Verizon says it will offer x86-based whitebox variants within its line of universal customer premises equipment (uCPE). The uCPE provide combined support of multiple virtual network functions (VNF) such as software-defined WAN (SD-WAN), security, routing, WAN optimization, and others within the service providers Virtual Network Services offerings.
The whitebox uCPE leverage OpenStack to enable use of commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware to create options that match the needs of a variety of customers, from small retail sites to large data centers, via a globally distributed open source architecture.
"Verizon is excited by the pace of innovation within the OpenStack community and its ability to provide organizations with more options to deliver agility, efficiency, and scalability from their cloud infrastructure," said Shawn Hakl, vice president of new products and innovation at Verizon.
Verizon says its uCPE support service chaining and enterprise orchestration for automation of onboarding and provisioning. Subsequent enterprise orchestration releases will include service assurance capabilities for fault and performance monitoring, as well as closed-loop healing and a "VNF factory," the service provider said. Verizon expects that the integration of full-service life-cycle orchestration into Verizon's uCPE will enable enterprises to deploy near real-time SDN technologies.
Verizon recently announced its intention to sell its cloud and managed IT services business to IBM (see "Verizon to sell cloud and managed hosting service to IBM").
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