Perspectives

Abstract

You saw it in the news on October 2, 2025: “Nokia to license technology from HPE to advance its AI-powered SMO and network automation assets.” After HPE completed its acquisition of Juniper Networks in July 2025, it was clear that the latter’s RIC was not a fit. From our regular discussions with a communications service providers (CSPs) worldwide who had tested the platform, it was clear they did not want it to be thrown away. And since a few of these CSPs had been using Nokia’s EdenNet/Cognitive/MantaRay SON systems for some time, they saw the Finnish vendor as a strong candidate to take it over as a smooth migration path to SMO. In fact, a handful of CSPs that we cannot name reported gaps in MantaRay that could be filled with Juniper Networks’ RIC platform, including rApps and xApps. Overall, the CSPs that had the opportunity to play with it and conduct a RIC vendor benchmark unanimously concluded that it was a superior platform.


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