Our strategy was, and still is, very simple:

  • Disaggregate the network’s software and hardware 
  • Streamline the hardware using standard networking white boxes  with compute and network processing resources. These standard white boxes can be offered by multiple manufacturers. They can also be stacked together (1-200 of them) acting as a single network entity of adaptable size.
  • Turn the physical infrastructure to a shared resource –  the cluster of white boxes can act as a shared resource supporting multiple services with any service over any port – fully virtualizing its compute and networking resources.
  • Run multiple networks and services in separate containers over a shared infrastructure  in a fully virtualized architecture, utilizing the physical resources to their fullest
  • Automate the provisioning, orchestration, service rollout and management.

Our solution was named Network Cloud since it was designed with a similar architecture of cloud – disaggregated, software-based, running multiple services in separate containers over shared physical resources. We also made it elastic.
And it worked. AT&T’s new backbone network – the largest one in North America, is based on DriveNets Network Cloud. Many other tier-1 operators that provide the foundation for the Internet, are engaged with DriveNets Network Cloud.
Now is the time to take it to the edge of the network and re-architect the network there, running it to an adaptive Edge Cloud.

The Changing Edge

New generation of services and applications such as interactive entertainment, cloud-gaming, immersive technologies, online ads, crypto currency and many industry 4.0 solutions, require compute-intensive, latency-sensitive infrastructure to support the Quality of Experience (QoE) their users expect, regardless of device and location. To deliver an adequate Quality of Experience (QoE), these services require highly distributed, compute-intensive resources. Many times, at an ultra-low latency. They need to run much closer to their end-users by moving workloads closer to the edge.

The Mission of the Open Grid Alliance (OGA)

The edge becomes too distributed, too dynamic, and too heterogenous for a singular service or cloud provider to address. The Internet was designed to support most intelligence delivered from large, centralized data centers, which supported current cloud architectures well. However, now, billions of things and thousands of applications are moving the Internet’s focus on the edge. This is the motivation behind the Open Grid Alliance (OGA) – create the Open Grid – a software-defined system that stretches across the globe to support multi-cloud services over an elastic infrastructure that is available when and where needed, on demand. The Open Grid combines all the necessary components to support the next generation of applications.

DriveNets Adaptive Edge Cloud

DriveNets Adaptive Edge Cloud is based on DriveNets’ Network Cloud, addressing the needs of the new generation of services and applications. It is fully aligned with the vision of OGA of virtualizing the edge and providing the right levels of compute and network resources in the right place at the right time.
Some of these capabilities include:

  • Data path acceleration – assigning resources based on application type and needs with a highly-distributed edge footprint
  • Adaptive scalability – applications can expand to edge cloud locations or scale up/down resources based on real-time needs
  • High-availability – carrier-grade reliability across the distributed edge.

The edge is where great new opportunities come to life – new types of applications that improve efficiencies, enable better healthcare, enhance sustainability, and drive more accessible entertainment.
We are excited to take part of OGA and partner with industry innovators like VMWare and Vapor IO to drive the global Internet transformation, now.