At Mobile World Congress 2021, IBM announced new hybrid cloud AI-powered automation software for communications service providers (CSPs) to help deliver on the promise of 5G, including zero-touch operations, reduced costs and the rapid delivery of innovative services to customers.

Using IBM Cloud Pak for Network Automation, CSPs can use AI-powered automation to stand up and manage networks quickly, in a wide range of environments, and is engineered to scale new services in days, rather than months.

IBM Cloud Pak for Network Automation, which is engineered to run in a wide range of environments on Red Hat OpenShift, provides a full suite of AI-powered automation capabilities to implement 5G and edge services by managing multi-vendor software-based network functions, which supports the evolution to autonomous operations.

The software brings together advanced analytics, machine learning and AIOps to help CSPs discover hidden patterns and trends in networking data, so they can continually optimize network operations and performance with minimal human intervention.

With the integration of IBM Cloud Pak for Watson AIOps and edge solutions including IBM Edge Application Manager, CSPs can automate the delivery of resources where they are needed dynamically.

With the addition of IBM Cloud Pak for Network Automation to the IBM Cloud Pak portfolio, CSPs can benefit in these ways: Generalized Network Lifecycle Modeling; Intent-driven Orchestration; Automated Service Design and Testing; Real-time View of Live Network Performance; and Closed-loop Operations.

IBM Cloud Pak for Network Automation is designed so that a network engineer could use it to turn up a site in a matter of 4-5 days.