ABI Research Ranks Wind River #1 in 5G Cloud-Native Platforms

ALAMEDA, CA — Wind River®, a global leader in delivering software for the intelligent edge, announced that it has been ranked #1 overall in 5G cloud-native platforms and has been named the top innovator and top implementer for Wind River Studio Operator by ABI Research, a global technology intelligence firm. ABI also named Wind River as a technology company leading the way in 2024 in its latest competitive ranking roundup which helps technology companies benchmark and organizations discover top technology solution providers.

The ABI Research competitive ranking report, “5G Cloud-Native Platforms: Kubernetes, Containers, and CaaS Layer,” assesses cloud-native platform providers. ABI Research selected the most prominent players advancing container orchestration services for telecommunications network workloads. Based on this ranking, Wind River was also included in the group of six Overall Leaders in ABI’s white paper, 23 Technology Companies Leading the Way in 2024, which summarizes the findings from six recent competitive rankings, providing a comprehensive overview of the top technology companies shaping the future.

Studio Operator enriches CaaS-layer capabilities with a robust suite of features for automating and orchestrating network operations through a single pane of glass. The ABI report recognizes the comprehensive feature set that Studio Operator offers, as it includes an integrated cloud platform, orchestration, and analytics capabilities for use at both the edge of the network and the core. This wide-scale integration simplifies 5G network management, offering telecom operators an efficient and streamlined solution.

”The market for 5G cloud-native platforms is competitive, with platforms playing a crucial role in packaging network applications and driving premium containers-as-a-service (CaaS) offerings. Wind River Studio stands out in this competitive landscape with broad innovations: advancing automation and reducing platform footprint, all while maintaining the integrity of a fully open-source solution. These innovations streamline operations and maximize cost savings,” said Nelson Englert-Yang, ABI Research industry analyst. “Additionally, Wind River is recognized for its impressive at-scale implementations with global operators. Overall, Wind River Studio has emerged as the leading solution in the 5G cloud-native platform market."

“"This recognition validates our efforts and relentless commitment to delivering scalable, efficient cutting-edge solutions for the telecommunications industry,” said Paul Miller, chief technology officer at Wind River. “As we continue to lead the competition in the 5G revolution, we remain dedicated to driving innovation and setting new benchmarks for excellence, and we are proud to be shaping the future of connectivity together with our telecom customers.”

“As an OpenInfra Foundation Platinum Member, it’s great to celebrate Wind River’s success in Wind River Studio Operator being recognized as a leading product in the telecommunications space, with open source StarlingX — the OpenInfra project at the heart of the platform. The accomplishment highlights critical capabilities that StarlingX delivers to operators, solving the challenges of how to manage and operate large-scale, distributed infrastructure efficiently and with lowered costs. It’s a success that the community shares. As one of the leading upstream contributors to the StarlingX project, Wind River demonstrates that relying on and investing in open source projects reduces time-to-market, accelerates innovation, and delivers products with increased sustainability,” said Ildikó Váncsa, director of Community at the Open Infrastructure Foundation.

With Studio Operator, Wind River has played key roles in the world’s first successful 5G data session; first Open RAN deployment in Canada; in building commercial vRAN/O-RAN programs, including one of the largest Open RAN networks in the world; and in launching the first fully automated edge data center for commercial service.

Based on the open source StarlingX project, Studio Operator provides a Kubernetes- and container-based distributed cloud architecture for the development, deployment, operations, and servicing of distributed edge networks at scale. It delivers a foundation to manage a geographically distributed network and simplifies day 1 and day 2 operations by providing a single-pane-of-glass, zero-touch automated solution. Studio Operator addresses service providers’ complex challenge of deploying and managing cloud infrastructure for core-to-edge distributed cloud networks to provide traditional RAN performance in a vRAN/Open RAN deployment.

For more information about Wind River Studio Operator, visit www.windriver.com/studio/operator.