Ericsson had a big push with new products at the Mobile World Congress 2014 in Barcelona, Spain this week. Because of the moves by telcos into managed services and hosting, it is worth looking at its plans. 
Ericsson had a big push with new products at the Mobile World Congress 2014 in Barcelona, Spain this week. Because of the moves by telcos into managed services and hosting, it is worth looking at its plans.
Its Network Manager for example, aims to be a platform for telecom operators to manage the transformation of their networks to new technologies, enabling management of hybrid networks, ranging from multi-standard radio, small cell and integrated Wi-Fi in indoor environments, Time Division Multiplexing, evolved IP networks, virtual network infrastructures and dynamic networking with Software Defined Networks (SDN).
Together with Ericsson Cloud Manager, Ericsson Network Manager can deliver a solution for managing information and technology in converging ICT infrastructure. It aims to improve network performance and cut operational costs by integrating and automating management functions across domains. Performing analysis in the cross-domain data layer enables new insights for policy-based programmability. Ericsson Network Manager is an integrated part of Ericsson's full OSS portfolio for multi-vendor management and is fully scalable, it says.
Anil Rao, industry analyst with Analysys Mason's Telecoms Software research team, says: "Ericsson Network Manager provides unified network management in a single platform, making for ease of transition as service providers look to consolidate their network operations."
Thomas Norén, Vice President and Head of Product Area Radio, Ericsson, says: "This new style of management allows us to go from a reactive management to proactive and predictive programmability of the network. In other words, providing a real-time OSS that supports differentiation of performance-critical services end to end. By unifying the world of management systems, our vision is to cut in half the time-to-market for network services."
All of Ericsson's existing products within network management have roadmaps supporting migration to the new Ericsson Network Manager, which is already in live trials with a major operator. The first commercial deliveries of the product are expected near the end of 2014.