MWC BARCELONA - Red Hat, Inc., the world leading provider of open source solutions, today announced that KDDI Corporation, a Japanese telecommunications operator, has chosen Red Hat to provide an open standard platform for their mobile network services including their 5G core and more. With Red Hat OpenShift, the industry’s leading hybrid cloud application platform powered by Kubernetes,Red Hat OpenStack Platform and Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform, KDDI is able to more quickly and flexibly develop and deploy new services and applications that can meet evolving market demands.

A 5G core enables network slicing and additional compelling ultra-low latency services and applications. KDDI’s new platform will be optimized for these services, with the added ability to provide high bandwidth and increased reliability. In addition, the new platform can host legacy workload such as LTE, fixed line voice services and value-added services. In working with Red Hat, KDDI aims to benefit from:

• More efficient and unified operations with integrated multi-tenant management across the full platform from the core to the edge and support of legacy workloads to cloud-native;
• Increased resilience and consistent operations from the core to the edge and the ability to run both virtual network functions (VNFs) and cloud-native network functions (CNFs) side by side in their network with Red Hat OpenShift and Red Hat OpenStack Platform;
• Greater flexibility and agility in the deployment of network applications;
• Lower operational costs due to the ability to scale dynamically as needed;
• Easier manageability and faster upgrades of multivendor 5G core workloads using automation and zero touch provisioning.

Red Hat and KDDI share a common vision to accelerate 5G and edge workloads across any network landscape by collaborating through a diverse partner ecosystem to drive innovation and rapid deployment for new services. KDDI recognizes Red Hat’s vast ecosystem and longstanding history as an open source leader. With this decision, KDDI will be able to better work with ecosystem partners to advance open cloud-native innovations and unlock new and emerging technologies to fuel next-generation 5G services. In the coming months, Red Hat and KDDI plan to publish a new white paper that delves deeper into the platform design.

Supporting Quotes

Honoré LaBourdette, acting senior vice president, Global Telco, and vice president, Telco, Media and Entertainment Partner Ecosystem, Red Hat

“Red Hat is thrilled to work with KDDI Corporation to help scale and modernize their networks. It’s clear that the industry is moving towards an open, hybrid cloud approach and Red Hat is perfectly positioned to help build on this momentum. With this open, standard platform, KDDI can benefit from an expansion of new services, applications and revenue streams - propelling their business forward for 5G and beyond.”

Tatsuo Sato, vice president & managing officer network and cloud platform, KDDI

“With Red Hat open hybrid cloud technologies, KDDI is able to create an expanded ecosystem of service providers. By implementing an open approach, KDDI can enhance our platform to provide a higher quality of service with more efficient operations.”