HPE honing focus on telcos with cloud-native solutions
Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) announced a new portfolio of as-a-service offerings to help telecommunications companies build and deploy open 5G networks, the firm said in a release.
The company said that the new portfolio will accelerate telcos’ path to revenue growth with 5G and enable them to rapidly deploy 5G services.
HPE also noted that its open strategy and commitment to the 5G market aligns with the interests of the Administration and the Federal Communications Commission, who are encouraging US companies to demonstrate leadership in 5G innovation.
The portfolio includes a new HPE 5G Core Stack. This open, cloud-native software stack provides telco customers with the core network capabilities required to rapidly deliver new 5G services to subscribers and enterprise customers, HPE said
At the telco edge, HPE announced a general purpose platform enabling Virtual Radio Access Networks (vRAN) and Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC).
The new offering also includes Aruba Central services, including Air Pass Wi‑Fi/5G roaming and Air Slice SLA management. These services help telcos extend the 5G footprint to the enterprise edge by allowing seamless access to Wi-Fi connected users and IoT devices.
“Openness is essential to the evolutionary nature of 5G and with HPE 5G Core Stack telcos can reduce operational costs, deploy features faster and keep themselves open to multiple networks and technologies while avoiding being locked-in to a single vendor approach,” said Phil Mottram, vice president and general manager of the Communications and Media Solutions business unit at HPE. “HPE has one of the broadest 5G portfolios in the market and is uniquely positioned to help telcos build an open multi-vendor 5G core, optimize the edge with vRAN, and deliver connectivity and new compute services to the enterprise using MEC and Wi-Fi 6.”
HPE added that its open 5G portfolio offers several new applications across a range of industries, including automotive, education, financial services, government, manufacturing and utilities.
These 5G-ready technologies are available on a pay-as-you-go or subscription basis via HPE GreenLake. With HPE GreenLake, telcos can grow and expand their network as new users come online and pay monthly based on measured utilization. Through HPE GreenLake, the 5G infrastructure can be operated on behalf of the customer to free up resources to focus on innovation at the network and enterprise edge, the company said.
HPE 5G Core Stack integrates with previous generation networks and is future-ready for upcoming advancements in 5G standards. The HPE 5G Core Stack will be available as an integrated software and hardware platform, based on validated HPE Telco core and edge blueprints.
“5G has the potential to revolutionize our digital lives and the combination of 5G and Wi-Fi 6 presents telcos with an unlimited array of possibilities for offering subscribers new and compelling services that can transform the user experience,” said Keerti Melkote, president of Intelligent Edge at HPE and founder of Aruba Networks.
The full HPE 5G Core Stack will be available globally in the second half of 2020 through HPE GreenLake as-a-service.
HPE’s telco optimized edge and core blueprints, and the telco edge optimized platform HPE Edgeline EL8000 are already available, directly or through HPE GreenLake, while Aruba Air Pass and Aruba Air Slice are already generally available.
