AI era dawns for data centres with Nokia’s EDA platform

Nokia has announced the launch of its Event-Driven Automation (EDA) platform, designed to modernise data centre network operations in the AI era. The new platform leverages Kubernetes to provide highly reliable, simplified, and adaptable lifecycle management for data centre networks.

The EDA platform aims to eliminate human error in network operations, thereby reducing network disruptions and application downtime. Nokia claims the solution can decrease operational effort by up to 40 percent.

Vach Kompella, SVP and General Manager of IP Networks business at Nokia, said: “Our next generation EDA platform is a game-changer for data centre 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..”

The announcement comes amidst ongoing digital transformation and the rise of AI applications, coupled with data centre workforce shortages and skills gaps. These factors are driving webscalers, enterprises, and service providers to scale and adapt their data centre 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 becoming essential to respond to demand while reducing service disruptions.

Despite the clear benefits of network automation, a study by Enterprise Management Associates reveals that most organisations have automated less than half of their data centre 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 EDA platform is designed to overcome these barriers while addressing key challenges in today’s data centre 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, generative AI assistance, and a low-code/no-code approach to building custom 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.

The platform is built on Kubernetes, a cloud automation and orchestration environment relied on by millions globally. This enables an intent-based, event-driven, and declarative network automation approach. Adopting Kubernetes constructs, EDA facilitates network resources consumption akin to other data centre applications.

Available via on-prem and cloud-based “as-a-service” subscription models, EDA’s app store offers a cloud-inspired approach, allowing operators to customise their automation environments effortlessly.

The new Nokia platform complements the company’s Service Router (SR) Linux network operating system and extensive portfolio of data centre switching and routing platforms to provide web scale and enterprise organisations access to fully modernised data centre networks.

Roy Chua, Founder and Principal at research firm AvidThink, commented: “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 centre 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 centre environments.”

The introduction of Nokia’s EDA platform helps to address the growing need for intelligent automation in data centre networks and potentially paves the way for more reliable and efficient cloud services.

See also: After losing to Ericsson, Nokia strikes fibre deal with AT&T

Unified Communications is a two-day event taking place in California, London, and Amsterdam that delves into the future of workplace collaboration in a digital world. The comprehensive event is co-located with Digital Transformation Week, IoT Tech Expo, Edge Computing Expo, Intelligent Automation, AI & Big Data Expo, and Cyber Security & Cloud Expo.

Explore other upcoming enterprise technology events and webinars powered by TechForge here.

Tags: automation, data centre, eda, kubernetes, lifecycle management, network operations, Networks, nokia, platform