VMware Drives Communication Service Provider Cloud Transformation with Comprehensive Network Functions Virtualization Initiative

BARCELONA, SPAIN--(Marketwired - October 13, 2015) -

• Generally Available VMware® vCloud NFV™ Simplifies Adoption of a Multi-Function, Multi-Vendor NFV Platform
• VMware Ready™ for NFV Program Validates Interoperability with NFV Partner Solutions
• VMware and Partners Deliver Carrier-Grade Support Services to Meet Unique Requirements of CSPs

VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW) today announced new network functions virtualization (NFV) offerings to help communications services providers (CSPs) accelerate their implementations of NFV. Today's announcement includes the general availability of the VMware vCloud® NFV™ platform, a new VMware Ready™ for NFV accreditation program and new carrier-grade services delivered by VMware and VMware partners. These solutions and partnerships will be featured this week at VMworld® 2015 Europe in Barcelona.

Communication Service Providers (CSPs) are transforming their businesses with NFV that helps them lower costs considerably and enables rapid and agile service innovation. In doing so, they aim to reverse the trend of margin erosion driven by the high cost of infrastructure and lack of service differentiation. Two primary models of NFV deployment have emerged, one based on custom software stacks and the other based on a common virtualization platform. A recent whitepaper published by ACG Research⁽¹⁾concludes that in the long run the common platform model advocated by VMware has much more agility and cost savings at scale.

"A common platform approach supports a sustainable business model and is the only approach that breaks the linear connection between growth and cost, freeing operators to innovate at speed and scale," said Michael Kennedy, principal analyst for ACG Research. "The low-cost NFV nodes of the common platform and ability to produce sustained labor productivity and asset efficiency gains are shown to achieve payback in under a year and produce more than 350 percent ROI over five years."

VMware vCloud NFV - A Unified, Multi-Function, Multi-Vendor Platform

VMware vCloud NFV brings together the core virtualization and management components required to accelerate NFV deployment. VMware vCloud NFV enables CSPs to deploy a unified, multi-vendor and multi-function NFV platform that supports any application at all stages of cloud evolution. The vCloud NFV platform supports more than 40 virtual network functions from 30 different virtualized network functions (VNF) vendors, the most of any solution on the market. The platform enables IT to leverage existing skills and operational experience with VMware virtualization, providing a faster and smoother implementation and ongoing management of Telco clouds. VMware vCloud NFV includes the following components:

• Production-Proven NFVI Solutions: VMware vSphere® is the company's industry-defining virtualization solution that delivers high performance, scale and availability for mobility and fixed line services in the cloud. VMware Virtual SAN™ is fully integrated into the VMware stack to support the most demanding mobile core and IMS functions, delivering better performance than a virtual appliance or external device for supporting the storage requirements of network functions and services. VMware NSX® is the industry's leading network virtualization platform that provides critical L2/L3 networking features in software to help CSPs realize the benefits of server virtualization for the entire data center / central office construct.
• Openness and Choice in Cloud Management: VMware provides flexible options for virtual infrastructure management (VIM) through VMware vCloud Director®-SP and VMware Integrated OpenStack. VMware vCloud Director addresses NFV needs through new self-service provisioning capabilities, vApp enhancements and tenant throttling. VMware Integrated OpenStack is Kilo-based, and includes load-balancing as a service (LBaaS), Ceilometer and Heat Auto Scaling to make VMware-based OpenStack clouds more scalable, performant and resilient.
• Service Assurance with Day 2 and Ongoing Operations: VMware offers CSPs fully integrated and unified operations tools to deliver ongoing service assurance for multi-tenant network functions. VMware vRealize® Operations Insight™ and VMware vSphere with Operations Management™ deliver exceptional Quality of Experience to help achieve end subscriber stickiness and ultimately drive increased revenues.

"VMware's technology is enabling leading global service providers such as Vodafone, Ooredoo, IIJ, and Vip Mobile deliver mission critical network functions spanning mobile core and cloud," said Shekar Ayyar, corporate senior vice president and general manager, Telco NFV Group at VMware. "We continue to double down on our efforts to help CSPs create one consistent infrastructure environment to rapidly and securely build, run and deliver any traditional or cloud-native virtual network function."

New VMware Ready for NFV Program - Building Trust and Confidence for Global CSPs

VMware Ready for NFV will allow partners to certify their VNFs to ensure compatibility with VMware NFV infrastructure. The VMware Ready certification provides CSPs with the confidence that NFV solutions will deploy, run, and interoperate with vCloud NFV. The VMware Ready program designates VMware's highest level of endorsement for products and solutions created by our established partners, and accreditation builds customer confidence and accelerates partner opportunity. Initial partners committing to the VMware Ready NFV Program include Affirmed Networks, Brocade, Metaswitch, Mitel, NEC, VeloCloud and Versa Networks.

New VMware Carrier-Grade Support for NFV Deployments

Carrier-grade support delivered by VMware and its partners reduces the risk of performance degradation and outages, while increasing operational efficiency for CSPs. VMware's carrier-grade support offering will include enhanced SLAs around response and restoration of service, SLAs for problem resolution, proactive environment monitoring, dedicated account management, dedicated senior support engineers and enhanced engineering support.

VMware Partnership with Nokia Networks for Carrier-Grade Support

Nokia Networks' customers have been running VoLTE services on VMware cloud infrastructure since 2014 and the company's first commercial VNF products for VoLTE also run on VMware cloud infrastructure. Nokia TotalCare for VMware is a care package available through Nokia cloud wise Care Services. It supports operators' VMware deployments with an extended SLA and Nokia Networks as the only contact interface towards customers. Nokia Networks provides committed target times utilizing its best O&M practices and processes.

Read more about what partners are saying about their collaboration with VMware in the NFV market

NFV Partner Pavilion @ VMworld

VMware's unique value proposition comes from our vast ecosystem of partners, and VMware's ability to deliver a single NFV platform that supports a multi-vendor NFV strategy. At VMworld 2015 Europe, we will feature this ecosystem in the first-ever VMworld NFV Solutions Exchange. With a focus on sharing experiences from real world NFV deployments, the NFV Partner Pavilion will include a range of NFV demonstrations for mobile and fixed line operators. Solution areas span hardware platforms, mobile core and virtual CPE Virtual Network Function (VNFs), service orchestration, OSS and BSS. Partners include Affirmed Networks, Amdocs, Brocade, Dell, EMC, GigaSpaces, Metaswitch Networks, Nokia and Versa Networks.

Additional Resources

• Read VMware's perspective on the NFV market in this blog by Shekar Ayyar.
• Learn more about the VMware vCloud NFV Platform
• Go to VMworld.com to watch a live stream of the VMworld 2015 Keynote today at 09:00 CEST
• Go to the VMworld 2015 Online Press Kit
• Connect with VMware on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+

About VMware

VMware is a global leader in cloud infrastructure and business mobility. Built on VMware's industry-leading virtualization technology, our solutions deliver a brave new model of IT that is fluid, instant and more secure. Customers can innovate faster by rapidly developing, automatically delivering and more safely consuming any application. With 2014 revenues of $6 billion, VMware has more than 500,000 customers and 75,000 partners. The company is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the world and can be found online at www.vmware.com.

1 - ACG Research, "Business Case for a Common NFV Platform", August 16, 2015. Whitepaper published by ACG Research and sponsored by VMware and Affirmed Networks, VMware, vCloud, vCloud NFV, VMware Ready, VMworld, vSphere, Virtual SAN, NSX, vCloud, vCloud Director, vRealize, Operations Insight, and vSphere with Operations Management, vCloud NFV. VMware NSX, vRealize, vRealize Operations and Virtual SAN, are registered trademarks or trademarks of VMware, Inc. in the United States and other jurisdictions. The use of the word "partner" or "partnership" does not imply a legal partnership relationship between VMware and any other company.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements including, among other things, statements regarding VMware vCloud NFV platform technologies, Ready for NFV accreditation program and carrier-grade services and support, the expected availability and features of VMware NFV offerings, products and services, future integrations of these technologies with other technologies, benefits to customers and partners, and the potential benefits of these products and technologies to markets and growth. These forward-looking statements are subject to the safe harbor provisions created by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results could differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of certain risk factors, including but not limited to (i) changes to priorities and spending allocations; (ii) adverse changes in general economic or market conditions; (iii) delays or reductions in information technology spending; (iv) competitive factors, including but not limited to pricing pressures, industry consolidation, entry of new competitors into the enterprise software and cloud computing markets, and new product and marketing initiatives by our competitors; (v) our customers' ability to develop, and to transition to, new products and computing strategies such as cloud computing and software-defined data centers; (vi) the uncertainty of customer acceptance of emerging technology; (vii) rapid technological and market changes in virtualization software and application platforms for enterprise computing; (viii) changes to product development timelines; (ix) the successful interoperability and integration of the technologies involved; (x) VMware's ability to protect its proprietary technology; and (xi) VMware's ability to attract and retain highly qualified employees. These forward looking statements are based on current expectations and are subject to uncertainties and changes in condition, significance, value and effect as well as other risks detailed in documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our most recent reports on Form 10-K and Form 10-Q and current reports on Form 8-K that we may file from time to time, which could cause actual results to vary from expectations. VMware assumes no obligation to, and does not currently intend to, update any such forward-looking statements after the date of this release.