TM Forum launches online Open API lab with IBM

• Lab created in collaboration with IBM and Neural Technologies
• To enable CSPs to develop new services using TM Forum’s Open APIs
• Online platform hosted on IBM Cloud
• The TM Forum has produced a suite of over 50 Open APIs

The TM Forum has launched an online Open API lab “platform” that it hopes will accelerate innovation for service providers and suppliers. The Forum says the lab provides an environment where users can learn, innovate and develop applications and new digital services. The platform was developed with IBM and Neural technologies and is hosted on the IBM Cloud.

“The TM Forum Open API lab is the next step in our support for designers, architects and developers to accelerate innovation,” said Joann O’Brien, Vice President APIs and Ecosystems at TM Forum. “The Open APIs enable organisations to reap the rewards of operational agility and business model innovation as it provides a great environment for experimentation and prototype development.”

By leveraging IBM Cloud, open source capabilities, and Neural Technologies’ Optimus platform, the Forum hopes that the lab will enable faster deployment of its Open APIs, as well as providing access to many open source technologies, such as Node.js, OAuth2 and Connect ID. The lab will also have capabilities to build and check the application of Open APIs in the TM Forum’s proof-of-concept Catalyst projects.

“As CSPs look to digitally reinvent their businesses and to support rapidly increasing network demands, APIs and microservices are combining with cloud as the platform for digital innovation,” said Steve Canepa, Managing Director, Global Telecommunications, Media & Entertainment Industry, IBM. “The IBM Cloud, secure to the core and built to enable agile enterprises, allows CSPs to have access to a rich set of platform services and AI that can be combined with the TM Forum Open APIs to speed the development of new digital services and the modernization of existing applications.”

Lab users will have access to an Open API component framework developed by members that will demonstrate how the APIs can be used as a suite to manage end-to-end services as part of a flow of capabilities.

“We believe that the TM Forum Open API Lab initiative will play a key part in digital transformation strategies, and that the Optimus Platform from Neural Technologies will drive enterprises into achieving complete digitization of their business,” said Kai Sui, CEO of Neural Technologies.

The TM Forum has produced a suite of over 50 Open APIs that it says have been used by over 670 companies and downloaded more than 22,000 times. The Open API lab is available now, with Catalyst and componentized framework capabilities expected to be delivered by May 2018.