Disaggregated computing propels a more flexible service culture
NTT DoCoMo has opted for the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) as the new development system for its customer information management. The challenge is substantial because the ALADIN (ALl Around DoCoMo INformation Systems) is one of the largest of its kind in the world, since the telco has 83 million subscribers.
Japanese’s biggest mobile operator is moving its vast customer database into the Oracle Cloud so it can be disaggregated and managed in Kubernetes containers. It will be operated on by 300 developers who will orchestrate its silos of data into a well marshalled raft of services, the telco hopes.
Oracle’s project managers will use OCI to harness the talents of some 300 developers to build modern applications in a faster, more regimented and cost-efficient work culture, the telco hopes. Meanwhile NTT DoCoMo will get access to more powerful computing resources as it expands its telecoms, internet and ‘smart life services’ (AKA applications). In addition, DoCoMo has moved its on-premises Oracle Database for database training to Oracle Database Cloud Service on OCI.
At the moment Aladin supports DoCoMo’s 83 million subscribers, handling all customer-related operations, ranging from simple membership and transactional data, through credit checks, contract data and assignment of telephone numbers. However, it’s getting a lot more complicated as NTT DoCoMo’s customer information becomes more wide reaching and the mobile operator’s ‘d Point Club’ reward points programme further complicates matters. Then there are the growing numbers of traditional mobile subscribers, some new customer encounters, such as chatbots and smart devices.
Each developer now has a dedicated environment and can flexibly change resources during peak and slow periods of development, eliminating the need to manually provision and shut down environments and providing the resources needed on demand. NTT DoCoMo is also using Oracle Container Engine for Kubernetes (OKE) for containerisation, and plans to use Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery and Deployment (CI/CD) tools to automate operational management.
As part of the cloud migration, NTT DoCoMo has also moved its on-premises Oracle Database environment to Oracle Database Cloud Service on OCI. This cut costs by 95 per cent by minimising the manual workload needed for management.
The best way to deal with all the complication is to disaggregate everything, from data, through software to hardware, as much as possible and put it into the cloud, according to Tadaaki Yoshida, at NTT DoCoMo’s Information Systems Department. “The new environment on OCI supports development, coding and integration testing. Its roll-out has quickly proven how we can optimise our costs and improve developer productivity and efficiency through containerisation and automation said Yoshida. “The Oracle Cloud Free Tier also has let us build the new environment quickly and cheaper. We plan to move the entire development environment to the cloud as we prepare for the future migration of our commercial environment.”
There is no mystery about the cloud, according to Toshimitsu Misawa, member of the board, corporate executive officer and president of Oracle Corporation Japan. Since OCI is developer-friendly, that makes it easy for telcos to build and run new applications and arm themselves with “game-changing technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning.”
NTT DoCoMo said it will move the final operation testing environment, currently in an on-premises location, to the Oracle Cloud in the near future.