TIBCO is providing the essential capabilities to transform the CSP operating model into a platform model so enabling the evolving SDN/NFV agile services to be more accessible. This is achieved by TIBCO Connected Intelligence products and augmented by TIBCO’s CloudPath methodology which helps guide our customers through this transition.
How is TIBCO helping accelerate TM Forum Open API adoption?
As part of these transformations, many CSP’s see huge benefits in adopting and contributing to the TM Forum Open API to help make the platform transition for many reasons including revenue generation effects, agile access to underlying network capability, consistency across the operating group and partners, and vendor interoperability.
However, the TM Forum Open API is and will continuously evolve and mature and we can imagine frequent changes to the APIs. We can also see that adoption of the TM Forum Open API has some barriers even though the outcomes are desirable:
- Vendor product features can move fast, following a roadmap and perhaps faster than the TM Forum Open APIs. How can new capability in a Vendor product be introduced within the context of standardized API?
- A CSP platform model means embracing non-Telco applications and these application vendors may never have heard of the TM Forum. How can the CSP integrate these applications into the standardized API quickly without having to wait for vendor compliance and in some cases may never happen?
- Most vendor products will have existing customers using the vendor APIs and prioritized capability roadmaps. Vendor development plans may find TM Forum API adoption scheduled behind new features and capabilities in front of the maturing TM Forum Open API so slowing its adoption.
- A TM Forum Open API may span multiple vendor systems and the need to orchestrate and correlate a single API request across multiple back-end and partner systems deployed in a hybrid environment will be required.
- Also, over time the changes to protocols and data formats will evolve and morph and we already see the resurgence of Event-Based APIs changing the way APIs are consumed.
TIBCO is uniquely positioned as a global and independent Connected Intelligence vendor supporting both TIBCO specific and Open Source projects, such as MQTT and Kafka, enabling TIBCO to provide their CSP customers with the needed Integration and Advance Analytics to support innovative new digital services, operational agility and customer centricity while externally delivering an end to end hybrid cloud approach.
How is TIBCO supporting the TM Forum Open API Program?
In 3 steps, you can take a non-TM Forum compliant application and enable the use of the TM Forum Open APIs and deploy them into a hybrid cloud environment. In just one more step have these API’s managed by your innovative digital marketing team. How to do this:
1. Go to the TM Forum open API website and import directly into TIBCO Connected intelligence integration product of choice. For example, TIBCO BusinessWorks Container Edition (for Hybrid on-premise/cloud deployments), TIBCO Cloud Integration (for pure Cloud Deployment) etc. The choice of On-Premise/Private Cloud/Public Cloud/SaaS is completely your preference. The TM Forum OpenAPI implementation can be deployed in any or all locations.
2. The next stage is to perform any Data Transformations, Protocol Mappings, and Orchestration required. TIBCO uses a no-code approach providing agility and faster time to market. At this point, you can create mock applications to test and validate responses or write more sophisticated simulations to be included in your DevOps test cycles.
3. Using your preferred DevOps and CI/CD toolchains and practices deployment onto you’re preferred platform(s) — ground, private, or public cloud.
4. Finally, there will be APIs to externalize for revenue generation which may need to be tailored and simplified for partners plus managed into consumable bundles by the Digital Marketing teams. At the click of a button, the API specifications can be exported to the TIBCO Connected Intelligence API Management platform and gateway, TIBCO Mashery — by the way of a leader in Full Lifecycle API Management for the fourth time in a row by Gartner.
The TM Forum’s Open Digital Architecture highlights the importance of Integration. Supporting native and hybrid cloud, Microservice principles, and the ability to integrate components developed outside of telecoms is critical.
So whether you are a CSP or Vendor alike, using TIBCO Connected Intelligence Cloud will enable transformation to native or hybrid cloud environments and accelerate TM Forum Open API adoption and certification.
More than 250 CSP’s worldwide including 7 of the 10 largest CSP’s trust TIBCO with their Connected Intelligence strategies.
For additional information see:
https://www.tibco.com/services/consulting/cloudpath
https://www.tibco.com/products
https://www.tmforum.org/certifications-awarded/tibco-fulfillment-orchestration-suite/
https://www.tibco.com/solutions/telecom
https://www.tmforum.org/press-and-news/tm-forum-launches-open-digital-architecture/
