Japanese Telecom Deploys Hybrid Kubernetes and OpenStack Cloud to Enable Containers in the Enterprise

• Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Connectivity Platforms
• Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Hybrid Cloud

• Telecommunications

• Business Operation
• Product Research & Development

• Process Control & Optimization
• Edge Computing & Edge Intelligence
• Predictive Maintenance

• Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services
• System Integration
• Software Design & Engineering Services

The operator, a leading telecommunications company based in Japan, was looking to offer Kubernetes to enterprise customers interested in running cloud-native applications. They wanted to deploy Kubernetes as part of a hybrid environment that would give clients the flexibility of accessing VMs, containers or baremetal instances as needed. The operator was also interested in creating internal business applications with microservices and needed to provide containers to internal development teams. One of the benefits they saw in Kubernetes was the ability to reduce hypervisor overhead by running containers on baremetal. The operator was using legacy VMware based virtualization infrastructure, which required not only significant hypervisor resources, but also a lot of effort to operate and troubleshoot, not to mention downtime from periodic version upgrades.

The customer is a leading telecommunications operator based in Japan. They provide a range of services including fixed line and mobile telephony, Internet and digital television services. In addition to these services, the operator also runs an ICT business that offers datacenter services in many countries throughout the Asia Pacific region. The operator is a large enterprise with over 10,000 employees. They are looking to expand their offerings and enter the cloud-native enterprise market. To do this, they are exploring the use of Kubernetes and other cloud technologies.

The operator turned to Mirantis for its dual Kubernetes and OpenStack integration in Mirantis Cloud Platform (MCP) and commenced a three-month proof of concept (PoC) to verify its capabilities. Mirantis partner CTC served as the primary system integrator for application deployment on containers. In the PoC, the operator wanted to perform functional testing of deploying containers on the company’s internal Metal-as-a-Service platform (MaaS), deploying containers using Kubernetes on both baremetal and on top of OpenStack, deploying VMs using OpenStack, and connecting containers and VMs using SDN (including OpenContrail). Mirantis Cloud Platform was integrated with a vMX virtual router to allow connections between VMs using OpenContrail and containers using Calico network virtualization. Mirantis also helped the operator set up and configure Spinnaker, which was used to deploy containerized applications into a public cloud running on AWS, as well as into the private cloud using Kubernetes to deploy on baremetal and on top of OpenStack.

• The operator was able to demonstrate a hybrid Kubernetes and OpenStack environment with multiple design patterns.
• Mirantis successfully completed all of the work scoped for the PoC, including the environment preparation, performance tests, and identification of possible issues with future commercial use of the hybrid cloud.
• The operator was very satisfied with the service they received from Mirantis deployment and support teams during the PoC.

• The operator was able to complete the deployment in only three weeks despite the initial delay in physical server preparation.
• The operator is now surveying customers to identify applications appropriate for container technology and cloud-native design and expects to soon deploy a hybrid OpenStack and Kubernetes cloud in production to meet client needs.