There are a lot of networking projects operating under the auspices of the Linux Foundation Collaborative Project umbrella. In fact it's easy to argue there are too many networking projects.

Today the Linux Foundation consolidated the ECOMP and OPEN-O project to form the new Open Network Automation Project (ONAP). ECOMP perhaps has had the shortest life-span of any Linux Foundation project, lasting barely a month. ECOMP only becamean official Linux Foundation project a few short weeks ago, after being donated by AT&T. The Enhanced Control, Orchestration, Management and Policy (ECOMP) is an effort that AT&T has been building for several years to help enable its network transformation for virtualization.

OPEN-O on the other hand was announced a year ago, as the Open Orchestrator effort.

"AT&T is excited to be working with a larger team on the future, open source network operating system for SDN automation," Chris Rice, SVP of Domain 2.0 Architecture and Design at AT&T said in a statement. "Creating a combined team of the initial 10 open source ECOMP members with the existing OPEN-O members bodes well for the project's success."

He added, that, AT&T expects more consolidation in this space, and we expect many more service providers and other technology leaders to join us in this important work, which benefits the entire industry.

The ONAP effort already includes a who's who of big global carriers with the participation of AT&T, China Mobile and the world's leading operators are driving ONAP with a diverse group of Amdocs, AT&T, Bell Canada, China Mobile, China Telecom, Cisco, Ericsson, GigaSpaces, Huawei, IBM, Intel, Nokia, Orange, Tech Mahindra, VMware , ZTE,BOCO Inter-Telecom, Canonical, China Unicom, Cloudbase Solutions, Metaswitch and Raisecom.

The basic promise of ONAP is to deliver a comprehensive open-source framework for carrier-grade network orchestration and automation.

The consolidation of ECOMP and OPEN-O is hardly the first, or likely the last consolidation in the Linux Foundation's portfolio of networking projects. In October 2016 the Open Networking Foundation (ONF) and ON.Lab announceda merger

Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at EnterpriseNetworkingPlanet and InternetNews.com. Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist.

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Linux Foundation Forms New Open Network Automation Project - EnterpriseNetworkingPlanet