Three full days keynotes, panels and sessions in Nice, France, tackle obstacles and opportunities of virtualization; five NFV-related Catalysts project demonstrations showcase practical solutions and implementations

 MORRISTOWN, NJ — April 23, 2014: Virtualization has the power to simplify processes, accelerate innovation, decrease time-to-market, and reduce cost and risk. However debate continues with complexity, quality of service and security concerns, particularly around network functions virtualization (NFV) and software-defined networking (SDN). TM Forum is addressing these issues head on at TM Forum Live!, June 2-5, in Nice, France, during three full days of keynotes, summits, sessions and demonstrations led by some of the communications and digital services industries’ leading visionaries.

Virtualization on show
At TM Forum Live!, Virtualizing Everything: Cloud, SDN and NFV, a centerpiece two-day forum on Tuesday and Wednesday hits on all the issues and opportunities surrounding virtualization with a packed agenda featuring speakers from: Alcatel-Lucent, AT&T, Deutsche Telekom, European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), HP, Huawei, Telefonica, Telstra, Time Warner Telecom and more. TM Forum Live! also features a full-day NFV Workshop (sponsored by HP), on Monday, June 2. Seating is limited to All-Access Gold, Summit, Platinum and Speaker pass holders only. To reserve a seat, contact [email protected].

Virtualization-focused topics covered throughout TM Forum Live!, including:

• Influencing the future of the digital industry with virtualization
• Managing a virtualized environment
• Looking beyond capital expenditure to find the return on investment for SDN and NFV
• Discovering what the enterprise buyer wants from the virtual world
• Keeping virtualized environments safe
• Overcoming the implementation challenges
• Managing complexity and ensuring quality
• ZOOMing into the future with TM Forum’s new program for managing and operating a virtualized infrastructure

In addition, on Wednesday, June 4, NFV is the focus of a special Un-Conference Open House, Open Mic Night at Jam jazz bar in Nice features five-minute, stand-up talks from audience participants. Hosted by Chris Lewis, principal consultant, Lewis Insight, this event is open to All-Access Gold, Summit, Platinum and Speaker pass holders, and also requires registration through [email protected] due to limited seating.

Live! NFV in Action
TM Forum’s members have been working on the following five NFV-related, rapid-development Catalyst project demonstrations slated for TM Forum Live! as a way to validate proposed solutions and verify the practical aspects of NFV implementations. These Catalysts will be showcased in The Hub at TM Forum Live! The Hub is the place to explore everything the Forum has to offer.

• Managing Virtual Machines through Service Level Agreements (SLAs) – This Catalyst demonstrates how virtual machines can be managed by monitoring SLA information. In partnership with the Open Data Center Alliance (ODCA), this project serves as a proof of concept of ODCA’s Master Usage Model which was recently revised to include NFV.
• CloudNFV: Adaptive Management Built on Frameworx – In partnership with CloudNFV, this project shows how the Information Framework (SID) and Business Services Suite can be enhanced to make processes dynamic and event-driven to enable zero-touch orchestration and unified management.
• NFV Management Ecosystem – This project uses an implementation of management and orchestration (MANO) as defined by the ETSI NFV Industry Specification Group as the platform to demonstrate real-time, dynamic management of capacity, performance, quality of service and SLAs, as well as enabling real-time billing and compensation.
• Closing The Loop: Data-Driven Network Performance Optimization for Self-optimizing Networks (SON) and NFV – This Catalyst uses TM Forum’s Performance Management Interface and ETSI’s NFV orchestration and 3rd Generation Partnership Project SON scenarios to build a closed loop using network key performance indicators, such as customer experience, performance and service quality data, to enable network changes, optimization and self-healing.
• Service Bundling in a B2B2X Marketplace – This Catalyst uses established ebXML interfaces and newly-added REST APIs to show how a buyer can bundle a collection of services sourced from different suppliers, such as traditional network access products, as well as NFV and infrastructure as a service products, and deliver them seamlessly to a customer.

“Virtualization is taking the communications and digital services industry by storm, and it’s no different at TM Forum Live!,” said Keith Willetts, chairman, TM Forum. “Our events are known for being a showcase for innovative and practical answers for game-changing operations concepts that can enable agility, new digital service revenues and reduced cost. Our virtualization-focused sessions and Catalysts demonstrate how the Forum’s members work together to deliver an extensive set of best practices and advice that can dramatically and positively impact service personalization, speed, flexibility, automation and customer centricity.”

TM Forum Live! brings together all the elements of TM Forum’s focus on leading the successful transformation of service providers and enterprises to succeed in the digital world. TM Forum Live! in Nice, France, is the Forum’s flagship event and features its industry-leading Excellence Awards. TM Forum Live! Becoming an Agile, Super-effective Business is planned for Sept. 2-3, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. TM Forum Live! Digital Disruption is slated for Dec. 8-10, in San Jose, Calif.

About TM Forum

TM Forum is a global industry association which helps its members transform and succeed in the digital economy. The collective experience and interests of our member community, comprised of more than 85,000 experts from 1,000 global enterprises, service providers and technology suppliers drives everything we do, from thought-provoking research and publications, to practical guidance, tools and best practices, hands-on events, and training for business and IT leaders.

Through three key programs – Agile Business and IT, Open Digital Ecosystem, and Customer Engagement – we provide a unique platform for our members to connect and collaborate with individuals and groups from around the world to solve key challenges and rapidly innovate to deliver new services, improve business agility, partner for success, reduce cost and risk, and enhance customer value and loyalty. To learn more about the Forum and join our digital journey as a valued member and collaborator, please visit www.tmforum.org.

Global TM Forum Media Contact
Elizabeth Coyne
Senior Director Marketing, Corporate Communications and PR
+1 973 641 3247
[email protected]