Linux Foundation Europe announced the formation of Project Sylva, which aims to create a new, open source production-grade Telco Cloud Stack.
Project Sylva’s common cloud software framework and adjacent Reference Implementation will reduce fragmentation of the cloud infrastructure layer for telecommunication and edge services.
Project Sylva is backed by five European carriers (Telefonica, Telecom Italia, Orange, Vodafone, Deutsche Telekom) and two vendors (Ericsson and Nokia).
Specific goals of Project Sylva include the following:
- Release a cloud software framework to prioritise requirements, develop solutions to be integrated within existing open source components, and produce production-grade solutions to be leveraged within commercial products.
- Develop a reference implementation of this cloud software framework and create an integration and validation program to accelerate adoption of network functions within the cloud.
“The Telco Cloud ecosystem today is fragmented and slowing down our operational model transformation. Despite a transition to cloud native technologies, a real interoperability between workloads and platforms remains a challenge. Indeed, operators have to deal with a lot of vertical solutions that are different for each vendor, leading to operational complexity, lack of scalability, and high costs. Sylva, by providing a homogenous and open telco cloud reference implementation for the entire industry: interoperable, flexible and easy to operate, should help all the ecosystem (Europe and beyond). Orange strongly supports this initiative,” said Laurent Leboucher, group CTO and SVP, Orange Innovation Networks.
“I am beyond excited to see Sylva become the first community project hosted under Linux Foundation Europe. It directly delivers our vision to accelerate the impact that European-centric collaborations can have in the global ecosystem,” said Gabriele Columbro, general manager, Linux Foundation Europe. “Sylva is the perfect example of the high-impact open collaborations we see flourishing under LF Europe, as it brings together leading telco stakeholders to deliver innovation to address a concrete industry-wide business challenge.”
“We are pleased to collaborate closely with leading European telcos and vendors eager to more fully harness the power of open source to accelerate cloudification of the network within EU privacy and security guidelines,” said Arpit Joshipura, general manager, Networking, Edge and IoT, the Linux Foundation. “A unified approach to hosting 5G deployment applications from the Core to the RAN is critical for fostering innovation for broad digital transformation, augmenting work in LF Networking and LF Edge communities.”
