EMC, VMware Join OPNFV Project

EMC and VMware (VMW) are the latest companies to join the Open Platform for Network Functions Virtualization (OPNFV) Project, a global initiative to advance the evolution of network functions virtualization.

The initiative currently contains more than 100 developers worldwide working to develop a carrier-grade, open platform for NFV, according to the announcement.

EMC joined the project as a platinum member, while VMware has joined as a silver member. Other platinum members include AT&T, Brocade, Cisco Systems, Dell and more.

“EMC is pleased to be part of OPNFV and to support its mission to use open source in order to accelerate the evolution of NFV for the unique needs of the telecom industry during this time of massive change,” said David Hudson, senior director of the Communication Service Provider Group, Office of CTO at EMC, in a statement. “Through our participation in OPNFV, we’re committed to innovating for the future as we work closely with EMC’s federation of businesses to build an NFV platform with differentiation at all levels of the stack.”

EMC will dedicate additional employee resources to OPNFV to help build the reference platform for NFV as part of its platinum membership, according to the company. Paul To, EMC’s director of Cloud and NFV division, will join OPNFV’s board of directors and the Technical Steering Committee.

In February, OPNFV announced the appointment of former MongoDB executive Heather Kirksey as director of the organization charged with helping the fledgling community develop new open source initiatives for the IT industry.

“Open collaboration allows for a range of perspectives and opinions to be heard and debated via code,” said Kirksey. “We’re seeing industry leaders unite around OPNFV as the place to have those debates and the result will be a stronger platform for all. We look forward to contributions from EMC and VMware to help accelerate the creation of an open source reference platform for NFV.”

OPNFV is expected to hold its inaugural OPNFV Summit in Burlingame, California, in November to bring together some of the brightest minds from networking companies, service providers and open source developers as it seeks to advance the platform.