Azure & Celona: Stronger Together for the Edgeless Enterprise

Introduction

Whether it is the data privacy requirements or the need for real-time response at low latency, making enterprise apps seamlessly available at the edge - just like they are accessible in the cloud - is a priority for many enterprise IT organizations. Here at Celona, we believe that deploying your private LTE and 5G network to support such initiatives should be as easy as rolling out a new application with Microsoft Azure.

Enterprise solution architects who subscribe to application delivery services in the cloud, and increasingly within the four walls of the enterprise, are now in search of IT infrastructure solutions that speak their language. An important step in getting there is to stop thinking about such infrastructure to be made up of many “boxes” but rather to start thinking about it as a collection of “apps” themselves. Apps that are powered by cloud-native software, with the flexibility of deployment on-premises, private and public clouds.

Thanks to the cloud-native Celona platform, enterprise IT teams can do just that as a customer of Azure Private MEC (Mobile Edge Compute) by deploying its mobile core and enterprise networking functions next to critical business applications supported by Azure.

It's now possible for private mobile networks to deliver on the level of agility that solution architects are used to when taking advantage of hypercloud services. As they roll out new generation of critical business applications, core network resources for private LTE / 5G can now be deployed as apps themselves. Faster the integration of such app architectures with an existing enterprise infrastructure, the better it is for the fate of relevant digitization initiatives.

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Azure Private MEC and Celona

Celona's solution architecture comes with all the ingredients required to allow an enterprise IT team to build their own private LTE/5G network. Centrally managed SIM cards, enterprise optimized indoor and outdoor access points, centralized management and operations console - and of course, Azure Stack Edge server compatible software for private mobile network core, sitting at the enterprise edge. All these components are purpose designed to fit the current operational model of a network operations and engineering team within the enterprise, and to be deployed as an overlay on an existing enterprise IT infrastructure.

As part of Celona's integrated product portfolio, this level of agility comes with high degree of reliability on a per application basis. Celona's infrastructure is designed to support multiple enterprise applications within the same private LTE / 5G wireless network and ensure service level objectives for latency, throughput and other important metrics. This might include voice communications in healthcare, process automation in logistics, latency sensitive computer vision applications across transportation yards - and many other industries where digitization efforts cannot wait for the delays in network infrastructure rollouts.

Via Azure Private MEC, deployment of Celona's private mobile network core can be automated and orchestrated within your existing app infrastructure. As a cloud native software stack, Celona software scales horizontally as networking requirements expand within the enterprise. By removing friction in seamless integration within an existing IT network, Celona allows for rapid deployment of Azure Private MEC resources in any corner of the enterprise footprint, from branch to campus locations.

Watch the solution overview on how Celona partnered with Microsoft to enable customers to take advantage of the best in low-latency and dedicated private cellular networking with the power of edge computing.

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Live Demonstration

Here is Karthik Ananthakrishnan, Principal Program Manager at Azure Networking, demonstrating the integration between Azure Private MEC and Celona. You can find the same video hosted at Microsoft's Tech Community and interact with the other Azure experts. Here is the agenda during his 35 min presentation.

• 00:00 to 08:30 - Introduction to Azure Private MEC
• 08:30 to 14:30 - Integration with Nokia Digital Automation Cloud
• 14:30 to 18:00 - Integration with Celona Private LTE
• 18:00 to 24:00 - Integration with VMware Velocloud SD-WAN
• 24:00 to 36:00 - Azure Edge Zones for Operators

As you can tell by the configuration steps highlighted in the section dedicated to Azure Private MEC and Celona integration, here is how individual components of each system are mapped to each other.

• Enterprise sites, where Celona's CBRS based LTE networks are deployed, are defined as "Virtual Network Functions (VNFs)" in Azure,
• Celona Edge instances are defined as "Devices" within the Azure Private MEC configuration,
• Celona is selected as the vendor providing the SKU type "EvolvedPacketCore" as part of the same configuration, and
• Specific Celona SKU and the VNF user data config file for the Celona instance on Azure Stack Edge servers.

After these steps, Celona Edge gets deployed from Microsoft Azure cloud to the Azure Stack Edge instance - and acts as the glue between the enterprise IT environment, CBRS based LTE wireless connectivity and the critical enterprise applications serviced via Azure Stack Edge installation at selected sites across the enterprise footprint.

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Next steps

As Karthik highlighted, we as Celona meet Azure Private MEC where business applications meet enterprise networks for new generation of digital initiatives. Accelerated deployment of Celona's private mobile network resources with Azure Stack Edge enables IT organizations to remove considerable amount of friction in the process of enabling critical applications that are at the heart of such initiatives.

To continue the discussion on how Celona's private LTE/5G solution can seamlessly become part of your Azure application stack, and to request a free trial of the joint solution, drop us a note here.

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