Compared to previous versions of Blue Planet’s software, the latest update includes in-service software upgrades and continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) support.
This allows communication service providers using the platform to embrace a DevOps model and quickly introduce new services, which is vital to the enhanced agility that Ciena aim to provide to communication service providers (CSPs).
“The Blue Planet Cloud Native Platform transcends the traditional approach of custom ‘spaghetti integrations’ that have shackled CSPs’ ability to be adaptable, open and agile,” said Joe Cumello, senior vice president and general manager at Blue Planet.
Cumello said the new platform offers a new level of convergence that embraces the cloud and transforms the OSS to be a competitive differentiator while reducing operational costs and allowing for rapid creation of new business models.
The cloud native platform also offers support for any cloud environment, including public, private and hybrid cloud environments, to reduce vendor lock-in and significantly improve operational scale, flexibility, and resilience for CSPs.
Furthermore it offers common lifecycle management across all Blue Planet OSS applications, delivering a lower total cost of ownership (TCO).
CSPs can deploy individual applications independently or together to address their most important OSS modernisation projects at their own pace. These include the Blue Planet Inventory, Blue Planet Orchestration and Blue Planet Assurance applications, which are all available on the platform today.
“CSPs’ legacy OSS is a complex environment of highly customised, siloed systems that represent a constraint on growth and greater agility,” said Francis Haysom, principal analyst at Appledore Research
“The new Blue Planet Cloud Native Platform consolidates Blue Planet's unique capabilities, telecom experience, and cloud-native vision, giving CSPs a foundation for simplifying and modernising their operations,” Haysom said.
“Communication service providers are digitally transforming their networks by transitioning their OSS workloads to Google Cloud,” added Ankur Jain, vice president, Google distributed cloud engineering & telco industry at Google Cloud.
The platform is built on a Kubernetes architecture, which Jain believes is fundamental to allowing Blue Planet to streamline service providers' evolution to a modernised, AI-driven and cloud-native OSS.
It will also “help drive faster innovation, lower operational costs, and greatly improve end-user experiences”.
The platform incorporates an AI-driven operations by using an AI Studio that can apply machine learning and AI-based capabilities , to any mix of product applications or operational processes.
These capabilities can be developed by CSPs own data science teams, Blue Planet, or third parties.
