The deployment means that Telstra customers are now set to enjoy a new level of service as the Cisco NSO delivers a faster time to service and less delay in new service introductions or changes.
Cisco's new automated solution deployed by Telstra turns older processes on their head and provides additional reassurance with its always on integrity check running in the background.
First of all it is software driven not hardware driven, so instead of manual detectors and probes a "virtual" probe is immediately installed providing the same, if not greater, level of carrier class assurance in a fraction of the time and a fraction of the cost. Upgrades and enhancements are also easily introduced to the automation process as software downloads ensure a continuous flow of enhancements, rather than the "intermittent" hardware upgrade, keeping the system consistently up to date.
Cisco's NSO is also proactive not reactive: carriers currently respond to customer concerns by initiating a series of manual tests, with often limited resources, to ascertain the fault and then rectify any issue. This is not only inefficient, time consuming, and costly for the carrier but also for the customer. With automated assurance, a "virtual probe" can be immediately enabled on the system once it's deployed, consistently monitoring the service and proactively notifying the carrier of potential problems before the customer notices them. The result is a better SLA, a happier customer and less cost for the carrier.
Although orchestrated provisioning is gaining traction with a number of carriers, Telstra has seized the initiative and will be the first to automate the full lifecycle of its network and enterprise services.
Telstra's deployment of orchestrated assurance is based on a recent ETSI NFV Proof of Concept using open third-party software that is easily deployed and activated on demand. The implementation is part of Telstra's strategic migration to cloud based services, leveraging virtual test agents and other software to ensure services are delivered right first time, and to provide constant measurements of QoS levels, individual end-to-end services and applications along with network KPIs.
