Dell Technologies (NYSE: DELL) is introducing a new telecom cloud infrastructure solution, co-engineered with Wind River, to help communications service providers (CSPs) reduce complexity and accelerate their cloud-native network deployments. To further power these solutions, Dell’s telecom partner certification program simplifies the process for technology partners to validate and integrate their products within a rapidly growing open technology ecosystem.

Analysys Mason estimates the CSP network cloud infrastructure industry will quadruple from $6.9 billion in 2020 to $30.1 billion by 2026¹. However, unlike typical clouds used by enterprises, clouds for mobile networks must address distributed geographic areas and strict service level agreements (SLAs) while also supporting a wide range of software, compute and networking technologies that has made these deployments complex and costly.

“As the telecom network disaggregates, network operators are challenged to effectively acquire, deploy, test and operate a myriad of open, cloud-native solutions," said Dennis Hoffman, senior vice president and general manager, Dell Technologies Telecom Systems Business. “With our portfolio of software, solutions, development labs and partner programs, including our first open, telecom cloud engineered system with Wind River, a leader in Open RAN deployments, we can partner with communications service providers globally to simplify their transition to cloud-native technologies."

Dell Telecom Infrastructure Blocks help accelerate open, cloud-native network deployments

Dell is taking an entirely new approach to solve the complexities of cloud-native network deployments with Dell Telecom Infrastructure Blocks. The fully engineered, cloud-native infrastructure blocks simplify telecom cloud network deployment and management, while accelerating the introduction of new technologies and lowering operational expenses (OpEX). 

ACG Research estimates that CSPs deploying Dell Telecom Infrastructure Blocks can reduce OpEx by 42%, resulting in a 134% return on investment over five years versus deploying telecom cloud infrastructure without the Dell solution². As the fastest way to deploy the Dell Telecom Multicloud Foundation, launched earlier this year, these blocks include Dell PowerEdge servers, Dell Bare Metal Orchestrator management software, and a CSP’s choice of integrated telecom cloud software platforms, beginning with Wind River Studio.

Dell is the first company to launch a co-engineered system with Wind River, designed and factory integrated to host telecom workloads that can be scaled easily with automation, with streamlined support from Dell for the entire infrastructure stack³. The validated and pre-packaged blocks of hardware and software are designed to meet specific telecom workload requirements and use cases, spanning the network core to Open RAN Distributed Units (DU) and Centralized Units (CU). With Telecom Infrastructure Blocks for Wind River, CSPs can:

• Reduce time spent on the planning, design, validation, procurement and upgrade process.
• Automate the deployment and management of Wind River Studio, significantly reducing the complexity and operational burden of managing a distributed cloud while helping ensure a consistent telecom-grade experience.
• Decrease cost and time spent integrating and deploying infrastructure to a workload ready state with factory integration and reduce "Day 2” operational costs with continuous design and integration testing.
• Gain streamlined, 24-hour access to designated Dell experts for the entire cloud stack, including Wind River Studio, with options for guaranteed response and restore times. Dell’s services provide proactive, predictive and reactive support to maximize uptime.

“The introduction of Dell Telecom Infrastructure Blocks represents the type of collaboration and innovation needed between vendors to affordably scale Open RAN,” said Andy Dunkin, head of OpenRAN RF & Digital Platforms, Vodafone. “We expect this new technology will simplify the design, deployment and management of networks, so new services on Open RAN can be delivered faster and more efficiently to customers.” 

Wind River delivers mature production-ready offerings based on proven Wind River Studio technology, live in deployments with leading operators. Wind River Studio provides the Containers-as-a-Service layer for a distributed cloud and the tools to automate and optimize “Day 2” operations at scale.

“Our collaboration with Dell will help address complex CSP challenges in deploying and managing a physically distributed, ultra-low-latency cloud-native infrastructure for intelligent edge networks,” said Kevin Dallas, president and chief executive officer, Wind River. “As the de facto infrastructure for OpenRAN and 5G vRAN and only 5G solution that is commercially deployed at scale, Wind River Studio enables flexible networks and offers validated architectures to help service providers quickly and reliably deploy new services with industry-leading total cost of ownership for a cloud native future.”

Dell Telecom Partner Self-Certification Program expands industry’s trusted partner ecosystem

As the telecom industry’s open ecosystem continues to grow, it becomes more complex to ensure that technologies can seamlessly work together to support each CSP’s network requirements. Dell is introducing the Telecom Partner Self-Certification Program for ISVs and other industry partners to certify their software readiness for integration on Dell hardware. 

Partners have a simple and transparent process for validating their solutions on Dell hardware and operating systems in the Dell Open Telecom Ecosystem Lab. Once their solutions are certified, partners are assured that the quality of their software is compatible with and ready for deployment on Dell telecom platforms. The first solutions to be certified as part of the Telecom Partner Self-Certification Program are from Intel, Litmus and Versa Networks. 

Additional quotes

John Healy, vice president and general manager of Customer and Ecosystem Enabling Division, Intel’s Network and Edge Solutions Group

“Intel® Edge Insights for Industrial, a middleware software optimized for AI deployments at the edge, is the first Intel software platform to receive self-certification and ready for deployment on Dell infrastructure. We believe the great features that Edge Insights for Industrial has, such as video and time series ingestion and inference, will allow Dell's customers to deploy AI capabilities quickly and with excellent performance on Intel-based Dell infrastructure.” 

Vatsal Shah, chief executive officer, Litmus

“Mobile networks are becoming more virtualized and open, which has given startups, like Litmus, the ability to lower the barrier to entry in the telecom market. Gaining access to and certifying with the Telecom Partner Self-Certification Program will enable us to make our manufacturing edge IIoT solutions more easily consumable and scalable for communications service providers and enterprise customers.”

Kelly Ahuja, chief executive officer, Versa Networks

“The Dell Telecom Partner Self-Certification Program gives customers the assurance that Versa’s Unified SASE (Secure SD-WAN & SSE) software is compatible with and ready for stable deployment on Dell telecom platforms. The self-certification program provides a low touch, automated, formal program for us to certify that our software is ready for deployment on Dell Technologies telecom hardware for joint customers.”

Availability

• Dell Telecom Infrastructure Blocks for Wind River Studio will be globally available on November 9, 2022.
• The Dell Telecom Partner Self-Certification Program is available globally beginning today.

Additional resources 

• Learn more about the Dell Telecom Infrastructure Blocks for Wind River.
• Read more about Wind River Studio.
• Find more details on the Dell Telecom Partner Self-Certification Program.
• Connect with Dell via Twitter  and LinkedIn

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¹ Analysys Mason Network Cloud Infrastructure Worldwide Forecast, October 2021.

² Based on ACG Research Report commissioned by Dell, “Accelerating Cloud-Native Deployments and Economic Returns” September 2022. Full report (https://www.delltechnologies.com/asset/en-us/solutions/service-provider-solutions/industry-market/acg-telecom-for-infrastructure-blocks-with-wind-river.pdf)

³ Based on Dell analysis of publicly available information, July 2022.