Telefónica Hispanoamérica launches its TCloud with Whitestack and a dozen telecommunications services manufacturers

This is an automated translation of the original release published in Spanish.

Release from Telefónica

Telefónica Hispanoamérica has reinforced its commitment to expand digitization in the region through strategic alliances, with which it seeks to achieve more efficient network deployment by using open technologies that allow regional connectivity to be increased in a more profitable manner. For this reason, one of the biggest transformations in the architecture of its telecommunications service network continues in 2023: the start of operations of its Telco Cloud in several Latin American capitals.

A Telco Cloud is based on software-defined private cloud infrastructure that allows telecommunications operators to speed up the incorporation of services into their own networks, as well as having faster responses to changes in demand and resource management from a single location and with greater efficiency.

Telefónica Hispanoamérica has positioned itself as the first telecommunications group in the region to implement this model. This will allow it to achieve high levels of efficiency when deploying network services from various vendors on a single converged cloud, leaving behind the deployment of monolithic networks on proprietary architectures.

This process of evolution to an "open Telco Cloud" is led by Whitestack, whose main characteristic is the use of open source-based technologies through scalable cloud infrastructure.

“The TCloud project is not only the largest telecommunications cloud in the region, but also defines a turning point in the way service networks evolve. This allows the company to build multi-vendor networks, with a shorter and more flexible onboarding process for network functions. In addition, it allows for homogeneous processes, using the best practices in all countries in the same way. The Whitestack platform will support various voice and data services in a secure manner that Telefónica is deploying in more than a dozen datacenters,” said Victor Corral López, Head of Core at Red de Telefónica Hispanoamérica.

"To do this, we are working with a dozen network service providers that are already cloud-native, and that allow efficient and automated deployment," says José Miguel Guzmán, Whitestack Business Development Manager/NFV. "This project consolidates the vision of a unique, multi-country, geo-redundant Telco Cloud, which leaves behind the paradigm of operating multiple virtualization environments (one for each manufacturer), and with the same processes and operations in the virtualization infrastructure for all countries," he added.

Technological evolution

The concept of "Private Cloud" has historically been used by those companies that, due to the need for control, proximity to users, performance or legislation, need to operate applications on their own infrastructure (as is the case with telecommunications operators), and cannot send all their applications to the Public Cloud.

Now the hybrid cloud concept (private and public) is becoming a reality, in such a way that the user plane (which processes the traffic) is as close to the client and the control plane (which manages the services) can be carried to clouds that allow growth in a more agile way, allowing telecommunications operators to obtain the benefits of both environments.

With the TCloud project, Telefónica manages to consolidate an ecosystem made up of Whitestack (cloud infrastructure provider) and dozens of manufacturers that have decided to adopt a cloud-native deployment model, in a collaborative scheme that seeks to improve the existing dynamics in the functions of telecommunications network for the benefit of users in the region.

The ability to carry voice or data traffic over a cloud with the same levels of performance and security as when using dedicated hardware is due to the significant evolution of virtualization and acceleration technologies developed by Intel. In addition, all this traffic is carried at high speed by a Spine & Leaf network that uses generic networks (whiteboxes) that run IP Infusion's OcNOS operating system.

About Telefónica Hispam:

Telefónica is one of the largest telecommunications service providers in Latin America. The company, which operates under the Movistar trademark, offers fixed broadband connectivity services -with FTTH solutions- and mobile with 4G and 5G networks (the latter in Chile and Mexico), as well as a wide range of digital services. for more than 110 million residential and business customers in the region. Telefónica Hispam offers its services in: Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Ecuador, Uruguay, Chile and Argentina.  

Press contacts for Telefónica Hispanoamérica:

prensa.hispam@telefonica.com

About Whitestack:

Whitestack is a leading company in the productive deployment of solutions based on technologies and open source, with a strong focus on the telecommunications industry. Whitestack's Telco Cloud solution enables natural deployment of VNFs (virtual machine-based) as well as CNFs (container-based) using industry-standard deployment models. It is the most deployed Telco Cloud solution in Latin America, and is certified on HPE and DELL hardware. Its Open Networking solutions allow the deployment of open DC Fabrics in a Spine & Leaf configuration, or optical access and aggregation networks, with open switches (whiteboxes), managed by its own SDN controller for automated network provisioning.

For more information visit https://whitestack.com