DTW23-Ignite: Hyperscalers, telcos and software vendors build ODA momentum

Leading hyperscalers, telcos and vendors have put their weight behind TM Forum’s Open Digital Architecture (ODA) in a series of announcements at DTW23-Ignite, which include moves by Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google and Microsoft to simplify telco operations in a multi-cloud environment.

ODA provides the blueprint for a composable plug-and-play telco architecture, built on industry-agreed, modular, reusable software components and Open APIs. It helps telcos reduce costs and speed up innovation by replacing traditional operational and business support systems (OSS/BSS) with a modern, cloud-native approach.

At last year’s DTW, Axiata, Jio and Vodafone became the world’s first communications service providers (CSPs) to achieve “running on ODA” status, followed by Telus. This year they are joined by CityFibre, Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telia, and Telstra. As a result, TM Forum estimates that more than 1 billion telecom subscribers worldwide now use networks that run on ODA.

Telcos’ suppliers play an essential role in ensuring software products and cloud infrastructure conform with ODA. And if telcos are to control costs and reduce complexity in a multi-cloud environment, then they need a standardized approach to running ODA-compliant software on any cloud platform.

To this end, hyperscalers AWS, Google and Microsoft have all built cloud-ready ODA Canvases, along with China Mobile and Oracle. The ODA Canvas standardizes security, observability and other software management processes, making it easier for CSPs and vendors to integrate software and speed up DevOps and Site Reliability Engineering without extensive customization.

Telcos also require ODA-compliant software. TM Forum has announced that eight leading telco software vendors are now ready for ODA: Alvatross, CSG, Ericsson, Hansen Technologies, Huawei, Netcracker, Oracle, and Whale Cloud have built products conformant with the ODA key principles and standards.

"The telecoms industry has a pressing need to change the way software is procured, integrated, operated and upgraded,” according to Nik Willetts, CEO of TM Forum. “ODA provides the blueprint for this, and we’re excited to see so much industry commitment behind it – from our ‘Running on ODA’ CSPs, to our ‘Ready for ODA’ vendors. This level of commitment is a testament to ODA’s growing impact, which is redefining how we think about software as an industry. It’s also a great example of how our CSP and vendor members are working together to improve the experience for end customers across the world.”

Read our ODA ebook Build for the future: using ODA components for a plug-and-play architecture to find out more.