Mirantis Launches NFV Initiative with Citrix, Metaswitch and Overture Networks

OpenStack startup, Mirantis, Wednesday unveiled a network function virtualization (NFV) initiative with partners Citrix, Metaswitch Networks and Overture Networks to accelerate NFV deployments. The initiative will see the company bringing OPNFV, a carrier-grade, integrated, open source platform to accelerate the introduction of new NFV products and services to OpenStack deployments.

Mirantis' NFV initiative will offer deployment guide for customers looking to deploy NFV solutions on OpenStack, and Mirantis OpenStack validation for partner VNF solutions under its Unlocked Technology Partner Program. The Mirantis' NFV initiative will also add critical NFV features to Mirantis OpenStack, making it a carrier-grade OpenStack distribution that offers a small physical footprint, high availability (HA), single root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) and other NFV features that support high performance VNF deployments.

At the same time, Mirantis also announced the completion of partner validations for Citrix NetScalerMetaswitch's Perimeta Session Border Controller (SBC) and Overture Networks' Ensemble Service Orchestrator (ESO), which provides NFVO & VNFM capabilities.

Heather Kirksey, director, OPNFV
Telecommunications companies are increasingly drawn to NFV because it frees them from expensive proprietary hardware platforms, reduces operational expenses, and facilitates the launch of new applications and services quickly. Developers can spend less time on administrative tasks and more time delivering innovative applications and services to consumers.