Amdocs announced that it is driving the industry’s specification efforts to create a standard virtual network function (VNF) packaging format that will enable the automation of VNF onboarding and acceptance testing.
This standardization will allow VNFs to be interoperable with independently developed network functions virtualization (NFV) management and orchestration systems, thereby providing a major boost to NFV adoption, says Amdocs.
As a leading member of the ETSI, Amdocs said it has taken a key role in progressing NFV in the market with the aim of converging on a common approach to describing VNFs, automation tool chains and integration strategy. As a founding platinum member of the Linux Foundation’s Open Network Automation Platform (ONAP), Amdocs will also take a leading role in the Linux Foundation’s newly created working group responsible for the standardization of VNF packages, their validation testing and compliance certification.
Amdocs said it will drive industry collaboration by standardizing and templating systems to streamline and automate VNF onboarding, integration and lifecycle management processes based on both ETSI and ONAP NFV specifications.
Anil Rao, Principal Analst, Analysys Mason
The success of these initiatives will accelerate the operationalization of NFV by delivering standardized VNFs to service providers, ultimately enabling the CSPs to rapidly design and deliver NFV based services to their customers.
Anthony Goonetilleke, Gorup President, Amdocs
Standardization will reduce barriers, simplify and shorten service provider VNF onboarding and adoption and reduce implementation time and complexity as well as lower overall costs for all stakeholders. It will also enable automatic execution of VNF onboarding and acceptance testing, and allow VNFs to be interoperable.
