The Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), which builds sustainable ecosystems for cloud native software, today announced that AT&T has increased its investment in the group from gold to platinum member.
AT&T, a CNCF founding member, provides more than 100 million U.S. consumers with entertainment and communications experiences across TV, mobile, and broadband platforms. CNCF notes the company is an innovator in Network Function Virtualization (NFV) and Software Defined Networking (SDN) technologies, having implemented a network transformation initiative that spans the network edge to the core.
"Cloud native technologies are fundamental to the deployment of 5G networks and as a result, it is imperative that telecom operators partner with foundations like CNCF and further grow collaboration on projects such as Kubernetes," said Ryan van Wyk, VP Cloud Platforms at AT&T. "We will continue to bring insights from our SDN virtualization journey to help ensure that other organizations who move to cloud native can build on this foundation to scale virtualization within telecom network infrastructures."
AT&T has been heavily involved in open source technology development, having formed the Airship open source project in 2018 with SKT and Intel to create open infrastructure software for telco clouds. The project enables operators to run virtual network functions and cloud native network functions (CNFs). Airship is now a Kubernetes Certified Distribution and is the foundation for AT&T's 5G network build. AT&T is also a leader in the Anuket open source community as well as an end user of CNCF projects including Helm and Kubernetes.
"The telecom industry is increasingly turning towards cloud native technologies as they look to run more performant, resilient, and cost-effective telecommunication infrastructures," said Priyanka Sharma, general manager of the Cloud Native Computing Foundation. "The CNCF ecosystem is working hard through groups like the CNF Working Group to create best practices for building and modernizing network functions. We are very pleased that AT&T is increasing its investment in these initiatives and we look forward to deepening our collaboration."
Join AT&T and other CNCF members at KubeCon + CloudNativeCon EU Virtual, May 4-7, 2021 and KubeCon + CloudNativeCon NA in Los Angeles and Virtual, October 12-15, 2021.