Open source firm SUSE has updated its telecom cloud solution to offer an AI-native transformation suite for communication service providers (CSPs).

Following its release in January of this year as SUSE Edge for Telco, the newly-named SUSE Telco Cloud is described as a carrier-grade, cloud-native foundation with solutions spanning the core network, radio access network (RAN), and edge infrastructure.

With version 3.4 of the release, SUSE touted a fast data path, low latency, deterministic processing, and precision timing, with a power-efficient setup using dynamic scaling to optimize consumption and leverage ARM64-based systems.

The cloud solution was also claimed to offer a fully automated deployment across the telecom stack, including OS and Kubernetes and network functions with complete dual-stack support to run IPv4 and IPv6 side-by-side across management, control plane, and worker nodes.

The release schedule for SUSE Telco Cloud is coordinated with the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), which oversees Kubernetes and related projects, and also Rancher Prime, SUSE’s enterprise container management platform.

SUSE’s telco cloud history

Building on its Linux-based enterprise operating systems for telecom vendors such as Ericsson, SUSE launched the Adaptive Telco Infrastructure Platform (ATIP) in late 2020 following its acquisition of Kubernetes firm Rancher Labs in the same year.

Offered as a modular alternative to Red Hat OpenShift and VMware Tanzu, ATIP was developed in collaboration with operators such as Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telefónica, and Telecom Italia. As of last year, the solution was aligned with Project Sylva, an open-source initiative launched by Linux Foundation Europe in 2022 that develops a cloud software framework for telecommunications and edge computing.

This January saw ATIP rebranded to SUSE Edge for Telco, aligning with the SUSE Edge platform which manages the full lifecycle of edge devices at scale.

SUSE Telco Cloud will continue following the Project Sylva standard while steering towards a next-gen tech pivot, with SUSE emphasizing support for 5G core and Open RAN deployments at scale, alongside generative and predictive AI applications.