Linux Foundation and ONOS Partner on Open Source SDN and NFV Networks

ONOS, a carrier-grade open source software-defined networking (SDN) operating system, received a big endorsement this week from the Linux Foundation. Starting today, the two organizations will partner to develop open source SDN and NFV software.

ONOS develops an SDN operating system for carrier-grade networks. Designed for high availability, high scalability and high performance, the platform is funded and supported by a range of industry partners, including AT&T, NTT Communications, SK Telecom, China Unicom, Ciena, Cisco, Ericsson, Fujitsu, Huawei, Intel and NEC.

The ONOS platform was open sourced in December 2014, and has issued four new releases since then.

As part of the partnership with the Linux Foundation, ONOS will “transform service providers’ infrastructure for increased monetization by achieving high capex and opex efficiencies and creating new innovative services using the power of open source SDN and NFV,” the Linux Foundation said in a statement. “The Linux Foundation will assist ONOS to organize, grow and harness the power of this global community to take ONOS and the solutions enabled by it to the next level of production readiness and drive adoption in production networks.”

The Linux Foundation sees the initiative as a way to help drive open source forward in the carrier-grade networking space. “Service providers are increasingly adopting open source software to build their networks and today are making open source and collaboration a strategic part of their business and an investment in the future,” said Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation. “The Linux Foundation recognizes the impact the ONOS project can have on service provider networks and will help advance ONOS to achieve its potential.”

For its part, ONOS will gain the support of a big name in the open source world. “Now is the perfect time to partner with the Linux Foundation, said Guru Parulkar, executive director and board member at ON.Lab, which oversees ONOS. “They bring a number of resources and also provide a measure of trust and sustainability through a well-built brand that delivers extended reach to our collaborative community and accelerates innovation on an even larger scale.”

This isn’t the Linux Foundation’s only SDN venture. The organization has been closely supporting OpenDaylight, another SDN project, since April 2013. The ONOS partnership doesn’t apparently entail the same level of commitment from the Linux Foundation, which has not made ONOS into one of its official collaborative projects. (OpenDaylight is a Linux Foundation collaborative project.) Still, the partnership opens new doors for an SDN platform with strong industry backing, while providing the Linux Foundation with another way to promote open source within the rapidly evolving SDN networking world.