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WirelessDevNet.com Press Release
Cisco and Nokia Siemens Networks Enter Agreement to Help Service Providers Manage Their Networks
TeleManagement World (Nice, France) – Cisco® and Nokia Siemens Networks
entered into an agreement to develop a standards-based telecommunications
network management platform that will help service providers manage the
increasing complexity of their networks and speed time to market of new
services. With the increasing challenges associated with delivering
converged services across multi-vendor networks and the high cost of custom
integration, the jointly developed Operations Support Systems (OSS)
platform will help the entire service provider community better align
network capabilities and costs with business demands.
The two companies are committed to long-term cooperation, bringing together
Cisco’s strong Internet Protocol (IP) competence and Nokia Siemens
Networks’ solid end-to-end telecommunications capability, as well as
extensive research and development (R&D) and economic resources from
both companies.
"It is not often that we see such powerful innovation in an area so
desperate for a new approach," said George Nazi, vice president of Global
Engineering, BT. "While often downplayed, the OSS is the critical engine
for our ability to support our network investment in meeting the demands of
consumers and business for new services, new technologies and new ways of
doing business. Providing a common view of the physical and virtual network
across all technologies and building a foundation for other vendors will
complement BT’s software driven network strategy to deliver superior
customer experiences."
As part of the agreement, Cisco and Nokia Siemens Networks will deliver a
solution that will provide a common end-to-end network view of diverse
network elements – across IP and mobile technologies – that are
automatically discovered and represented as a virtual network model.
Likewise, the solution will provide a complete view of network resources
regardless of platforms, technologies or vendors. The platform will include
basic fault, configuration, performance and security (FCAPS) management
functionality as well as a variety of common functions, such as data
acquisition and network element mediation, which will be utilized by
higher-level OSS applications.
"We are happy to see the equipment suppliers taking a proactive approach to
solving the integration challenges of converged networks", said Peter
Mottishaw, Senior Analyst for OSS Observer. "This is an important
announcement by Cisco and Nokia Siemens Networks with the potential to
significantly reduce OSS integration and maintenance costs for service
providers. Together the two companies provide about a quarter of network
and element management systems to service providers globally. A common,
standards-based EMS platform that exposes the full capabilities of network
elements from both companies will simplify application development,
integration and maintenance for independent software vendors and systems
integrators. This enables them to focus on the OSS application value."
Nokia Siemens Networks brings to the collaboration its proven end-to-end
telecommunications capability and its out-of-the-box software product, Open
EMS Suite by Nokia, which provides capabilities of an element management
system (EMS) and can be used to build EMS for various kinds of networks
including transport, mobile, and broadband.
“This collaboration will help our customers and the industry as a whole to
overcome the challenge of how to manage a complex jungle of network
components delivering both business and consumer services at the same time.
There is pressure from both the technical and business perspective to
create a more standardized and open architecture that will reduce the
number of interfaces and the integration and customization efforts. That is
what the joint OSS platform is all about,” says Christian Fredrikson, Head
of Operations and Business Software, Nokia Siemens Networks.
Along with its expertise in IP networking, Cisco also brings its Cisco
Active Network Abstraction (ANA) management solution to the collaboration.
Cisco ANA is already the basis for managing complex multi-vendor networks
as well as providing the base platform for new management solutions, such
as the Cisco Managed Services Solution. Cisco ANA also provides management
support for the Cisco CRS-1 routing platform.
“With the pressure on operators and service providers to reduce costs and
deliver new, converged services more quickly across their multi-vendor and
multi-technology networks, Cisco and Nokia Siemens Networks share a vision
of helping these companies gain better control over their complex
networks,” said Cliff Meltzer, senior vice president of the Network
Management Technology Group Cisco. “Running a service provider network is a
huge capital and operating expense. Our collaboration is focused directly
at allowing operators and their suppliers to focus resources on areas of
more differentiating value in their markets.”
The broader intent of the collaboration is to provide a basis for helping
OSS and other independent software vendors produce or extend their own
applications more quickly. Companies such as Amdocs are demonstrating early
support and will be leveraging the future technology from Cisco and Nokia
Siemens Networks to extend their own OSS solutions that assist with issues
such as fault management, network provisioning and inventory control.
“Building linkages between Amdocs’ industry-leading OSS applications and
the core network and network devices has always been one of the most labour
intensive parts of our many deployments,” said Guy Dubois, President,
Cramer, Amdocs OSS Division. “The collaboration between Cisco and Nokia
Siemens Networks promises to dramatically reduce the effort required and
will free resources that can be better applied to deliver more value to our
customers. This collaboration will allow service providers to deliver the
highest quality services more quickly and at even lower cost.”
Cisco and IBM already have a collaborative relationship in the OSS fault
management and service assurance segment. This announcement extends that
relationship to include interoperability with ANA.
"IBM is dedicated to helping service providers and network solution
providers transform their ability to deliver next-generation services in a
converging and highly competitive world," said Alan Ganek, CTO Tivoli
Software and VP Autonomic Computing at IBM Corporation. "Today's
announcement represents a highly differentiated new technology. IBM is
focused on being interoperable with new technologies that promise to help
more easily manage network assets, reduce complexity and add flexibility
for users. IBM is committed to delivering carrier grade software solutions
that meet today's needs and provide a safe migration path to new
technologies like ANA.”
Cisco and Nokia Siemens Networks invite TeleManagement World attendees to
visit their stands, located at booths #53 (Cisco) and #94 (Nokia Siemens
Networks), to discuss involvement in the OSS collaboration, and find out
about the Nokia NetAct network and service management system and Cisco ANA
interoperability. The TeleManagement World exhibition takes place in Nice
on May 22-24, 2007.
About Cisco Systems
Cisco, (NASDAQ: CSCO), is the worldwide leader in networking that
transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate. Cisco news and
information are available at http://www.cisco.com. For ongoing news, please
go to http://newsroom.cisco.com. Cisco equipment in Europe is supplied by
Cisco Systems International BV, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cisco Systems,
Inc.
About Nokia Siemens Networks
Nokia Siemens Networks is a leading global enabler of communications
services. The company provides a complete, well-balanced product portfolio
of mobile and fixed network infrastructure solutions and addresses the
growing demand for services with 20,000 service professionals worldwide.
The combined pro-forma net sales of €17.1 billion in fiscal year 2006 make
Nokia Siemens Networks one of the largest telecommunications infrastructure
companies. Nokia Siemens Networks has operations in some 150 countries and
is headquartered in Espoo, Finland. It combines Nokia’s Networks Business
Group and the carrier related businesses of Siemens Communications.
www.nokiasiemensnetworks.com
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