InfoVista Joins Leading OSS Vendors in Defining an End-to-End Cloud Computing Services Management Framework
PARIS, France and HERNDON, Virginia—– May 10, 2011 – Infovista, the global leader of IP and RF planning, assurance and optimization software solutions, today announced a second phase of the Enhanced Cloud Service Management Catalyst that will explore how communications service providers (CSPs) can develop, monetise and assure a portfolio of innovative and unique cloud computing-based services.
Building on the Inter-Cloud Service Management Catalyst, which was demonstrated at TM Forum’s Management World 2010 conference, the proof-of-concept initiative includes a number of new participants, as its objectives broaden from the fulfillment of cloud services to the operational processes associated with assurance, usage collection, billing, rating and charging.
The collaboration, which involves BT, Cisco, Amartus, Comptel, Infovista, MetraTech and Progress Software, will look to define an intelligent infrastructure and management approach that will allow CSPs to achieve service differentiation, reduced costs, and access to new revenue streams and markets through portfolios of enhanced cloud services.
The Catalyst will be demonstrated live in Forumville at TM Forum’s Management World 2011, taking place 23-26 May in Dublin, Ireland.
Key Facts
• BT, as a champion of the Enhanced Cloud Service Management Catalyst, serves as an enterprise consumer and retailer of complex cloud computing services, providing the context for exploring how BT can provide unique business value through an ‘enhanced’ cloud computing service, in this case utilising Telepresence as part of a cloud computing service.
• The Cisco® Hosted Collaboration Solution provides a scalable, distributable, partitionable and resilient Internet Protocol (IP) communications platform that supports the delivery of hosted collaboration tools (such as video, voice and web conferencing, telephony, messaging, presence and more) as a cloud computing-based service.
• Cisco provides the underlying IP Next-Generation Network management components, which can monitor and provide visibility into the health of the service transport network. Cisco Prime Network is controlled through the MTOSI interface to adjust the quality of service (QoS) of a branch office VPN. The Catalyst demo shows how “end-user experience” for Cisco TelePresence™ is repaired in an automated fashion using integrated policy management.
• Amartus’ role in the unified communications solution is to present a TM Forum MTOSI interface that isolates the other software components from integration with non-standards management interfaces at the network layer. The benefits of this approach are faster ‘time to market’, reduced integration / maintenance and vendor independence. The MTOSI interface is delivered using the advanced model driven mediation capabilities of the Amartus Chameleon OS™.
• Comptel was responsible for orchestrating the delivery of the unified communications services in phase one and is now taking a key role in the monetisation by capturing and rating usage and performance data from the infrastructure. Comptel will provide its mediation and rating engine, Comptel Control and Charge™, to collect usage data and to couple policy control capabilities tightly with charging.
• Infovista’s role is to proactively monitor the complex and part-virtualized infrastructure, service and application environment. This entails detailed monitoring of assigned QoS, service utilisation and availability of the provisioned unified communications services, leading to key performance indicators and alerts being leveraged by the other participating software solutions.
• MetraTech’s billing solution, MetraNet, is used to complete the billing process, providing the data needed for managing the financial aspects of policy controls and supporting the other customer care activities that surround the typically complex hierarchies and payment authorities of an enterprise customer's bill. By aligning event performance data with product-rated usage data and the particular contract terms of Service Level Agreements for each enterprise user, MetraNet is able to calculate appropriate charges or credits.
• Progress Software provides data interoperability services with its Progress® Responsive Business Integration (RBI), a comprehensive integration suite that extends the agility of service orientation to include flexible data and policy change. Using RBI, organizations can design new business capabilities for continuous change, with increased information transparency and integration integrity across distributed IT and federated SOA deployments.
Supporting Quotes
• “All CSPs need to better understand how key services can be utilised to deliver more innovative services to customers, and to explore how these often complex services can be assured and monetised,” said Steve Orobec, lead OSS standards manager and enterprise architect, BT.
• “The Enhanced Cloud Service Management Catalyst provides an opportunity to explore how the delivery, performance and monetisation of enhanced cloud computing and collaboration services can be managed without any negative fallout for CSPs,” said Tom Caldwell, director of technical marketing, Network Management Technology Group, Cisco.
• “As the usage of hosted unified communications and collaboration services increases, it is even more critical for CSPs to closely manage the fulfillment and orchestration and charging and monetising of these offerings,” said Gareth Senior, chief technology officer, Comptel. “In this phase of the Catalyst, we are pleased to show how operators can exercise flexible policy control and charging capabilities with cloud-based technologies to achieve service differentiation and personalisation and optimise the enterprise customer experience.”