<div dir="ltr"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">Be careful not to confuse vendors pumping stuff with whats actually deployed. <br></blockquote>Well yes, there's always the hype factor to discount. The reason why I'm asking this forum is to separate hype from hope.<div><br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">Also, AT&T has been doing virtualization for nearly 10 years now, so perhaps you were just not paying attention </blockquote><div>But the point is just that: how serious is this progression towards cloud-native, if so much effort was put in to virtualization?</div><div><br></div><div>Incidentally, AT&T's Brian Bearden was present <a href="https://intelvs.on24.com/vshow/inteldcgevents/#content/2393080">here</a>: just listen to how he defended Intel's containerization drive @24:56.</div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><br></blockquote></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Sat, Aug 1, 2020 at 4:33 PM Ca By <<a href="mailto:cb.list6@gmail.com">cb.list6@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div><br></div><div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Sat, Aug 1, 2020 at 7:21 AM Etienne-Victor Depasquale <<a href="mailto:edepa@ieee.org" target="_blank">edepa@ieee.org</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr">The surprise for me regards Intel's (and the entire Cloud Native Computing Foundation's?) readiness to move past network functions run on VMs <div>and towards network functions run as microservices in containers.<div><br></div><div>See, for example, Azhar Sayeed's (Red Hat) contribution <a href="https://www.lightreading.com/webinar.asp?webinar_id=1608" target="_blank">here </a>@15:33.</div></div></div></blockquote><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">Be careful not to confuse vendors pumping stuff with whats actually deployed. </div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">Also, AT&T has been doing virtualization for nearly 10 years now, so perhaps you were just not paying attention</div><div dir="auto"><br><div dir="auto"><a href="https://www.fiercetelecom.com/telecom/at-t-target-for-virtualizing-75-its-network-by-2020" target="_blank">https://www.fiercetelecom.com/telecom/at-t-target-for-virtualizing-75-its-network-by-2020</a></div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">Not sure it has helped ATT in any meaningful way, their stock price is the same it was in 2015. </div><div dir="auto"><br></div></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div><div></div><div><br></div><div>Cheers,</div><div><br></div><div>Etienne</div></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Sat, Aug 1, 2020 at 2:35 PM Mark Tinka <<a href="mailto:mark.tinka@seacom.com" target="_blank">mark.tinka@seacom.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div>
<br>
<br>
<div>On 1/Aug/20 11:23, Etienne-Victor
Depasquale wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div dir="ltr">
<div>Over the past few weeks, I've attended webinars and watched
videos organized by Intel. </div>
<div>These activities have centred on 5G and examined
applications (like "visual cloud" and "gaming"), </div>
<div>as well as segment-oriented aspects (like edge networks, 5G
RAN and 5G Core).</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>I am stunned (no hyperbole) by the emphasis on Kubernetes
in particular,</div>
<div>and cloud-native computing in general. </div>
<div>Equally stunning (for me), public telecommunications
networks have been portrayed </div>
<div>as having a history that moved from integrated software and
hardware, </div>
<div>to virtualization and now to cloud-native computing. </div>
<div>See, for example Alex Quach, <a href="https://www.telecomtv.com/content/intel-vsummit-5g-ran-5g-core/the-5g-core-is-vital-to-deliver-the-promise-of-5g-39164/" target="_blank">here</a> @10:30). I
reason that Intel's implication is that virtualization is
becoming obsolete.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Would anyone care to let me know his thoughts on this
prediction?</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<br>
In the early dawn of SDN, where it was cool to have the RP's in
Beirut and the line cards in Lagos, the industry quickly realized
that was not entirely feasible.<br>
<br>
If you are looking at over-the-top services, so-called cloud-native
computing makes sense in order to deliver that value accordingly,
and with agility. But as it pertains to actual network transport,
I'm not yet sure the industry is at the stage where we are confident
enough to decompose packet forwarding through a cloud.<br>
<br>
Network operators are more likely to keep using kit that integrates
forwarding hardware as well as a NOS, as no amount of cloud
architecting is going to rival a 100Gbps purpose-built port, for
example.<br>
<br>
Suffice it to say, there was a time when folk were considering
running their critical infrastructure (such as your route
reflectors) in AWS or similar. I'm not quite sure public clouds are
at that level of confidence yet. So if some kind of cloud-native
infrastructure is to be considered for critical infrastructure, I
highly suspect it will be in-house.<br>
<br>
On the other hand, for any new budding entrepreneurs that want to
get into the mobile game with as little cost as possible, there is a
huge opportunity to do so by building all that infrastructure in an
on-prem cloud-native architecture, and offer packet forwarding using
general-purpose hardware provided they don't exceed their
expectations. This way, they wouldn't have to deal with the high
costs traditional vendors (Ericsson, Nokia, Huawei, Siemens, ZTE,
e.t.c.) impose. Granted, it would be small scale, but maybe that is
the business model. And in an industry where capex is fast
out-pacing revenue, it would be the mobile network equivalent of
low-cost carrier airlines.<br>
<br>
I very well could be talking out the side of my neck, but my
prediction is mobile operators will be optimistic but cautious. I
reckon a healthy mix between cloud-native and tried & tested
practices.<br>
<br>
Mark.<br>
</div>
</blockquote></div><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(136,136,136)">Ing. Etienne-Victor Depasquale</span><br style="color:rgb(136,136,136);font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(136,136,136)">Assistant Lecturer</span><br style="color:rgb(136,136,136);font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(136,136,136)">Department of Communications & Computer Engineering</span><br style="color:rgb(136,136,136);font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(136,136,136)">Faculty of Information & Communication Technology</span><br style="color:rgb(136,136,136);font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(136,136,136)">University of Malta</span><div>Web. <a href="https://www.um.edu.mt/profile/etiennedepasquale" target="_blank">https://www.um.edu.mt/profile/etiennedepasquale</a><br></div></div></div>
</blockquote></div></div>
</blockquote></div><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><span style="color:rgb(136,136,136);font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">Ing. Etienne-Victor Depasquale</span><br style="color:rgb(136,136,136);font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><span style="color:rgb(136,136,136);font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">Assistant Lecturer</span><br style="color:rgb(136,136,136);font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><span style="color:rgb(136,136,136);font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">Department of Communications & Computer Engineering</span><br style="color:rgb(136,136,136);font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><span style="color:rgb(136,136,136);font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">Faculty of Information & Communication Technology</span><br style="color:rgb(136,136,136);font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><span style="color:rgb(136,136,136);font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">University of Malta</span><div>Web. <a href="https://www.um.edu.mt/profile/etiennedepasquale" target="_blank">https://www.um.edu.mt/profile/etiennedepasquale</a><br></div></div></div>