The typical network transformation journey would look something like this: Linux, VMs, Containers. But this blog is about the road less taken, and how service providers can pass virtualization by using containers and go directly to the cloud. That’s kind of a revolutionary concept. After all, many in IT have been trained to view virtualization as a necessary evolutionary step....

The fifth generation of wireless communications, 5G, has a lot of people excited: consumers, because of all the neat apps it will support, from virtual reality to self-driving cars; enterprises, for the new efficiencies it will bring through smart devices and remote-controlled factories; and mobile telco operators, for the broad number of new revenue opportunities that 5G services represent. Few...

The arrival of 5G will usher in a new era of high-bandwidth/low-latency applications, break open enterprise markets to mobile service providers, dramatically reduce network costs, make driving exams obsolete and create lasting world peace. That is, if you believe half of the things that you read about it. The reality is that 5G has a good shot at doing some...

At Affirmed Networks, we know you, mobile operators, want to successfully transition your network (and business) to 5G and ultimately become a 5G leader.  In order to do that, you need a 5G mobile network that works with you and for you – a network you completely control.  The problem is that today you don’t control your network, your legacy...

Containers, Kubernetes, and microservices form the foundation of a cloud-native architecture, but they’re not the only considerations. In fact, as I write this, the Cloud-Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) is considering adding a fourth pillar to their cloud-native requirements: the service mesh. A service mesh architecture for microservices makes sense, and in this blog, we explain why. What is a Service...

In the world of microservices, observability is an important concept. Yes, containers and automation are very important concepts too, but with microservices observability, you can see what your microservices are doing, and you have the assurance that they’re performing and behaving correctly. In the traditional telco world, this concept is known as service assurance. There are vendors who specialize in...

A few years back, the cloud community went through a kind of container craze. Everything you read seemed to be about containers and how they were going to revolutionize the software development industry. The thing is, containers are just, well, containers. They contain all the elements needed to run a particular process, which dramatically simplifies software by making it smaller...

If you haven’t heard of the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) yet, don’t worry, you will soon. Although they’ve only been around for a few years, the CNCF is already helping to shape the future by rallying developers and engineers around the importance of building cloud-native networks and applications. Key to their vision of the future is a little something...