SDN, NFV and Network Automation

For quite sometime, there hasn't been any real standard for MANO-NFV Orchestration and Automation, granted that there are plenty of excellent proprietary solutions but there wasn't a real open Source reference architecture on this regard.  Somewhere around 2015, two main initiatives where created: ECOMP and Open-O. ECOMP was part the Domain 2.0 initiative which goal was to virtualize up to 75% of AT&T network by 2020 by leveraging cloud technologies (AIC, AT&T integrated Cloud) and network virtualization while reducing CAPEX and achieving operational  The main issue was that there was no playbook to follow for virtualizing and software-controlling a Wide Area Network, ECOMP was the biggest software project to AT&T to date, tasked to address these key issues. It stands for Enhanced Control, Orchestration, Management and Policy . ECOMP is an infrastructure delivery platform and a scalable, comprehensive network cloud service.  It provides automation of ...

FlexWare is AT&T's latest offer for NFV (Network Function Virtualization) targeting software control of VNFs for enterprise customers. One of its greatest advantages is its multi-vendor approach, as It is offered in conjunction with AT&T VPN service and supports Juniper and Cisco virtual routers, Fortinet virtual security, and Riverbed virtual WAN accelerator. These AT&T-certified FlexWare Applications can be deployed on either small or medium industry standard FlexWare Devices and come with flexible AT&T or customer management options. According to Roman Pacewicz, SVP &T Business,   In less than 2 years, AT&T has been deployed to more than 2,000 sites globally, expanding to over 200 countries and territories. Orchestration is going to be done through IBM's cloud, cognitive, analytics and security infrastructure. AT&T can install an FlexWare Device on your premises, bring it online and manage it, just as we would a traditional managed network...