Vodafone Greece leads the way on automation with ODA Canvas

Vodafone Greece is breaking new ground with its use of TM Forum’s Open Digital Architecture (ODA) Canvas in a live, commercial environment. And it is already reaping several benefits from the implementation, according to Christos Sotiriou, Principal Architect Platforms Design, Vodafone Greece, in an interview with TM Forum’s Inform.

The ODA Canvas builds on the standardized cloud-native enterprise architecture blueprint of ODA to enable telcos to automate the integration of new cloud-native software components into their existing IT environments. Using the Canvas, telcos can then take a modular approach to operating cloud-native components on a Kubernetes-based platform.

Vodafone Greece turned to ODA in 2022 to help modernize its Core IT systems, which are home to its operational and business support systems (OSS / BSS). This initiative reflects a wider drive by Vodafone Group to modernize, automate and simplify its IT estate so that it can create customer-centric services more quickly.

Vodafone Greece had already gained experience of using microservices when creating in-house middleware. Called Digital eXperience Layer (DXL), the middleware connects 200 microservices to corporate backend systems.

Its vision for Core IT, however, was “not to merely create another middleware layer but to build a more comprehensive solution that, in certain scenarios, could fulfill middleware functions and beyond,” writes Sotiriou in an article about Greece's IT transformation published by Vodafone.

Corporate IT, however, “is insanely more complex than DXL,” explains Sotiriou to Inform. Not only does it encompass more than 150 applications and systems “it was already live and running.”

Building a flexible architecture

The company started by adapting ODA to its specific needs to create CELL, which stands for Componentized Enterprise Logical Layer. CELL gave Vodafone Greece the means to address its immediate operational challenges and to establish a scalable and flexible architecture for Core IT.

ODA Canvas, meanwhile, would provide the means to automate operations. However, when it came to adopting the Canvas the company had to be prepared to be a first mover: The reference implementation of ODA Canvas will only become generally available to the industry in early 2025,

Fortunately for Sotiriou and his teams, Vodafone Group has played a crucial role in creating a fully open-source ODA Reference Canvas under the leadership of Lester Thomas, Head of New Technologies & Innovation, Vodafone Digital & IT. It is also a leader of collaboration work to accelerate ODA Canvas development within TM Forum’s Innovation Hub.

As a result, when it came to deploying CELL and CELL Canvas “the timing was just right. We had finished the first [DXL] transformation … and we had learned a lot of lessons that we could apply to the next one.”

Automating operations

Vodafone Greece’s deployment of CELL Canvas is already delivering higher productivity and lower costs through automation, starting with the eradication of manual API configuration.

“After you have written the code for a new customer journey … it takes us three seconds to configure an API gateway using the ODA Canvas,” says Sotiriou, compared to two weeks when performing the same task manually.

Another advantage is the ability to reuse microservices. “The architecture enables microservices to be shared across different clusters effortlessly, ensuring compatibility and functionality without concern for the specific environment,” notes Sotiriou in his article.

Other benefits include seamless configuration of the infrastructure and communication between components.

“With a functioning ODA canvas present in any cluster, a microservice and its accompanying Helm charts can be deployed to a new cluster and will ‘Just Work,’” notes Sotiriou.

Cloud-native options

When it comes to adapting legacy applications for a cloud-native platform companies can choose to “wrap legacy application stacks in ODA, says Sotiriou, adding: “You don't have to rewrite your entire stack, you just have to organize it and then automate it.”

“The amount of work that needs to be done,” he advises, “boils down to what your company's needs are, who your clients are, what your journeys are, and of course, what end state means for you.”

Now Sotiriou hopes other telcos will learn from Greece’s experience with ODA and ODA Canvas, including within the Vodafone Group.

“It’s just much, much easier and more accessible as a technology and also as a continuous integration system,” he says. “The ODA is a companywide accepted architecture, we have already been in talks with other countries about what the ODA and the ODA Canvas have to offer in terms of reusability, infrastructure, automation and development efficiency.”

Read the article CELL - Reimagining IT Infrastructure to find out more.