TM Forum launches Open Digital Architecture program, sets new OSS blueprint

The TM Forum has introduced its Open Digital Architecture (ODA) program with the aim of replacing traditional Operational and Business Support Systems (OSS/BSS) architectures with software-defined operations.

ODA, according to TM Forum, is designed to enable service providers to simplify and automate existing operations—a key theme being touted in the emerging open source networking community.   

Building on TM Forum’s suite of over 50 REST-based Open APIs, TM Forum has laid out the ODS principles in a white paper. These principles form the basis for the work program at TM Forum’s Action Week in Lisbon, Portugal, this week, attended by experts from more than 70 companies. 

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“The ODA is a starting pistol being fired by many hands joined together,” said Nik Willetts, CEO of the TM Forum, in a release. “It embraces a bold vision for completely zero-touch business operations—with no human intervention end-to-end—using the latest technologies including Artificial Intelligence.”

A key mission of ODA is to deliver a model- and data-driven architecture that relies on the use of metadata, microservices and a clear set of normalized APIs.

ODA follows the TM Forum’s Implementation and Deployment Blueprints for Hybrid Environments, which provides a standardized and interoperable approach to solving the fragmentation between traditional and virtualized infrastructures and systems.

One of major elements of ODA is TM Forum’s suite of more than 50 Open APIs. The Open APIs enable interoperability of internal and external IT resources in a common way, which makes it easier for innovation to flourish within an organization. This innovation can either scale externally with customers and partners or between service providers. 

TM Forum claimed ODA is expected to streamline the procurement process for IT systems and remove friction from the supply chain. ODA will offer a standardized blueprint enabling vendors to participate in a marketplace for reusable solutions to common business challenges. 

Eight new companies have recently joined the 35 already implementing the Forum Open APIs across their architecture, including: CENX, Cerillion, My Republic, SigScale, Vlocity, TCS, Telstra and Wipro.

ODA principles are being validated in more than 30 ‘Proof of Concept’ Catalyst Projects that will be showcased at TM Forum’s flagship Digital Transformation World conference, on May 14-16, in Nice, France.