Accelerate Testing and Onboarding with Intel and Red Hat's CNF Certification Lab

Accelerate Testing and Onboarding with Intel and Red Hat's CNF Certification Lab

Table of Contents:

1. Introduction
2. The Vision Behind the Partnership
3. The Need for a Certification Lab
4. Benefits for Application Vendors and Service Providers
5. Leveraging Intel Hardware and Red Hat's OpenShift
6. Replicating the testing Environment
7. Testing Multiple CNFs Together
8. Working with CNTT Standards
9. The Importance of the Sandbox Approach
10. Conclusion

The Vision Behind the Partnership

In today's digital world, operators face the complexity of onboarding and the need to provide a platform where partners, application vendors, and communication service providers can test their services efficiently. To address this challenge, Intel and Red Hat have teamed up to establish a certification lab in New Mexico. The vision behind this partnership is to reduce time-to-market, minimize costs, and allow for faster creation of new services. By leveraging the latest hardware and software solutions, this joint venture aims to streamline the testing process and provide a standardized testing environment.

The Need for a Certification Lab

The complexity of the telecommunications industry has led to a growing demand for a dedicated space where partners can test their application services. Operators have expressed the need for a centralized platform that can facilitate efficient testing and onboarding processes. The certification lab in New Mexico serves as the solution to this industry challenge. By collaborating with Intel and Red Hat, partners can now efficiently test their services and reduce the time-to-market, ultimately benefiting both application vendors and communication service providers.

Benefits for Application Vendors and Service Providers

The collaboration between Intel and Red Hat brings numerous benefits to application vendors and service providers alike. By providing a unified platform and environment, vendors can test their services efficiently and gain insights into the performance of their software on the latest Intel Cascade Lake hardware and Red Hat's OpenShift container platform. This collaboration also ensures that all necessary support and updates are readily available, eliminating compatibility issues and allowing vendors to focus on delivering high-quality services. For service providers, the certification lab offers an opportunity to explore a wide range of CNFs and assess their functionality in a non-production environment. This capability enables service providers to make informed decisions about deploying CNFs and helps them achieve quicker time-to-market and increased revenue.

Leveraging Intel Hardware and Red Hat's OpenShift

The joint venture between Intel and Red Hat brings together the latest hardware and software solutions to ensure optimal performance and compatibility. Leveraging Intel Cascade Lake hardware, partners can fully capitalize on its advanced capabilities. Paired with Red Hat's OpenShift container platform, the partnership enables partners to unlock the full potential of their applications. The sandbox-like environment provided by the certification lab allows partners to experiment and discover new ways of leveraging Intel hardware and OpenShift features, ultimately resulting in more efficient and powerful software solutions.

Replicating the Testing Environment

An unexpected but valuable outcome of the certification lab is the interest expressed by service providers in replicating the testing environment internally. By leveraging the testing processes and tools developed jointly by Intel and Red Hat, service providers can benefit from the expertise and experience gained within the lab. This initiative not only helps service providers streamline their own testing processes but also promotes collaboration and knowledge sharing within the industry. Replicating the testing environment internally allows service providers to work at their own pace and tailor the testing experience to their unique needs.

Testing Multiple CNFs Together

In addition to testing individual cloud-native network functions (CNFs), the certification lab also supports the testing of multiple CNFs working together in a realistic workload Scenario. This capability provides service providers with a more comprehensive understanding of how CNFs perform in a production-like environment. By simulating mixed workloads, service providers can evaluate the scalability, efficiency, and overall performance of CNFs, enabling them to make informed decisions about their deployment and usage.

Working with CNTT Standards

Intel and Red Hat are committed to maintaining an open and collaborative approach to testing. By closely aligning with the Cloud Native Telecom Technology (CNTT) standards, the certification lab ensures that the testing environment is transparent, standardized, and industry-compliant. The adherence to CNTT standards enables partners to perform regression tests and leverage best practices across different environments. This approach fosters interoperability and sets a benchmark for the industry, making it easier for vendors and service providers to collaborate and innovate.

The Importance of the Sandbox Approach

The sandbox-like approach adopted by the certification lab plays a crucial role in accelerating time-to-market and reducing redundant testing efforts. Instead of each partner independently setting up their own testing environment, the lab provides a pre-tested and pre-integrated platform. By eliminating the need to repeat the same testing processes, partners can focus on refining and optimizing their services, resulting in shorter development cycles and increased efficiency. The sandbox environment ensures a high level of confidence in the tested solutions, reducing the risk of errors and compatibility issues.

Conclusion

The certification lab established by Intel and Red Hat in New Mexico marks a significant step towards streamlining the testing and onboarding processes in the telecommunications industry. By providing a centralized platform, partners can efficiently test and optimize their application services, ultimately resulting in faster time-to-market and increased revenue opportunities. Leveraging Intel's latest hardware and Red Hat's OpenShift container platform, the collaboration offers a robust and reliable environment for partners to unlock the full potential of their solutions. The certification lab's success has also led to the interest of service providers in replicating the testing environment, further enhancing collaboration and knowledge sharing within the industry. With a strong commitment to CNTT standards, the certification lab paves the way for open and standardized testing, ensuring interoperability and driving innovation across the telecommunications sector.