Nokia launches industry’s 'most modern' data centre automation platform built for the AI era

Nokia has launched its AI era, Event-Driven Automation (EDA) platform. Nokia EDA raises the bar on data center network operations with a modern approach that builds on Kubernetes to bring highly reliable, simplified, and adaptable lifecycle management to data center networks. Aimed at driving human error in network operations to zero, Nokia’s new platform reduces network disruptions and application downtime while also decreasing operational effort up to 40%.

Ongoing digital transformation and the rise of AI applications, coupled with data center workforce shortages and skills gaps, are driving webscalers, enterprises, and service providers to scale and adapt their data center infrastructures to meet exponential demand and evolving workload requirements. As more critical workloads move to the cloud, interruptions in cloud services can have significant economic, safety and social implications. Increasing automation in cloud and networking operations is essential to respond to demand while reducing service disruptions.

Despite the benefits of network automation, a study by Enterprise Management Associates shows that most organizations have automated less than half of their data center network management tasks. Barriers to adopting automation include a lack of scalable, open, multi-vendor solutions; legacy systems and complexity requiring skilled resources; and a lack of trust in fully automated systems delivering the right outcomes.

Nokia’s new infrastructure automation platform is designed to overcome these barriers while providing a new path to addressing key challenges in today’s data center network environment.

The risk of human error and associated network downtime is mitigated through EDA’s integrated digital twin, pre- and post-deployment checkpoints, highly responsive multi-dimensional observability, and a robust CI/CD methodology with revision control. Simplicity in operations is enabled through intent-based declarative automation, GenAI assistance and a low-code/no-code approach to building customized dashboards. EDA easily integrates into multi-vendor, multi-domain environments with support for a wide range of IT service management systems, event notification systems, and cloud management platforms.

As a modern software platform, EDA builds on Kubernetes, a cloud automation and orchestration environment with millions of users worldwide, for its cloud-based microservices architecture. The platform adopts Kubernetes constructs to bring an intent-based, event-driven, and declarative approach to network automation, and complements it with network-wide transactions. Further, through leveraging Kubernetes resource model, APIs and toolchain, EDA enables network resources to be easily consumed in the same fashion as other data center applications.

EDA is available through on-prem and cloud-based “as-a-service” subscription models. The EDA app store, a cloud-inspired approach, allows operators to easily customize their automation environment.

The new Nokia platform complements the company’s Service Router (SR) Linux network operating system and extensive portfolio of data center switching and routing platforms to provide webscale and enterprise organizations access to fully modernized data center networks. By breaking down barriers for organizations to adopt automation in the data center, EDA ushers in a new era of highly reliable, simplified, and adaptable lifecycle management to data center networks designed for an AI world.

Roy Chua, Founder and Principal at AvidThink, said: “Nokia’s decision to leverage Kubernetes for its EDA platform is a smart move. Enabling the network to be managed and orchestrated in the same manner as compute will be a ground-breaking innovation for data center operations staff. EDA’s focus on enabling network-wide transactions at speed with enhanced reliability is a key differentiator for automation in swiftly evolving, business-critical data center environments.”

Vach Kompella, Senior Vice President and General Manager of IP Networks business at Nokia, said: “Our next generation EDA platform is a game-changer for data center networks. By leveraging the power of Kubernetes, we are enabling our customers to access a modern approach to network automation that significantly reduces operational effort and helps eliminate human error. This is a major step forward in our mission to deliver the world’s most trusted networks.”