. The startup has created a hyperscale engine, comprised of a set of APIs, and built network orchestration on top of that. Its customers include suppliers of virtual network functions (VNFs) as well as service providers.

Rift.io is also a founding member of the OSM project. It's contributed significant code, including network service orchestration, a graphical user interface, and automation tools.

The company quickly identified the need for a special kind of orchestration in service provider networks, which are more complicated than pure data center environments. What works in the data centers of the cloud titans can’t be shoe-horned into a service provider’s network.

Vincent Spinelli, SVP of marketing for Rift.io, says: “We have found that there’s a sentiment that was articulated by Telefónica at Mobile World Congress this year: Network virtualization is not cloud computing.”

Rift.io says the missing link is management and network orchestration (MANO), driven by a common information model.

Highlighted features of RIFT.ware 4.3.3, its latest commercial software released today, include:

  • An online VNF descriptor package generator to guide users though an automated VNF on-boarding process via a user interface for both RIFT.ware and OSM users.
  • A new auto-scaler framework to scale network services to meet unpredictable demand, even if the VNF itself does not support auto-scaling.
  • Enhanced multi-site support for network services that span across multiple data centers and clouds.
  • The ability to support multiple disks and disk formats including persistent storage.
  • New virtual infrastructure manager (VIM) support for Brocade Vyatta Network OS.
  • Support for OpenStack Mitaka release.
OSM Update

“We lead two of the three major module development groups [at OSM], and we’re the largest code contributor,” says George Hamilton VP of marketing at RIFT.io. The other two initial founding members are Telefónica and Canonical.

Since its inception in February, the OSM community has grown from 22 members to nearly 50.

OSM expects to release its 2.0 version of code in April 2017. And that will be production-ready code.

Just today, the other open source MANO group, Open-O, released its version 1.0 code, dubbed “Sun.”