Israeli cloud-native company DriveNets, which develops centralized cloud networking software, announced that its Network Cloud platform will provide the software-based core routing solution for AT&T, one of the biggest telecommunications conglomerates in the world.
Never question the disaggregated network model again
DriveNets’s Network Cloud product is cloud-native software that turns the physical network into a shared resource supporting multiple network services in the most efficient way. It runs on standard white boxes built by ODM partners like UfiSpace, which provided the white boxes to AT&T, based on the Jericho2 chipset from Broadcom.
"We're thrilled about this opportunity to work with AT&T on their next-gen core network and proud of our engineers for meeting AT&T's rigorous certification process that field-prove the quality of our solution," said Ido Susan, CEO of DriveNets. "This announcement demonstrates to those who questioned the disaggregated network model that our Network Cloud is more scalable and cost-efficient than traditional hardware-centric routers. DriveNets is transforming the network in the same way that VMware transformed the compute and storage industry."
DriveNets Network Cloud provides extreme capacity and scale to networking service providers and cloud hyperscalers, supporting small to largest core, aggregation and peering network services. The company’s business model is designed to offer both networks scaling flexibility, similar to cloud architectures, as well as the ability to add new service offerings and scale them efficiently across the entire network.
DriveNets created a new SaaS-based network economic model that detaches network growth from network cost, lowering cost per bit, and improving network profitability and efficiency. This disruptive business model assists service providers and cloud hyperscalers in reducing both network CapEx and OpEx.
The Covid-19 pandemic highlighted the pressing need for infrastructure to be able to scale flexibly and convey the exponential demands of 5G, broadband and entertainment content services, as well as AI and Edge applications. DriveNets Network Cloud solution perfectly fits the vision of AT&T and other leading service providers and cloud hyperscalers for the evolution of the network to be open, agile, cost-effective, and software based.
"I'm proud to announce today that we have now deployed a next gen IP/MPLS core routing platform into our production network based on the open hardware designs we submitted to OCP last fall," said Andre Fuetsch, AT&T's CTO of Network Services, in his keynote speech at the Open Networking and Edge Summit (ONES). "We chose DriveNets, a disruptive supplier, to provide the Network Operating System (NOS) software for this core use case."
DriveNets was founded in 2015 by veteran entrepreneurs CEO Ido Susan, who previously co-founded Intucell, which first developed self-organizing-networks and was later acquired by Cisco for $475 million, and by CSO Hillel Kobrinsky, who co-founded Interwise, which was acquired by none other than AT&T for $121 million. The Ra’ananna, Israel-based company employs around 200 people and has raised a total of $117 million to date.
