Software for Open Networking in the Cloud (SONiC) Moves to the Linux Foundation

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April 14, 2022

Leading open source network operating system enabling dis-aggregation for data centers now hosted by the Linux Foundation to enable neutral governance in a software ecosystem

SAN FRANCISCO– April 14, 2021 – Today, the Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization enabling mass innovation through open source, announced the Software for Open Networking in the Cloud (SONiC, an open source networking operating system), is now part of the Linux Foundation. The Linux Foundation provides a venue for continued ecosystem, developer growth and diversity, as well as collaboration across the open source networking stack.

“We are pleased to welcome SONiC to the Linux Foundation family of open networking projects,” said Arpit Joshipura, general manager, Networking, Edge, and IoT, the Linux Foundation. “SONiC is a leader in open source data center NOS deployments, and we’re looking forward to growing its developer community.”

The Linux Foundation will primarily focus on the software component of SONiC, and continue to partner with Open Compute Platform(OCP) on aligning hardware and specifications like SAI.

“Microsoft founded SONiC to bring high reliability and fast innovation to the routers in Azure cloud data centers. We created it as open source so the entire networking ecosystem would grow stronger. SONiC already runs on millions of ports in the networks of cloud scalers, enterprises, and fintechs. The SONiC project is thrilled to be joining the Linux Foundation to take the community to its next jump in scale, participation, and usage,” said Dave Maltz, Technical Fellow and Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Azure Networking.

About SONiC

Created by Microsoft for its Azure data centers, SONiC is an open source network operating system (NOS) based on Linux that runs on over 100 different switches from multiple vendors and ASICs. It offers a full-suite of network functionality, like BGP and RDMA, that has been production-hardened in the data centers of some of the largest cloud-service providers. It offers teams the flexibility to create the network solutions they need while leveraging the collective strength of a large ecosystem and community.

Existing Ecosystem

SONiC brings a strong existing ecosystem, with premier members including Alibaba, Broadcom, Dell, Google, Intel, Microsoft, NVIDIA and 50+ global partners. The SONiC community will host its first hackathon later this year. Stay tuned for details and registration information. More information about SONiC, including how to join, is available at SONiC (azure.github.io).

Support from Key Stakeholders & Customers

Alibaba

“This is a big milestone for the SONiC community. After joining the Linux Foundation, the SONiC community will play a much more important role in the networking ecosystem,” said Dennis Cai, Head of Network Infrastructure, Alibaba Cloud. “Congratulations! As one of the pioneering SONiC users and contributors, Alibaba Cloud has widely deployed SONiC- based whitebox switches in our data centers, edge computing cloud, P4- based network gateways, and will extend the deployment to Wide Area Networks. With modern network OS design and operation- friendly features, we already gained tremendous value from the large-scale deployments. Alibaba is committed to the SONiC community, and will continue bringing our large-scale deployment best practices to the community, such as open hardware specs , network in-band telemetry, high performance networking, and network resiliency features, SRv6, etc.”

Broadcom

“Large hyperscalers agree that merchant silicon, hardware independence, and open source protocol and management stack are essential for running their data center networks. Broadcom has wholeheartedly supported this vision with leading-edge, predictable silicon execution and contributions to the SONiC project. We are excited to see the SONiC initiative join the Linux Foundation and look forward to working with the streamlined ecosystem to drive the data center and hyperscale needs of the future,” said Mohammad Hanif, senior director of engineering, Core Switching Group, Broadcom.

Dell Technologies

“We believe SONiC will continue its accelerated adoption into the modern data center, delivering the scale, flexibility and programmability needed to run enterprise-level networks,” said Dave Lincoln, vice president of product management at Dell Technologies. “As a leading SONiC contributor, we see the advantages it brings to the supporting open source community and customers. As we continue the drive to take open-source-based solutions mainstream, we look forward to working with the Linux Foundation and its supporting communities to drive SONIC’s development and adoption.”

EBay

“eBay operates a large-scale network infrastructure to support its growing global business. eBay cares about the openness and quality of NOS to operate its network infrastructure. eBay is an active participant in the SONiC community and deploys SONiC at scale in its infrastructure. eBay is excited to see this next step of growth of the SONiC community,” said Parantap Lahiri, vice president, Network and Datacenter Engineering at eBay.

EPFL

“At EPFL, we have been looking for a vendor neutral and flexible NOS that can provide HaaS capabilities for our Private Cloud Environment. SONiC OS provides us the solution we have been looking for in our Data Centre, allowing us to migrate to a powerful and modern Data Centre network. We are looking forward to this next phase in the SONiC community,” said Julien Demierre, Network and System architect at EPFL.

Google

“We believe moving SONiC to the Linux Foundation is very important as it will further enhance collaboration across the open source network, community and ecosystem. Google has more than a decade of experience in SDN; our data centers and WAN are exclusively SDN controlled, and we are excited to have helped bring SDN capabilities to SONiC . We fully support the move to the LF and intend to continue making significant upstream contributions to drive feature velocity and make it easier for operators to realize the benefits of SDN with PINS/SONiC and P4,” said Dan Lenoski, vice president, Engineering, Network Infrastructure, Google.

Intel

“Intel has a strong history of working with SONiC and the Linux Foundation to help to propel innovation in an open, cooperative environment where ideas are shared and iterated. We continually promote open collaboration, encompassing open-source technologies such as the Infrastructure Programmer Developer Kit and P4 integrated networking stack (PINS), using Intel Xeon Scalable processors, Infrastructure Processing Units and Tofino Intelligent Fabric Processors as base hardware,” said Ed Doe, vice president and general manager, Switch and Fabric Group at Intel. “Joining the Linux Foundation will help SONiC to flourish, and in turn create greater benefit for cloud service providers, network operators and enterprises to create customized network solutions and transform data-intensive workloads from data center to the edge.”

NVIDIA

“This is an important milestone for SONiC and the community behind it,” said Amit Katz, vice president of Ethernet Switches at NVIDIA. “NVIDIA is committed to supporting the community version of SONiC that is 100 percent open source, enabling data center operators to control the code inside their cloud fabrics, accelerated by state-of-the-art platforms with SONiC support, such as NVIDIA’s Spectrum family of switches.”

Open Compute Project

“The Open Compute Project Foundation is pleased to continue its collaboration with SONIC as part of the OCP’s new hardware – software co-design strategy. The open source SONiC Network Operating System is enabling rapid innovation across the network ecosystem, and it began with the definition of the Switch Abstraction Interface (SAI) at OCP. Hardware – software co-design focuses on software that requires intimate knowledge of the hardware to drive maximum hardware performance, and speed time-to-market for hardware where system performance and ecological footprint can be highly dependent on software and hardware interactions,” said George Tchaparian, CEO Open Compute Project Foundation.

About the Linux Foundation

The Linux Foundation is the organization of choice for the world’s top developers and companies to build ecosystems that accelerate open technology development and commercial adoption. Together with the worldwide open source community, it is solving the hardest technology problems by creating the largest shared technology investment in history. Founded in 2000, The Linux Foundation today provides tools, training and events to scale any open source project, which together deliver an economic impact not achievable by any one company. More information can be found at www.linuxfoundation.org.

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The Linux Foundation has registered trademarks and uses trademarks. For a list of trademarks of The Linux Foundation, please see our trademark usage page: https://www.linuxfoundation.org/trademark-usage. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.

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A Rarity in Open Source

By

Jason Perlow

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April 14, 2022

About 3 ½ years ago, Sanath Kumar Ramesh and his wife welcomed their son, Raghav, into the world. Like any new parents, he immediately became their everything. And, as new parents do, they threw him a 1st birthday bash where many of their friends and family were meeting Raghav for the first time.

As Sanath was getting ready to cut the cake, he received a call from Raghav’s doctor. The doctor informed him hey received the results from a battery of tests and, “We think he has an ultra-rare genetic disease called SSMD (Spondylometaphyseal Dysplasia), but, unfortunately, we don’t know much about the disease because all of the other kids died just a few weeks after birth. Your son is lucky to be alive.”

Sanath recounts, “I was taken aback. I was standing at my son’s first of many birthday parties to come and someone was telling me that Raghav was lucky to be alive. This was a turning point in my career – in my whole life.”

In plain English, he has a typo in his GPX4 gene. The G became A. Consequently, he can’t sit, stand, walk, or eat by mouth.

Raghav has what is called an ultra-rare disease. Only 9 other children have been diagnosed around the world.

He called hundreds of hospitals, doctors, researchers, etc. and found no treatments. So, he took matters into his own hands. He tried 5 different drugs and saw some improvements, but not enough to “give him the life he deserves.” Raghav did lift his head up at 13 months – something he never did before. At 3, he is still unable to sit, stand, walk, and talk, and it looks like his disease is progressing faster than they anticipated.

While SSMD only has a handful of known patients, 400 million people around the world live with over 7,000 rare diseases and disorders. 93% have no FDA-approved treatment.

So, Sanath began asking researchers, How do we bring treatments to all of the rare diseases? Unfortunately, there is no simple solution. The drug development process is a maze and the biology of most is a complete mystery. But the advice he got was to foster open collaboration, lower the cost, and operate at a global scale.

Source: Open Treatments Foundation

Well, that sounds exactly like the open source model – something Sanath knows well. So, in March 2021, he started the Open Treatments Foundation with the mission to, “Create a society where there is at least one treatment for all genetic diseases accessible to all patients.” That is one giant BHAG.

They settled on four strategies:

Put every disease on the map: increase disease awareness, build a robust patient community
Make diseases easy to work with: open source animal models, assays, and natural history data
Generate more money for research: crowdfunding, incentive-based funding, etc.
Create more drug developers: decentralize drug development, go global

They also chose to collaborate with The Linux Foundation on the open source software and created the RareCamp project to house the source code under an Apache 2.0 license and to create and foster a community. The ball is rolling.

On a more personal level, I spent the previous five years working for individuals with rare disorders and diseases. Specifically, I worked at the National Fragile X Foundation. Fragile X syndrome is an inherited, intellectual/developmental disability and is rare (but not ultra-rare). My advocacy extended to all individuals with rare diseases/disorders through groups like the EveryLife Foundation and the Friends of the National Center for Birth Defects and Developmental Disorders – so I am especially excited to see this work.

Our Fragile X parents would often say this isn’t the life they anticipated or hoped for, but they are better for it. I would say our world will be a better place because of sweet Raghav and all the work he is inspiring. Are you inspired? Join us! As Jim Zemlin said when Sanath spoke at the 2021 Open Source Summit, this project is about, “personal motivation and a collective response.” Can you be part of the collective response? Visit rarecamp.org.

This is just one of the many projects at The Linux Foundation that has the potential to make a major, positive impact on the world. As Jim also stated, “We are just getting started addressing huge issues like rare diseases.”

The post A Rarity in Open Source appeared first on Linux Foundation.

T-Mobile joins the Zephyr Project as Platinum Member

By

Linux.com Editorial Staff

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April 14, 2022

Zephyr RTOs Powers T-MOBILE First Dev Kit That Inspires 5G Innovation

Zephyr RTOS Powers T-Mobile’s First Developer Kit, Designed to Increase Developer Innovation & Make Connection to the Network Easy

SAN FRANCISCO, April 14, 2022 – Today, the Zephyr® Project announced that T-Mobile has joined as a Platinum member, leveraging the Real-Time Operating System (RTOS) to power its new Developer Kit, which gives innovators fast and easy access to build on T-Mobile’s network. The Zephyr Project is an open source project at the Linux Foundation that builds a safe, secure and flexible RTOS for resource-constrained devices. T-Mobile is the first wireless carrier to join the project.

“As a leader in the industry and our first telecom member, T-Mobile brings a unique perspective and expertise to the Zephyr ecosystem,” said Kate Stewart, Vice President of Dependable Embedded Systems at The Linux Foundation. “Zephyr’s existing wireless capabilities (Bluetooth Low Energy, Wi-Fi, and 802.15.4), coupled with DevEdge, T-Mobile’s new developer platform, will unleash innovators to create new solutions for the connected future.”

Zephyr RTOS is easy to deploy, secure, connect and manage and supports more than 350 boards running embedded microcontrollers from Arm and RISC-V to Tensilica, NIOS, and ARC as single and multicore systems. It has a growing set of software libraries that can be used across various applications and industry sectors such as Industrial IoT, wearables, machine learning and more. Zephyr is built with an emphasis on broad chipset support, security, dependability, long-term support releases and a growing open source ecosystem.

“T-Mobile is thrilled to be the first wireless provider to join the Zephyr Project. As we shared when we launched DevEdge earlier this month, we envision a future where everything that can be connected, will be. And that requires massive innovation.” said Rob Roy, SVP of Emerging Business Innovation at T-Mobile. “Zephyr’s RTOS will help T-Mobile enable developers to build better and faster, unlocking massive innovation on our network.”

T-Mobile’s new Developer Kit, which will run on Zephyr RTOS, gives developers immediate access to T-Mobile’s network – no out-of-pocket costs, no testing hardware, no lengthy build time required. And for a limited time, T-Mobile is giving away Developer Kits for free while supplies last to developers who sign up now. To learn more, and to sign-up for a kit, developers can visit devedge.t-mobile.com/solutions/iot-developer-kit.

T-Mobile joins other Platinum members including Antmicro, Baumer, Google, Intel, Meta, Nordic Semiconductor, NXP, Oticon and Qualcomm Innovation Center. T-Mobile will join the Zephyr Governing Board and its commitment to ensure balanced collaboration and feedback that meets the needs of its community.

Other Zephyr Project members include AVSystem, BayLibre, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications (BUPT), Eclipse Foundation, FIWARE, Foundries.io, Golioth, Infineon, Institute of Communication and Computer Systems (ICCS), Laird Connectivity, Linaro, Memfault, Northeastern University, Parasoft, Percepio, Research Institute of Sweden (RISE), RISC-V, SiFive, Silicon Labs, Synopsys, Texas Instruments and Wind River.

Zephyr Developer Summit

The Zephyr community will gather virtually and in-person at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, on June 8-9. The second annual Zephyr Developer Summit will feature speakers from Antmicro, AVSystem, Bitergia, Boston Technology Law, Entropic Engineering, Circuit Dojo, Facebook/Meta, Golioth, Google, Huawei, Intel, Laird Connectivity, Lattix, Linaro, The Linux Foundation, Nordic Semiconductor, Percepio, Samsung, ST Microelectronics, Synopsys, Wind River and Zonneplan.

The Summit is open to the public with various registration rates to attend in-person or virtually. Learn more and register here: https://events.linuxfoundation.org/zephyr-developer-summit/register/.

A few of highlights of the Zephyr Developer Summit include:

An Intro to Zephyr Day on June 7 that offer several presentations and overviews for new developers. It will also feature in-depth hands-on tutorials from Golioth and Nordic Semiconductor.A Mini-Conference for Testing & Traceability that features sessions about design and testing, unit tests and emulators, new framework for testing fleet of platforms, and a Birds of a Feather (BoF) for quality and testing processes for Zephyr.A Mini-Conference for RISC-V collaboration with presentations about SMP support, what it is currently and what lies ahead, as well as the use of the RISC-V architecture in the Zephyr ecosystem.

The complete schedule for the Summit can be found here. The Zephyr Developer Summit is made possible thanks to Diamond Sponsors Antmicro, Google and Intel; Platinum Sponsor Nordic Semiconductor; Gold Sponsor NXP; Silver Sponsors Golioth and Memfault and Session Recording Sponsor BayLibre.

Last year, almost 700 people registered for the first-ever virtual Zephyr Developer Summit in June. The event consisted of 5 mini-conferences, 28 sessions and 51 speakers who presented technical content, best practices, real-world use cases and more. Videos are available on the Zephyr Project YouTube Channel.

To learn more about Zephyr RTOS, visit the Zephyr website and blog.

About the Zephyr Project

The Zephyr Project is an open source, scalable real-time operating system (RTOS) supporting multiple hardware architectures. To learn more, please visit www.zephyrproject.org.

About the Linux Foundation

Founded in 2000, the Linux Foundation is supported by more than 1,000 members and is the world’s leading home for collaboration on open source software, open standards, open data, and open hardware. Linux Foundation’s projects are critical to the world’s infrastructure including Linux, Kubernetes, Node.js, and more. The Linux Foundation’s methodology focuses on leveraging best practices and addressing the needs of contributors, users and solution providers to create sustainable models for open collaboration. For more information, please visit us at linuxfoundation.org.

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The post T-Mobile joins the Zephyr Project as Platinum Member appeared first on Linux Foundation.

How to Manage Linux Endpoints with Automation

By

The Linux Foundation

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April 14, 2022

Endpoint security is traditionally treated separately from the broader network security plan, and usually falls under responsibility of the IT admins team rather than the security team. However, endpoints are becoming a more critical part of the extended network ecosystem as many organizations will continue encouraging remote work after the Great Office Return.

The IT admins approach not only limits visibility and control but also makes it difficult to assess a device’s security level. It’s challenging to take the necessary automated steps in the event of a compromise due to a lack of access to vital threat intelligence. These challenges are even greater for Linux users, which is the preferred system of many developers and DevOps-led organizations.

Stack Overflow’s 2020 developer poll cites that professional developers will increase by more than 28 million by 2024. Thus, long-term integration and automation of Linux systems and infrastructure into IT operations is an even bigger priority for organizations moving forward.

Why organizations lack control and visibility over their Linux endpoint devices

Unfortunately, Linux infrastructure is not generally straightforward to automate. Without extra tooling, some administrators may face a long road to achieving their automation targets in the first place. To automate Linux systems, IT administrators must have complete control over their security and configuration settings. They must also possess the ability to monitor systems afterward to ensure everything is running smoothly.

Challenges of Linux endpoint management

Many endpoints currently connected to corporate networks are not official corporate assets. IT departments can’t quickly assess or monitor them to ensure they get the updates and patches they need because they don’t own these devices. This makes them vulnerable to threats, but it also makes them a relatively unknown threat vector, posing a threat to the entire fleet of devices.

Another significant barrier to visibility is mobility. Endpoint devices were once considered corporate assets kept behind the corporate firewall. Users of these endpoint devices today can connect to corporate resources, access corporate data, and even work on it using a variety of applications. They don’t need to be connected to a VPN to access physical or cloud-based resources. This is becoming more common across organizations of all sizes.

These devices spend the majority of their time related to non-corporate network resources which significantly reduces IT visibility. According to a 2020 Ponemon Institute report titled “The Cost of Insecure Endpoints,” two-thirds of IT professionals admit to having no visibility into endpoints that connect to the network regularly when they work outside of it.

There is also the challenge of Shadow IT. Employees can easily install and run traditional and cloud-based applications on their phones and computers and on corporate-owned assets assigned to them without having to go through IT. If IT administrators don’t have insight into all of the programs operating on these devices, they won’t be able to verify that essential access controls are in place to mitigate threats or govern the spread of data and other business assets. Self-compliance and security are not ideal for Linux endpoints.

Why manage your Linux devices in real-time?

Having complete visibility over IT asset inventory for security and productivity monitoring is critical to helping identify and eliminate unauthorized devices and apps.

What should IT teams monitor in real-time? Important metrics to keep an eye on include the number of unknown, checked-in, and total devices in the fleet, as well as devices installed and outdated and rarely used apps. IT professionals should look for a tool that keeps a constantly updated and monitored inventory of IT assets, including Linux.

Maintaining endpoint health with security controls is another advantage of managing Linux devices in real-time. Every day, numerous activities take place at an endpoint. It is critical to keep an eye on everything, including suspicious activity.

IT practitioners need a tool that conducts regular endpoint health checks to protect your endpoints, enforces firewall policies, quarantines or isolates unnecessary devices, kills rogue processes and services, hardens system configurations, and performs remote system tune-ups and disc clean-ups. This will help identify and eliminate unauthorized devices and applications.

Otherwise, allowing any random device or application in the network will gouge a hole in IT security and employee productivity. That’s why disabling or blocking illegal devices and programs from entering your network is critical.

Moreover continuous monitoring and remediation must be enabled. Continuous monitoring of your endpoints requires security tasks to be executed periodically. Chef Desktop helps achieve this without worrying about connectivity and maintenance issues and helps to ensure that endpoints remain in the desired state

Conclusion

Long-term integration of Linux systems and infrastructure into IT operations is common in organizations that have them.  Continuous monitoring of endpoints requires security tasks to be executed even remotely, without relying on physical access of devices. IT administrators must have complete control over their security and configuration settings to automate Linux systems, as well as the ability to monitor systems after the fact to ensure everything runs smoothly. 

IT managers must reduce costs and optimize time by leaning off manual processes. Instead, they should configure the entire linux fleet in a consistent, policy-driven manner. This boosts efficiency and productivity as well as maintains detailed visibility into the overall status of the Linux and desktop fleet. Easy-to-implement configuration management capabilities can assist IT teams in managing and overcoming some of the challenges they face when managing large Linux laptop fleets.

AUTHOR BIO

Sudeep Charles is a Senior Manager, Product Marketing at Progress. Over a career spanning close to two decades, he has held various roles in product development, product marketing, and business development for application development, cybersecurity, fintech and telecom enterprises. Sudeep holds a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering and a Master’s in Business Administration.

5 things sysadmins should know about cloud service providers

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April 13, 2022

Consider this advice for choosing and working with a cloud service provider that keeps sysadmins—and their responsibility for improving, troubleshooting, and maintaining infrastructure—at the forefront.

Read More at Enable Sysadmin

5 things sysadmins should know about cloud service providers

By

-

April 13, 2022

Consider this advice for choosing and working with a cloud service provider that keeps sysadmins—and their responsibility for improving, troubleshooting, and maintaining infrastructure—at the forefront.

Read More at Enable Sysadmin

The Linux Foundation Announces 1st Round of Keynotes Speakers for Open Source Summit North America 2022

By

Jason Perlow

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April 13, 2022

open source summit 2022 first round of keynote speakers announced

Premier event for open source developers and community contributors will feature visionary speakers offering insights on a range of topics: WASM, Cloud Native Computing, Diversity, Community Leadership, Linux and more.

SAN FRANCISCO, April 13, 2022 – The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization enabling mass innovation through open source, today announced the first round of keynote speakers taking the stage at Open Source Summit North America, June 21-24, in Austin, TX and virtually.

Open Source Summit North America is the premier event for open source developers, technologists, and community leaders to collaborate, share information, solve problems, and gain knowledge, furthering open source innovation and ensuring a sustainable open source ecosystem. It is a conference umbrella comprising 14 events covering the most important technologies and topics in open source including Linux, Embedded Systems, Supply Chain Security, AI + Data, Cloud, Community Leadership, OSPOs, Software Vulnerabilities, Diversity, IoT, Critical Systems, Containers and more.

2022 Keynote Speakers Include:

Alena Analeigh, Founder, Brown STEM GirlEric Brewer, Vice President of Infrastructure, GoogleMatt Butcher, Chief Executive Officer, Fermyon TechnologiesTaylor Dolazel, Head of Ecosystem, Cloud Native Computing FoundationMelissa Evers, Vice President and General Manager of Software/Ecosystem Strategy, Intel CorporationAmy Gilliland, President, General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT)Orion Jean, TIME 2021 Kid of the Year, Author and Kindness ActivistTodd Moore, Vice President – Open Technology and Developer Advocacy, CTO DEG, IBMMelissa Smolensky, Vice President, Corporate Marketing, GitLabLinus Torvalds, Creator of Linux & Git in conversation with Dirk Hohndel, Founder, DH ConsultingChris Wright, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Red Hat

The full schedule of sessions will be announced on April 21, with additional keynotes also being announced in the coming weeks.

Registration (in-person) is offered at the early price of $850 through April 26. Regisration to attend virtually is $25. Members of The Linux Foundation receive a 20 percent discount off registration and can contact events@linuxfoundation.org to request a member discount code.

Applications for diversity and need-based scholarships are currently being accepted. For information on eligibility and how to apply, please click here. The Linux Foundation’s Travel Fund is also accepting applications, with the goal of enabling open source developers and community members to attend events that they would otherwise be unable to attend due to a lack of funding. To learn more and apply, please click here.

Health and Safety
In-person attendees will be required to be fully vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus and will need to comply with all on-site health measures, in accordance with The Linux Foundation Code of Conduct. To learn more, visit the Health & Safety webpage.

Event Sponsors
Open Source Summit North America 2022 is made possible thanks to our sponsors, including Diamond Sponsors: Google and IBM, Platinum Sponsors: Cloud Native Computing Foundation, Intel and Red Hat, and Gold Sponsors: Camunda, Checkmarx, Coder, Dell Technologies, GitLab, InfluxData, Kubecost, Styra and Whitesource. For information on becoming an event sponsor, click here or email us.

Press
Members of the press who would like to request a press pass to attend should contact Kristin O’Connell.

About the Linux Foundation
Founded in 2000, the Linux Foundation is supported by more than 2,000 members and is the world’s leading home for collaboration on open source software, open standards, open data, and open hardware. Linux Foundation’s projects are critical to the world’s infrastructure including Linux, Kubernetes, Node.js, and more. The Linux Foundation’s methodology focuses on leveraging best practices and addressing the needs of contributors, users and solution providers to create sustainable models for open collaboration. For more information, please visit linuxfoundation.org.

The Linux Foundation Events are where the world’s leading technologists meet, collaborate, learn and network in order to advance innovations that support the world’s largest shared technologies.

Visit our website and follow us on Twitter, Linkedin, and Facebook for all the latest event updates and announcements.

The Linux Foundation has registered trademarks and uses trademarks. For a list of trademarks of The Linux Foundation, please see its trademark usage page: www.linuxfoundation.org/trademark-usage. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.

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Media Contact

Kristin O’Connell
The Linux Foundation
koconnell@linuxfoundation.org

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Capture packets in Kubernetes with this open source tool

By

-

April 13, 2022

Troubleshoot complex network and application issues with ksniff, a kubectl plugin that captures packets in Kubernetes pods.

Read More at Enable Sysadmin

Capture packets in Kubernetes with this open source tool

By

-

April 13, 2022

Troubleshoot complex network and application issues with ksniff, a kubectl plugin that captures packets in Kubernetes pods.

Read More at Enable Sysadmin

The Linux Foundation and Google Cloud Launch Nephio to Enable and Simplify Cloud Native Automation of Telecom Network Functions

By

Linux.com Editorial Staff

-

April 12, 2022

New Open Source Project at the Linux Foundation brings Cloud, Telecom and Network functions providers together in a Kubernetes world

San Francisco—April 12, 2022 Today, the Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization enabling mass innovation through open source, announced the formation of project Nephio in partnership with Google Cloud and leaders across the telecommunications industry. The Linux Foundation provides a venue for continued ecosystem, developer growth and diversity, as well as collaboration across the open source ecosystems.

Building, managing and deploying scalable 5G networks across multiple edge locations is complex. The Telco industry needs true cloud-native automation to be faster, simpler and easier, while achieving agility and optimization in cloud based deployments. To address these challenges, Google Cloud and the Linux Foundation have founded “Nephio.” The project has support from several founding organizations including Service providers: Airtel, Bell Canada, Elisa, Equinix, Jio, Orange, Rakuten Mobile, TIM, TELUS, Vapor IO, Virgin Media O2, WINDTRE as well as Network Function, Service and Infrastructure Vendors: Aarna Networks, ARM, Casa-systems, DZS, Ericsson, F5, Intel, Juniper, Mavenir, Nokia, Parallel Wireless, VMware.

Cloud Native Principles have come a long way and as we see Cloud Service Providers collaborating with Telecom Service Providers and Enterprises, a new way of simplifying automation of network functions is emerging.

Nephio aims to deliver carrier-grade, simple, open, Kubernetes-based cloud native intent automation and common automation templates that materially simplify the deployment and management of multi-vendor cloud infrastructure and network functions across large scale edge deployments.

Additionally, Nephio will enable faster onboarding of network functions to production including provisioning of underlying cloud infrastructure with a true cloud native approach, and reduce costs of adoption of cloud and network infrastructure.

Google Cloud

“Telecommunication companies are looking for new solutions for managing their cloud ready and cloud native infrastructures as well as their 5G networks to achieve the scale, efficiency, and high reliability needed to operate more cost effectively,” said Amol Phadke, managing director, Telecom Industry Products & Solutions, Google Cloud. “We look forward to working alongside The Linux Foundation, and our partners, in the creation of Nephio to set an industry open standard for Kubernetes-based intent automation that will result in faster and better connected cloud-native networks of the future.”

Linux Foundation

“Collaboration across Telecom and Cloud Service Providers is accelerating and we are excited to bring Nephio to the open source community,” said Arpit Joshipura, GM Networking, Edge & IOT, The Linux Foundation, “As end users demand end to end open source solutions, projects like Nephio complement the innovation across LFN, CNCF, LF Edge for faster deployment of telecom network functions in a cloud-native world.”

More information about Nephio is available at www.nephio.org.

Service Providers

Airtel

“Zero touch deployment, configuration and operations of network functions predominantly on the edge of the network and in multi-cloud and multi-vendor scenarios is a significant challenge for all operators across the globe. A cloud-native orchestration and automation approach is the absolute need of the hour. Airtel is looking forward to being part of the LF and Google initiative to develop innovative solutions to simplify network operations,” said Manish Gangey, SVP and Head – R&D, Bharti Airtel.

Bell

“Similar to our early participation in the Linux Foundation ONAP initiative, Bell Canada is thrilled to collaborate in this next chapter of Telco softwarization,” said Petri Lyytikainen, VP Network, Bell Canada. “With innovations like 5G, ORAN and a new era of distributed cloud computing, Nephio and its community will be key in accelerating network and infrastructure automation towards a true cloud-native and intent-driven approach. This important work will help drive the evolution of network technology that will benefit Bell customers and the telecoms industry in Canada for years to come.”

Elisa

“Elisa has a long history of network automation and cloud services. That has been utilized by the leading network analytics and automation solution provider Elisa Polystar,” said Anssi Okkonen, CEO of Elisa Polystar. “We are looking forward to working together with Linux Foundation, Google Cloud and Nephio community to enable new cloud-native automation solutions for building the tools for self-driving networks.”

Equinix

“We believe in innovation through collaboration and are pleased to join the Nephio project to help build advanced digital infrastructure orchestration capabilities for telco (5G) cloud native network functions,” said Justin Dustzadeh, CTO at Equinix. “We look forward to collaborating with the developer community and members of the Nephio project to make it easier for developers to manage distributed infrastructure and help businesses drive digital transformation.”

Jio

“Jio is excited to be part of the Nephio initiative. At a time when 5G Standalone deployments are rapidly coming on-stream globally, Nephio will play a pivotal role in the journey of telcos towards adopting a cloud native 5G Network,” said Aayush Bhatnagar, SVP, Jio.

Orange

“For telecom operators, Cloud Native technologies will unleash many new opportunities. By providing a cloud native intent automation framework, Nephio should play a key role in the telecommunications ecosystem by enabling on-demand connectivity and zero touch operator capabilities, thus benefiting the entire industry, developers, vendors, integrators, operators,” said Laurent Leboucher, group CTO and SVP, Orange Innovation Networks.

Rakuten Mobile

“The telecommunications industry is undergoing transformative change, with cloud native technologies bringing the industry into the modern era. When building Rakuten Mobile’s cloud native network in Japan, we understood the challenges of an open ecosystem and also realized the many benefits of cloud architecture, including automation, zero-touch provisioning and unprecedented agility. We’re excited to join Nephio in working to reimagine what telecommunications can be in the cloud era,” commented Sharad Sriwastawa, CTO, Rakuten Mobile.

TIM

“We believe that the adoption of Cloud Native technology and philosophy will represent a cornerstone for the future of telecommunications, merging the world of cloud services and the world of telco services into one single digital platform. The automation framework is probably the most sensitive and strategic part of this platform that will be able to stimulate innovation during coming years,” said Crescenzo Micheli, VP Technology & Innovation at Telecom Italia (TIM). “We believe the Nephio project could play a fundamental role to speed up this process.”

TELUS

“TELUS is excited to be contributing to this Linux Foundation project. Innovation and collaboration have been a life-long journey for us; accelerating the adoption of Cloud Native technologies is a must to meet our customers’ ever-changing expectations,” said Ibrahim Gedeon, CTO at TELUS. “We are excited to build on our 10-year strategic partnership with Google Cloud and collaborate with the Linux Foundation. Together we will maximize the scalability and agility of our global-leading network, simplifying and rethinking the operating digital models of our customers while building a better future for all Canadians and globally. This cannot be more true than with 5G and fiberizing the world as we enter a new era of hyper-connectivity. Combining high speeds, bandwidth and reliability with cloud computing and automation will transform the way we operate, enabling solutions like smart cities and connected cars and transforming key verticals across agriculture, healthcare and manufacturing.”

Vapor IO

“Nephio depends on critical underlying infrastructure like Vapor IO’s Kinetic Grid to automate the deployment of carrier-grade network functions,” said Cole Crawford, founder & CEO of Vapor IO. “Automating at-scale operations across multiple clouds is a complicated task. We applaud Google for selecting the Linux Foundation for bringing these capabilities to market via an open source platform. This could be a watershed moment in the telecom industry, transforming historically complicated network deployments and operations into cloud-native workflows with high degrees of automation. This will lower the cost of 5G deployments and increase the overall competitiveness of the telecom industry.”

Virgin Media O2

“We are continually looking at improving and evolving our automation strategies, especially around Kubernetes. We are incredibly motivated to work closely with the Linux Foundation and Nephio toward network automation and the process of using software to automate network and security provisioning and management to maximize network efficiency and functionality continuously,” said Paul Greaves, head of Automation and Orchestration Virgin Media O2.

WINDTRE

“Cloudnative platforms are an essential offering for accelerating the enterprises’ digitization journey plans over the next few years. Nephio, the new automation model based on Kubernetes, is the step to support the evolution of 5G networks and the edge infrastructures for dynamic services. We are pleased to be part of the Nephio community,” said Massimo Motta, Architecture and governance director of WINDTRE.

Network Function, Service and Infrastructure Vendors

Aarna Networks

“We actively utilize and contribute back to Linux Foundation Networking projects to help customers simplify the orchestration, lifecycle management, and automated service assurance of 5G networks and edge computing applications,” said Amar Kapadia, co-founder and CEO, Aarna Networks. “Similarly, we look forward to collaborating on the Nephio project to simplify numerous platform, infrastructure, and network pain points of 5G and edge deployments.”

Arm

“5G is expected to be the fastest-deployed mobile technology in history, but only if we can remove the barriers to efficient large-scale deployment. The founding of Nephio brings the benefits of cloud native technology to 5G networks, improving operational agility and reducing deployment costs so that we can economically meet the surge in connectivity demand,” said Eddie Ramirez, VP, Infrastructure Line of Business, Arm.

Casa Systems

“Next-generation networks require the flexibility and agility of the cloud at the network edge. We are pleased to be working with the Linux Foundation, Google and the broader community of partners on the Nephio initiative to develop industry standards for cloud-native, Kubernetes-based automation and orchestration solutions that will enable tomorrow’s all-connected world,” said Gibson Ang, vice president of Technology and Product Management, Casa Systems.

DZS

“As an advocate of open standards-based solutions for the network edge, DZS enthusiastically supports this joint initiative with the Linux Foundation and Google. We look forward to collaborating with global converged carrier customers of DZS and other ecosystem partners on the Nephio project as we usher in a new era of connectivity by addressing the industry demand for multi-domain, software-driven automation and orchestration across distributed cloud-native networks for 5G and beyond,” said Andrew Bender, CTO, DZS.

Ericsson

“The openness and flexibility of the 5G cloud native architecture brings significant opportunities for CSPs to expand existing business as well as building new business for enterprise customers. For CSPs to scale the business, simplification and automation of lifecycle and workload management across hybrid and multi cloud environments is key,” said Anders Vestergren, head of strategy portfolio and technology, Business Area Digital Services, Ericsson. “We look forward to collaborating with other industry leaders as part of the Nephio project to enhance Kubernetes with an industry-standard automation framework for cloud native deployments.”

F5

“F5 has been partnering with many service providers in their transformation journey building and operating cloud-native infrastructure for 5G, with special focus on scaling and securing telco protocols and workloads. We are excited to join the Linux Foundation and the Nephio project to help accelerate our customers’ digital initiatives,” said Ankur Singla, SVP, GM, Distributed Cloud Services, F5.

Intel

“Innovation at the edge is the next frontier of business opportunity. Nephio is a ground-breaking step to provide Cloud Service Providers with a carrier-grade, open, and extensible Kubernetes-based cloud-native automation framework, and common automation templates that simplify large scale edge deployment. We are pleased to be working in collaboration with the Linux Foundation and broader Nephio community to help simplify edge automation,” said Rajesh Gadiyar, VP and CTO, Network Platforms Group at Intel.

Juniper

“Kubernetes-centric automation, leveraging cloud native principles, is an integral part of Juniper Networks’ experience-first networking strategy. We are therefore excited to join the Nephio project at the Linux Foundation as a founding partner, continuing Juniper’s long-standing tradition as a major supporter of and active contributor to the open source community. We look forward to working with other leading technology companies and mobile operators, as well as the broader Kubernetes open source community, to ensure that Nephio helps to advance cloud native automation at scale, for the benefit of all.” Constantine Polychronopoulos, VP of 5G & Telco Cloud at Juniper Networks.

Mavenir

“Network automation is a key driver for Telco network cloudification. A Kubernetes native automation framework with proven success in other vertical applications automation is promising for the Telco space. We are pleased to be part of the Google/Linux Foundation initiative to accelerate this move on the public cloud and look forward to collaborating with the Nephio community,” said Bejoy Pankajakshan, CTSO of Mavenir.

Nokia

“Nokia has always led in the drive to deliver open cloud-based networks and services that usher new value and possibilities of customer experience that fuel revenue growth for everyone. Automation of deployment, configuration and operations of network functions, that work seamlessly in a complex multi-cloud and multi-vendor network environment, are key to achieving the above goals. Nokia is pleased to join its customers and partners in a collaboration to co-innovate on the ‘democratic’ building blocks for the right tools of tomorrow’s networks.” Jitin Bhandari, CTO, Cloud and Network Services, Nokia

Parallel Wireless

Steve Papa, CEO, Parallel Wireless, said, “Parallel Wireless is cloudifying 2G 3G 4G and 5G Open RAN and the Google/Linux Foundation initiative cloud-native architecture will allow fast deployment of RAN services on site, fast and fault-proofed upgrades and scalability — where resources can be scaled in an instant based on the end-user needs. Parallel Wireless is proud to join this initiative to help mobile operators modernize their networks via cloudification and bring innovation and cost savings.”

VMware

Lakshmi Mandyam, vice president of product management and partner ecosystems, Service Provider & Edge, VMware, said, “CSPs are embracing multi-cloud to create revenue-accelerating services, reduce operational costs and simplify network operations. VMware’s vision for CSPs enables a cloud-first approach to management and orchestration across the core, RAN and edge, aligning with the goals of the Linux Foundation and Nephio project. We look forward to contributing to this initiative that will foster a multi-vendor ecosystem and support faster on-boarding, automation and life-cycle management for cloud-native networks.”

About Nephio

Nephio’s goal is to deliver carrier-grade, simple, open, Kubernetes-based cloud-native intent automation and common automation templates that materially simplify the deployment and management of multi-vendor cloud infrastructure and network functions across large scale edge deployments. Nephio enables faster onboarding of network functions to production including provisioning of underlying cloud infrastructure with a true cloud native approach, and reduces costs of adoption of cloud and network infrastructure. More information can be found at www.nephio.org.

About the Linux Foundation

The Linux Foundation is the organization of choice for the world’s top developers and companies to build ecosystems that accelerate open technology development and commercial adoption. Together with the worldwide open source community, it is solving the hardest technology problems by creating the largest shared technology investment in history. Founded in 2000, The Linux Foundation today provides tools, training and events to scale any open source project, which together deliver an economic impact not achievable by any one company. More information can be found at www.linuxfoundation.org.

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