PALO ALTO, Calif. -- VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW) today announced it has collaborated with Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. to further extend its leadership in 5G. Through this alliance, the companies seek to help Communication Service Providers (CSPs) meet the requirements of 5G networks and accelerate the roll-out of 5G by optimizing Samsung’s portfolio of telco offerings from Core to Edge to RAN for both containerized network functions (CNFs) and virtualized network functions (VNFs) with VMware Telco Cloud Platform.

As 5G continues to gain traction, CSPs will require a cloud native network that will improve the flexibility and efficiency of deploying services into new verticals faster. At the same time, CSPs can only achieve this with a cloud-first automated network designed to simplify management and operations while lowering operational costs. The Samsung and VMware collaboration aims to accelerate the innovation cycle through better network design end-to-end, and support the agility required for 5G networks. With VMware Telco Cloud Platform, CSPs can deploy a cloud native, software-defined 5G network that will accelerate the delivery of services and applications across distributed telco clouds with operational consistency, integrated lifecycle management and multi-layer automation while maintaining carrier-grade performance, scalability and reliability.

As part of this collaboration, the companies have been working together at Samsung’s lab to optimize and accelerate the readiness of Samsung’s various VNFs and CNFs, such as vRAN, 5G Core, MEC, Management, and Analytics, with the VMware Telco Cloud Platform. Samsung’s VNFs and CNFs have been and continue to be integrated with VMware’s Ready for Telco Cloud program. The VMware Ready for Telco Cloud program will support Samsung to accelerate the onboarding and deployment of their 5G-ready services on the VMware Telco Cloud Platform, thereby enabling CSPs to accelerate their time to deploy and time to revenue.

“With innovative and open 5G networks beginning to transform the landscape, Samsung sees the value in delivering carrier-grade solutions with VMware that help CSPs easily embrace cloud native technology and efficiently deliver our network functions and services across their 5G networks with automation,” said Wonil Roh, Senior Vice President and Head of Product Strategy, Networks Business at Samsung Electronics.

“The infrastructure supporting 5G will depend on virtualized and containerized network functions delivered from software-defined telco and edge cloud platforms,” said Shekar Ayyar, executive vice president and general manager, Telco and Edge Cloud Business Unit, VMware. “We are thrilled to be working with Samsung to deliver carrier-grade solutions that leverage the VMware Telco Cloud portfolio to help CSPs seize this 5G moment and transform themselves into leading technology innovators.”

“5G investments will continue to accelerate globally, and over time, CSPs will expand their focus on delivering Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) to include Ultra-Reliable Low-latency Communications (URLLC) and Massive Machine-type Communications (mMTC), leveraging new core, edge and RAN infrastructure,” said Patrick Filkins, IDC senior research analyst. “To efficiently and simultaneously support these new services, CSPs are best-served adopting cloud-native architectures that can provide the service agility, accelerated innovation and end-to-end optimization to meet today and tomorrow’s customer requirements. VMware and Samsung have demonstrated their leadership in 5G, and we see this partnership beneficial for CSPs as they modernize their network infrastructure.”