PARTNER FEATURE: With the rapid development and breakthrough of information technologies such as 5G, cloud computing, big data, the Internet of Things, and artificial intelligence, human society is gradually entering the digital economy era from the industrial economy era, and the digital transformation of the entire industry has become the industry consensus. Telecom operators need to transform from communication service providers (CSP) to digital service providers (DSP) to achieve self-transcendence and provide innovative impetus for digital transformation of the entire industry.

Distributed cloud is an opportunity for telecom operators to transform from CSP to DSP. Gartner predicts that by 2025, over 50% organizations will use distributed cloud at selected locations. Distributed cloud provides the basis for digital transformation of telecom operators, and it is also the prerequisite for telecom operators to provide digital services. The development and applications of new-generation information technologies such as big data, the Internet of Things, and artificial intelligence rely on cloud computing technologies. Through distributed cloud, new business models with ready access, on-demand use, on-demand expansion, and on-demand payment can be achieved, helping telecom operators achieve anywhere operation. Telecom operators have natural advantages in building distributed clouds. They can make full use of the advantages of lots of edge equipment rooms, high-quality networks, and localized support teams to build distributed clouds with cloud network synergy.

ZTE provides TCF (TECS CloudFoundation) to help telecom operators evolve the telecom cloud into a distributed precision cloud with cloud network synergy.  On the edge of a network, the real-time processing capability of massive access data can greatly reduce network delay, improve user experience, and expose network capabilities to provide service innovation platforms for users. The central cloud provides efficient cloud resource orchestration and scheduling, O&M management, and operation services for the entire network, effectively reducing operation costs.

The TCF-based distributed precision cloud has the following features:

Ubiquitous computing power: TCF provides telecom operators with the distributed precision cloud of cloud network synergy, one-stop provision of connection and computing power capabilities to achieve accurate match of cloud and network resources. The OpenStack and Kubernetes dual-core engines are deeply integrated to shield hardware differences. They are fully compatible with various types of hardware in the telecom network, such as general servers, BBU/OLT embedded devices, integrated machines/cabinets, and acceleration cards, which greatly saves investments. The NEO (Native Enhanced-cloud Orchestration) cloud card offloads the management module of the cloud platform from the server to the card, which physically isolates the cloud card and implements zero resource occupation, zero performance loss and zero vulnerability leakage of the server. This makes the cloud platform more secure, and can be deployed in a zero trust environment, allowing computing power everywhere.

Agile innovations: ZTE provides rich middle platform capabilities based on years of practice, to help telecom operators build open and powerful middle platform, so that enterprises can embrace innovations more agilely and bravely, and truly achieve “cloud on demand.” Rich service middle platform, data middle platform, AI middle platform, edge middle platform, and technology middle platform, which can be combined on demand to empower the industry through micro-service and API interfaces. The central cloud and edge cloud are based on the cloud-native technology stack. Service innovation can be implemented anywhere, and can be replicated in the entire network, supporting agnostic migration and scale-in/out.

Smart O&M: The unified cloud management platform implements unified management of distributed precision clouds, unified orchestration and scheduling of cloud network resources. The distributed precision cloud is integrated into the microservice-based AI capability. Through distributed intelligence and hierarchical intelligence, the closed-loop intelligent operation and maintenance from “perception” to “analysis” to “prediction” is built. Through cloud network synergy, O&M evolution, and operation evolution, network O&M can be simplified to help telecom operators to increase income and reduce expenditure, thus to improve efficiency.

The vision of ZTE’s digital transformation is to be an “ultimate cloud company.”  ZTE TCF builds the distributed precision cloud for telecom operators and enterprises to reuse and share cloud network capabilities, accelerate enterprise agile innovations and help telecom operators transform from CSP to DSP. Working with global mainstream telecom operators, ZTE has developed 500 customers in a variety of fields, such as industrial control, Internet of Vehicles (IoV), smart finance, smart agriculture, smart electric power, sports and entertainment, smart security and smart health care, to accelerate the digital transformation of thousands of industries.