Open Network Featured Article

Open networking is not necessarily a new concept, but it’s only been in recent years where, across network development, it is a key theme. And as development becomes more modular, IT teams piece together the perfect network infrastructure. A key component of the digital transformation taking place is software defined technologies, and recently AT&T (News - Alert) invested in the disruption at hand.

AT&T invested up to $200 million via venture funding initiatives into a venture capital fund aimed at accelerating connected services and platform technologies. The carrier is counting on Coral’s Communications Industry Platform (CIP) to identify and invest in start-ups showing the opportunity for disruption.

“The CIP solutions are targeted at large, move-the-needle opportunities initiated by our strategic collaborators,” said Yuval Almog, chairman and founder of Coral Group. “We are pleased to welcome AT&T to the CIP.”

The fund is also focused on supporting technologies that run on the open Network Automation (News - Alert) Platform (ONAP) – an open source platform hosted by the Linux Foundation, which already manages the AT&T cloud network.

“This investment is part of our push to address the needs of global service providers,” said Andre Fuetsch, chief technology officer and president of AT&T Labs (News - Alert). “We look forward to collaborating with Coral and other CIP members to find – and even create – startup companies to build disruptive technologies to solve these challenges.” 

This initiative is a logical next step for AT&T, building on the AT&T Foundry and AT&T Labs innovation centers. The truth is clear: the future is set to be software-defined, and AT&T sees the writing on the wall.

Only time will tell what results come of this open networking collaboration, but all signs point to success.