Spirent Announces Lumos for Automated Assurance of Hybrid Virtual-Physical Networks

San Jose, Calif. – June 15, 2016 – Spirent Communications, the leading provider of proactive service assurance solutions, today announced the launch of Spirent Lumos for automating service assurance workflows in hybrid networks. According to IHS, virtually all leading service providers plan to adopt SDN/NFV technology; however, their networks will consist of a hybrid architecture of physical and virtual elements for many years. That creates a huge challenge as key virtualization benefits, such as on-demand services, may not be possible unless service assurance activities, like service turn-up verification and SLA monitoring, can be completely automated. Lumos addresses this critical challenge by delivering a unified platform for automating assurance workflows in physical, virtual and hybrid networks.

The Lumos platform provides the “glue” to create low or no-touch assurance workflows by connecting physical network element managers, SDN controllers, operational trouble ticketing, inventory & support systems, physical test heads, virtual test functions and workflow logic. By seamlessly integrating physical and virtual operational systems and test functions with customizable workflow logic, Lumos enables dynamic and automatic verification and monitoring of services. This new solution represents an evolution of Spirent’s proven, market leading assurance platform TestCenter Live and includes all TestCenter Live functionality as well as a completely new user interface that simplifies and accelerates hybrid network assurance activities.

“In our recent survey of global service providers, the overwhelming majority of responders plan to implement SDN/NFV technology in their networks,” stated Michael Howard, Senior Research Director and Advisor of Carrier Networks at IHS. “Their primary drivers are service agility for quicker time to revenue and automation of their multi-domain, multi-vendor networks. However, providers identified inter-operation of their physical and virtual networks as a key blocker to successful deployment of SDN/NFV.”

“The hype around SDN/NFV is that it’s a panacea for improving flexibility and reducing operational costs” said Des Owens, General Manager of Spirent’s Service Assurance business. “The reality is that most carriers will be operating hybrid networks for years, leading to some significant challenges to achieving these benefits. By automating provisioning and SLA monitoring of services across physical and virtual elements, Lumos delivers enhanced service flexibility and significantly reduced operational costs, enabling carriers to experience key benefits of virtualization in hybrid networks.”

To learn more about Spirent’s suite of service assurance solutions including the Lumos solution, please visit: http://www.spirent.com/Solutions/Service-Assurance.