New ODA Canvas tool from Microsoft advances cloud-native telco software interoperability

A new announcement with Microsoft at TM Forum’s Innovate Asia marks important progress in providing communications service providers (CSPs) with a standardized operating environment where they can deploy cloud-native, interoperable plug-and-play IT and network software components, using TM Forum’s Open Digital Architecture (ODA) Canvas.

It also points to a shift in how CSPs will be able to purchase and use business support system (BSS) and operational support system (OSS) software within different cloud environments.

Microsoft has unveiled the commercial availability of its ODA Canvas Operators for TM Forum’s ODA Reference Canvas through GitHub. Connectors enable developers to easily build an ODA Canvas on Microsoft Azure and integrate Microsoft services.

The ODA Canvas itself is designed to drastically simplify the integration and management of new software components into telcos’ existing IT environments. As the diagram below illustrates, CSPs can use the ODA Canvas to automate the integration and operation of billing account management, or resource order management [AT1] software, for example, as modular, cloud-native components on a Kubernetes-based platform.

This allows telcos to move away from an experience of upgrading legacy BSS / OSS which Dr. Lester Thomas, Head of New Technologies and Innovation at Vodafone, compares to a “lung and heart transplant”. Instead, they will be able to automatically plug in and use new cloud-native software features that are ODA-compliant.

“It's very important because how we procure and then deploy software today is too hard,” explains Thomas. “Every single vendor solution we have is architected in a slightly different way and they make slightly different choices when building their software”. This makes upgrading or replacing software costly and complex at best, even though systems from different vendors are “very similar in that they tend to be microservice software based on Kubernetes”, says Thomas.

Canvas pioneer

Vodafone has been an industry leader in ODA development. It is one of the founding members of TM Forum’s Innovation Hub, which has helped accelerate collaboration by TM Forum members to create a fully open-source ODA Reference Canvas.

As a recent article for Inform explains, Bell Canada, DT, Jio and Orange are also building ODA-compliant Canvasses. Google and Microsoft, which are part of TM Forum’s Innovation Hub, have each built their own canvas. Other cloud companies involved in development of the reference Canvas outside the Innovation Hub include Amazon Web Services (AWS), which has developed its own ODA-compliant canvas, Oracle, and Whale Cloud Technology, and Amdocs is one of the major independent software vendors using the framework when hosting components on Azure.

As for implementation, Vodafone Greece is already using the ODA Canvas in a live environment, ahead of the reference implementation becoming generally available to the industry in early 2025.

Vodafone’s experience of using the ODA Canvas in Greece is one of the reasons Thomas believes “we can improve our agility and improve our operational efficiency by at least a factor of 10.” From the 1st of January, Vodafone will expect its IT suppliers to demonstrate their commitment to adopting the ODA Canvas. The operator took a similar approach to helping drive Open API adoption by making compliance a pre-requisite of winning a contract.

“We think it is a win-win for everyone involved because it doesn’t help them sell to us if their software is hard to adopt,” says Thomas.

Reducing complexity

Longer term, the ODA Canvas promises to make it easier for CSPs to move workloads from one cloud to another, while also encouraging innovation by cloud and software companies.

“It's important when you build a standard not to hinder innovation,” says Thomas. “So, a big part of the ODA Canvas standard is how you can allow cloud providers to offer innovative solutions.”

By making assets for its iteration of ODA Canvas available through GitHub, for example, Microsoft can enable smaller telco partners with relatively limited IT resources to deploy the canvas within Azure using the same tools as the biggest players.

Jayant Mishra, Senior Industry Digital Strategist at Microsoft, who is a participant in the Innovation Hub, commented at DTW24 that: “Having an entire GitHub repository – wherein we just go and do a pull request and then we will have a complete Kubernetes-based environment ready with all the security, monitoring, logging and API management in place in which ISV [independent software vendor] partners can deploy their components and integrate and test their components – that is the ultimate North Star.”

This would give developers at smaller software companies and CSPs the same tools as industry giants, thereby fostering a more competitive and diverse telecom ecosystem. Nonetheless there will probably be differences between how companies deploy a canvas.

Larger CSPs with a multicloud approach are likely to build an ODA-compliant canvas in-house that serves as a modular platform for operating software and services from different cloud or software providers. They will find it easier to swap out software components and move workloads from one cloud to another.

Smaller CSPs with fewer internal IT resources, however, may opt for a Canvas service built with modules from different companies.

Exos Systems, a UK consultancy that works with Microsoft, is one of the early users of Azure’s ODA Canvas implementation.

One of its deployments of Azure API Management (APIM) involves centralizing authentication and authorization across services, ensuring strong security protocols.

“Our Canvas implementation makes use of foundational Azure capabilities like Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) for hosting ODA components and provides deployment patterns for identity and access management via Azure Active Directory (AAD), observability via Azure Monitor, and other supporting functions related to the ODA Canvas on Azure,” according to Andrew Murphy, Director, Exos Systems.

“Assets for the solution are available on the ODA-CA GitHub repository, enabling CSPs to easily deploy the ODA Canvas on their Azure subscriptions,” he said.

“Microsoft’s contribution of commercially supported Canvas Operators to the TM Forum Reference ODA Canvas is a significant step towards making the vision of a truly interoperable and open ODA ecosystem a reality,” according to George Glass, CTO, TM Forum. “Microsoft is empowering CSPs of all sizes to build and deploy carrier-grade open-source ODA Canvases tailored to their specific needs. This is a powerful example of the collaborative innovation that’s required to drive the global telco industry towards a more agile and efficient future.”