China Telecom Allies with OpenStack with Government Support for the Open-source Software Platform

WASHINGTON, March 14, 2017 -- China Telecom (CT) was approved as the newest OpenStack Gold Member at the Foundation’s November 2016 board meeting.

China Telecom joins some of the leading technology companies in the world — including Inspur, Cisco, Dell EMC, Ericsson, Fujitsu, Hitachi, Huawei, NEC and Symantec — as one of 24 founding Gold Members.

Large and small businesses, telecoms, public cloud service providers, government organizations and researchers around the world use OpenStack’s open-source software to build clouds, support the diverse cloud computing ecosystem and enable cloud innovation.

China Telecom was selected as a Gold Member for its capability to support OpenStack’s development in the rapidly growing Chinese and Asia-Pacific markets.

At China’s first Open Source & Cloud Computing Summit (COSCCS) in December 2014, the country’s officials declared the government’s support for OpenStack ecosystems and plans to encourage state-owned enterprises to use OpenStack-based cloud products. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) predicted that OpenStack would contribute to business growth.

Indeed, today, many Chinese organizations are engaging OpenStack across various sectors, including internet, telecom, IT, education and retail. Momentum is growing and will inspire other Chinese firms to investigate opportunities for growth. One advantage for Chinese companies is that they are using a mature version of OpenStack, mostly from 2014 onwards, and don’t need to upgrade from earlier versions.

As one of the largest mobile carriers in the world, with more than 500 million subscribers and over 300 data centers, China Telecom is currently migrating its CloudStack deployment to OpenStack, supporting strategic opportunities in the public cloud and contributing significant code and knowledge to the OpenStack community.

China Telecom will also contribute new investment and resources to complement the many OpenStack technology vendors and users that comprise one of the best networks in APAC.

“OpenStack is truly a global community, with nearly 650 companies supporting the project in 187 countries,” says Jonathan Bryce, Executive Director of the OpenStack Foundation.

“The investment and commitment of our new Gold Members underscores the global growth and evolution of OpenStack, with projects of massive scale serving millions of end users in China and other markets worldwide.”

For an example of collaboration among members, telecom company Huawei works with software maker Red Hat and aims to accelerate collaboration around OpenStack for network functions virtualization, which is required by communication service providers like China Telecom.

China Telecom Adds Value to OpenStack Community

The China Telecom Cloud uses the OpenStack platform to provide stable, scalable cloud facilities and comprehensive customer service to end users in the Asia-Pacific region.

The China Telecom Cloud is focused on Cloud+Network Integration technology and is set to take enterprise internet in China to the next level with a combination of its range of existing telecom services and OpenStack’s vast network, expanding the company’s Asia-Pacific reach and enhancing service delivery to end users in the region. 

With centralized supersized data centers – each more than 10 million square meters – and numerous small and medium-sized data centers, China Telecom can contribute a vast practice environment and use cases to the OpenStack community.

“China Telecom has gained strong capabilities and rich experience through many years of hard work,” says Joe Han, President of China Telecom Americas.

“We will contribute to the community through strengthening and improving OpenStack. We will focus on realizing telecommunication functions on OpenStack, such as NFV, SDN, Container and Big Data, and return the results to the OpenStack community.”

China Telecom Expands OpenStack Accessibility in Asia-Pacific

The new partnership will also make the OpenStack platform readily available through China Telecom’s network services, which will increase accessibility to users throughout the Asia-Pacific region.

China Telecom looks forward to working with the OpenStack open source community to speed up the development and utilization of the China Telecom cloud ecosystem, and in turn attract more private business involvement in the OpenStack community.

“China Telecom is active in organizing and participating in OpenStack-related activities, including OpenStack Summit, OpenStack Day, meetups and more. We have also shared our OpenStack practice and case studies at relevant trade shows and technology forums,” says Mr. Han.

“With our leading role in China's cloud businesses, China Telecom's full-scale and successful use of OpenStack will bring the government and more businesses into the OpenStack community.”

For more information, hi-res images or to organize an interview, please contact Ming Wei, Director of Solution and Delivery, at [email protected]. 

About China Telecom Americas

China Telecom Americas is a wholly owned U.S.-based subsidiary of China Telecom Corporation, one of the world’s leading providers of integrated communications and information technology services to customers in more than 70 countries around the globe. With headquarters in Herndon, Va., and offices in Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York, San Jose, Toronto and Sao Paolo, China Telecom Americas is advancing transpacific enterprise connectivity through a suite of locally based, turnkey services from network architecture, cloud and data center services to equipment management, security, content delivery, mobility solutions and more. Discover more at www.ctamericas.com.

Ming Wei
[email protected]