The Linux Foundation’s recently launched Open Platform for NFV Project expanded its membership role as well as announced a director to head up the OPNFV plans to provide a “carrier-grade, integrated, open source reference platform intended to accelerate the introduction of new products and services” tied to network function virtualization.
OPNFV’s new members include Enea, Korea Telecom, SK Telecom, Spirent and Xilinx, pushing the organization’s total member count to 49. OPNFV launched last September with a list of companies participating in the NFV and software-defined networking space, including “Platinum” members AT&T, Brocade, China Mobile, Cisco, Dell, Ericsson, Hewlett-Packard, Huawei, IBM, Intel, Juniper Networks, NEC, Nokia Networks, NTT DoCoMo, Red Hat, Telecom Italia and Vodafone. “Silver-level” founding members include 6Wind, Alcatel-Lucent, ARM, CableLabs, Cavium, CenturyLink, Ciena, ClearPath, ConteXtream, Coriant, Cyan, Dorado Software, Ixia, Metaswitch Networks, Mirantis, Orange, Sandvine, Sprint and Wind River.
Linux explained that due to the multiple open-source NFV initiatives already in place, the OPNFV will look to work with “upstream projects to coordinate continuous integration and testing while filling development gaps.” The project is set to initially work on building NFV infrastructure and virtualized infrastructure management tapping into existing open-source components.
OPNFV director named
In addition to the expanded membership, OPNFV named Heather Kirksey as director to work with members to further the goals of the organization.
Kirksey’s previous experience was at open-source organizations, including MongoDB, as well as with established telecom players like Alcatel-Lucent and the Broadband Forum.
“It’s an exciting time to be designing network-based services, but these services have added layers of complexity to deployment,” Kirksey noted in her first statement as director at OPNFV. “I’ve watched the proliferation of custom-built network elements, the explosion of devices, a surge in applications with a range of needs, the evolution of wireless and wired technology, and more. Not only is this a [capital expense] nightmare, but managing and provisioning services and attempting to ensure applications get the network resources they need is an operational migraine. As I’ve watched NFV get its legs under it conceptually, I’ve been incredibly interested in its ability to attack that ever-burgeoning complexity. Software continues to eat the world, and as it comes for the network, an incredible transformation is underway – one that will allow the network to be more agile and more responsive to the demands of applications.”
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