Dell Technologies Open Telecom Ecosystem Lab (or OTEL as we like to call it) is leading the open telecom ecosystem on its transformation journey. Through capabilities like self and joint certification, we provide agile testing of discrete software solutions to ensure stability and baseline performance. And our solution validation capability provides comprehensive, end-to-end validation, life-cycle management and enhanced service support.
DISH Wireless has been leveraging OTEL in Round Rock, Texas, working with Dell engineers to test and support its Open RAN solutions, making sure they are production ready. Marc Rouanne, Executive Vice President and Chief Network Officer, and Sidd Chenumolu, Vice President, Technology Development for DISH Wireless share this story with Andrew Vaz, Vice President, Telecom System Business Product Management at Dell Technologies.
OTEL is continuing to expand its capabilities, starting with enhancing our Telecom Partner Self-Certification capabilities. As we have shared previously, Self-Certification is an automated, simple and free process for Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) to verify their solutions on carrier-grade Dell hardware. ISV partners can provide Communication Service Providers (CSPs) with assurances that the quality and capabilities of their software are deployment-ready for today’s telecom networks powered by Dell infrastructure. We have a continuously growing list of partners who have completed the self-certification process, gaining recognition as being Dell Technologies Telecom Certified.
We are now growing the recently launched Dell Telecom Partner Self-Certification program with the introduction of new test-lines. Expanding on our existing VMware and Red Hat test-lines, we are adding a Wind River Studio cloud software platform test-line and will introduce new self-certification test-lines using our latest PowerEdge .Next 16G servers. This allows ISVs to test on the latest, state-of-the-art infrastructure. ISVs can start their journey to become Dell Technologies Telecom Certified today.
In addition to our signature Open Telecom Ecosystem Lab in Round Rock, we are expanding our global footprint of open telecom ecosystem labs in Europe by opening of a new facility in Cork, Ireland. This expansion is important to support CSPs and telecom partners with latency-sensitive use cases and regulatory compliance needed in region. But it’s more than that.
We heard from customers all around the world who want to seamlessly connect our labs to theirs as one continuous, secure environment. This helps de-risk their investments in lab and engineering resources by connecting to an open telecom ecosystem lab that features advanced telco DevOps tools and automated processes, access to the latest infrastructure technology and the ability to collaborate with a broad set of ecosystem partners.
And we are already seeing success from the OTEL engineers in Cork supporting the EMEA region. Together with VMware, we are publishing a joint solution brief titled, “Protecting VMware Telco Cloud Platform with Dell PowerProtect Data Manager.” The PowerProtect Data Manager is a virtual appliance that organizations can deploy with the VMware Telco Cloud Platform environment to protect its management and workload components, along with application workload data. The brief explains how VMware and Dell Technologies deliver on key capabilities, including:
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- Enhanced protection for the entire VMware Telco Cloud Platform stack, including CSPs mission-critical applications
- Virtual Machine image and file-level enhanced protection for the management/workload clusters components or instances
- Namespace level/Persistent Volume Claims enhanced protection for Tanzu Kubernetes Grid cluster workloads
- VMware virtual machines in a reliable and efficient manner using Transparent Snapshot Data Mover mechanism
As Lakshmi Mandyam, Vice President, Product Management and Strategic Alliances from VMware notes, “Working with the Dell OTEL engineering team in Cork, Ireland, allows us to help meet CSP needs for validating solutions in region. Our collaboration brings together best-of-breed offerings like VMware Telco Cloud Platform and Dell PowerProtect Data Manager to enable protection for the entire VMware Telco Cloud Platform stack and help accelerate CSPs time to market.”
CSPs prioritize advancements and innovation in their networks. The alliance between VMware and Dell and involvement in the Dell Open Telecom Ecosystem Lab demonstrates the solution’s compatibilities, as well as how it provides major advantages to our customers in implementing advanced telecom services.
