Lenovo and Rakuten
Edge-Optimized Cloud Solution for Communication
Service Providers

Lenovo and Rakuten; Modernizing CSP Networks with Cloud Automation
and AI-Enabled Edge Solutions
Rakuten Cloud Native Platform (CNP) solves the challenges in automating deployment, scaling, andlifecycle management of enterprise applications and 5G rollouts using the power of Kubernetes® andcloud-native services.

1|PageRakuten Cloud Native Platform is optimized for delivery of services at the edge, providing an extensible
cloud-native edge-cloud that can manage stateful workloads. This includes intelligent data managementthat automates and accelerates provisioning and lifecycle management. Rakuten Cloud Native Platform
is designed to reduce Communication Service Provider’s (CSP) operating cost, accelerate time to delivery
and optimize hardware.

Rakuten Cloud Native Platform and Lenovo ThinkEdge SE455 V3
Rakuten Cloud Native Platform coupled with Lenovo ThinkEdge SE455 V3 provides CSP’s a resilient highperforming, energy efficient, secure AI-Edge service delivery platform for a variety of edge applications.
Working together, CNP and Lenovo’s ThinkEdge SE455 V3 deliver a critical solution that supports CSP’s
digital transformation.

Challenges facing Operators for Edge Service Delivery
CSP’s face unique and complex changes specific to edge service delivery including:••••

Lengthy time to market due to technology integrations size of projects and RFP contract process
High cost of service delivery and operations but declining Average Revenue Per User (ARPU)
Complexity around service monetization and management of new technologies
Specialized infrastructure requirements tied to new use cases andEdge Software Offers Multi-Tenant Service Delivery Model
Rakuten Cloud Native Platform Edge-optimized private cloud solution is designed to solve CSP’s biggest
challenges by delivering Edge software as a service delivery solution. This allows CSP’s a multi-tenant
service delivery model. This solution provides an integrated App Market Place to automate provisioningof edge applications coupled with centralized orchestration and zero-touch provisioning. Built-in
intelligent application-aware data services and life cycle management accelerates time to service
delivery and reduces CSP’s network operations cost.

Lenovo Edge-Optimized Server Increases Energy Efficiencies
The ThinkEdge SE455 V3 powered by the AMD 8004 EPYC Processor brings 4th Generation Zen4c
processor technology to the Edge. Zen4c enables more cores in a smaller footprint, delivering increased
energy efficiency and high levels of performance. Up to 64 cores coupled with up to 6x Accelerators, 8x2.5" SSDs, and 100Gb Ethernet networking allows user to benefit from more AI power, accelerated
packed processing, and more workload consolidation.
Lenovo’s ThinkEdge platform is optimized for edge in order to deliver faster insights at the Edge for AI,
Telco, and critical workloads. With Edge-optimized compute performance from AMD, together with allflash storage, acoustic optimizations, and robust security.

2|PageBuilt-In Security
At the Edge, your property and data are more vulnerable. Lenovo ThinkEdge SE455 V3 combats this witha lockable security bezel and top cover, and it can be secured into the rack with a security key to deter
physical theft. Protection of the data includes using SED SSDs, TPM 2.0 with Secure Boot and thewatchful XClarity Controller can even initiate a system lockdown should the anti-tamper sensors be
triggered.

For additional details on models and configurations, visit SE455 V3 product page on
https://lenovopress.lenovo.com/lp1724-lenovo-thinkedge-se455-v3-server
Components

Specification

Form factor

2U rack server, short depth (438mm depth, from EIA front rack flange)

Processor

1x AMD EPYC 8004 processor (formerly codenamed "Siena"). Supports up to 64 cores, core speedsof up to 2.65 GHz, and TDP ratings of up to 225W.

GPU andaccelerators

Supports up to 6x single-wide GPUs and accelerators
Supports up to 2x double-wide GPUs

Memory6 DIMM slots. The processor has 6 memory channels, with 1 DIMM per channel (DPC). Lenovo
TruDDR5 RDIMMs are supported, up to 4800 MHz

Memorymaximum

Up to 576 GB with 6x 96GB RDIMMs

Drive bays•••

Maximum data
storage
Storagecontroller

Network
interfaces

3|Page4x 2.5-inch hot-swap drive bays (front accessible), supporting SATA or NVMe SSD drives with
hot-swap trays
Optional 4x 2.5-inch non-hot-swap drive bays internal to the server, supporting SATA or
NVMe SSD drives. Drives are mounted in a cage that rotates up for easy access.
Up to 2x M.2 drives for boot functions, supporting SATA or NVMe drives (optional RAID withseparate PCIe adapter)

61.44TB using 8x 7.68TB 2.5-inch SAS/SATA SSDs
92.16TB using 4x 15.36TB + 4x 7.68TB 2.5-inch NVMe SSDs

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Up to 8x Onboard SATA ports (non-RAID)
Up to 8x Onboard NVMe ports (non-RAID)
12 Gb SAS/SATA RAID adapters
12 Gb SAS/SATA HBA (non-RAID)

Dedicated OCP 3.0 SFF slot with PCIe 5.0 x16 interface. OCP slot supports a variety of 2-port and4-port adapters for network connectivity. Additional network adapters supported in the PCIe slots.

Components

Specification

PCI Expansion
slots

Up to 6x PCIe slots (2x Gen5 x16, 4x Gen4 x8) in two risers, supporting full-height adapters. Riser
2 is optional. All slots are physically x16 slots.

Ports

Front: 2x USB 3.1 Type-A (5 Gb/s) ports, 1x USB 3.1 Type-C (USB-C) (5 Gb/s) with support forvideo connectivity (available dongle to convert USB-C to VGA), USB 2.0 port for XCC local
management only, dedicated RJ-45 1GbE remote systems management port, External diagnostics
port for local systems management, NMI pinhole.

Cooling

5x simple-swap 60 mm dual-rotor fans (all standard), N+1 rotor redundant.

Power supply

Up to two hot-swap redundant power supplies•
1100W Titanium or Platinum AC power supplies•
1800W Platinum AC power supply•
1100W -48V DC power supply
Note: Power supplies are front-mounted so fan rotation is reversed compared to ThinkSystem
servers.

Video

Embedded video graphics with 16 MB memory with 2D hardware accelerator, integrated into the
XClarity Controller. Maximum resolution is 1920x1200 32bpp at 60Hz.

Hot-swap parts

Drives (in front drive bays only), power supplies

Systemsmanagement

Operator panel with status LEDs. Optional External Diagnostics Handset with LCD display. XClarity
Controller 2 (XCC2) embedded management based on the ASPEED AST2600 baseboard
management controller (BMC). Dedicated Ethernet port for XCC2 remote access for management.
XClarity Administrator for centralized infrastructure management, XClarity Integrator plugins, and
XClarity Energy Manager centralized server power management. Optional XCC Platinum to enableremote control functions and other features. ThinkShield Edge Mobile Management mobile app and
XClarity Mobile app for local onsite edge server management.

Security
features

Centralized security management with ThinkShield Key Vault Portal web site or manage security
directly in XCC2. Platform Firmware Resiliency (PFR) Root of Trust (RoT), Trusted Platform Module,
supporting TPM 2.0. Lockable top cover, intrusion detection, self-encrypting drive (SED) support,
power-on password, administrator's password. Optional front locking security bezel with duplicate
status LEDs

Operatingsystems
supported

Microsoft Windows Server, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, VMware ESXi.
See the Operating system support section for specifics.

Mounting
options

2-post rack, 4-post short-depth 600mm rack, 4-post 1000mm rack. Available locking security bezel
with dust filter. Available security EIA brackets.

Limitedwarranty

Three-year customer-replaceable unit and onsite limited warranty with 9x5 next business day(NBD).

Service andsupport

Optional service upgrades are available through Lenovo Services: 4-hour or 2-hour response time,
6-hour fix time, 1-year or 2-year warranty extension, software support for Lenovo hardware andsome third-party applications.

4|PageRakuten Cloud Native Platform for Automation and Cloud Deployment
Cloud providers are faced with several challenges when modernizing and growing their networks andneed to make continuous investments in order to introduce new technologies, like 5G. Rakuten Cloud
Native Platform automates the whole Cloud deployment and life cycle management of complex data andnetwork-intensive application pipelines as a service, including the demanding requirements of cloudnative service delivery.

1.1 Cloud Platform Architecture
Rakuten Cloud Native Platform is an open Kubernetes platform that is optimized for running Storage andNetwork intensive applications on-premises or in any cloud. While native Kubernetes is the de facto
standard for edge computing, it was not originally designed for service provider as a service delivery
model. Therefore, with most legacy platforms, one must consider the following challenges met by CNP.
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Simultaneous support container-based Cloud Native applications and Virtual Machine (VM)based Virtual applications on the same platform
Automated Workload Placement
Advanced Networking
Advanced storage
1-click -as-a-Service deployments
Support for enhanced data services, including Snapshots, clones and BCDR
Enhanced affinity and anti-affinity rules and automation

CNP runs both cloud native and Virtualized applications in the same cluster, sharing resources in acommon pool, while using the same onboarding procedures, you can run more applications than before.
Furthermore, existing VMs run 30% faster on CNP than traditional VM platforms such as OpenStack –customer tested and proven.
CNP supports standard helm-based application profiles as well as enhanced application bundles that
simplify the delivery and life cycle management of complex application pipelines as a service.
CNP starts with open standards, upstream Kubernetes without change and adds an enhanced CSI storage
layer that includes unique application aware data services including snapshots, backup and clone andcomplex service level management capabilities. CNS is also available independently and supports any
Kubernetes distribution.
The solution allows one to run both containers and VMs together, all the way down to the worker nodelevel, providing optimal resource utilization, eliminating both resource and operations silos - 1 systemwith a unified way of doing things. We also added enhanced observability capabilities and Application
aware automation capabilities.

5|PageCNP makes it easy to onboard new applications with an “as-a-service” model, in a secure, multi-tenant
and roles-based environment. Furthermore, CNP provides these advantages using an intuitive,
declarative interface, with advanced automation, reducing integration complexity, deployment timelines
and human error, providing:
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A comprehensive set of life cycle management features simplify day 2 operations for deployed
applications including Rolling upgrade automation, Scaling and performance management andapplication aware data services including:Application Aware Clone, clone entire applications (data + configuration +metadata) fromproduction to test/dev.
Scaling Automation, 1-Click or policy-based automatic resource scaling (vertical) and service
scaling (horizontal).
1-Click application stop, restart, relocate (capabilities missing in vanilla Kubernetes orcompetition) ·Data protection, 1-Click application snapshot, time travel, backup & restore (for Helm-based andBundle-based apps).
Application mobility, 1-Click application portability across multiple clusters or clouds.
1-Click application upgrades that can validate on clone before upgrading production app

6|PageThis provides an easy way to modify the resources assigned to the applications and present the use witha marketplace like experiences for on-demand deployment and life cycle operations like scaling andhealing and performance management including complex provisioning policies and affinity and antiaffinity policies. All of this is fully automated, hunting for resources and hardcoding element parameters
are completely eliminated. CNP and MDCAP does all the work for you.
CNP’s user interaction paradigm centers on declarative programmable models. Declarative, as it asks foryour desired outcome, but not all of the configuration steps to get there. This is possible because CNP
presents all of the configuration parameters as programmable variables.

1.1 Security Solution
We do not classify our solution as a “security” solution. We do classify it as a cloud platform andautomation solution that is “secure” that helps the operator and users operate in a safe environment.
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Our solution performs RBAC with a high granularity of different roles
It is easily integrated with the customer’s existing LDAP solution
We can perform security scans in our automation “Service Designer”
We integrate with the Istio service mesh
Our team undergoes rigorous security scans of our own intellectual property as well as opensource components
Rakuten Cloud Native Platform has ISO 27001 security certification

As part of Rakuten Symphony, additional security services can be offered.

1.2 Advanced Networking
NFs provide additional networking requirements that their enterprise counterparts don’t have to deal
with. Plain vanilla Kubernetes won’t cut it from a performance or connectivity standpoint. Kubernetes
pods need multiple connectivity options (Multus) and workloads need access to dedicated, highperformance jitter free underlays that support network resource reservation. CNP supports Container
Network Interfaces (CNIs) supporting multiple networking options that include Calico overlay networks,
Open vSwitch (OVS), Overlay networking and Single Root Input/Output Virtualization (SR-IOV) Data Plane
Development Kit (DPDK) high-performance underlays for optimal internal connectivity and external tolegacy operations applications. CNP provides additional support for IP address persistence across, starts,
stops, migrations and healing of network functions.

1.3 Support for Containerized and Virtualized Network Functions or applications
Not all applications will be available in cloud native form. Our cloud Platform supports running
Virtualized and containerized Network functions or application simultaneously on the same cluster. Thiseliminates the need for siloed platforms. CNP deploys VMs directly in container pods with the standard
7|Pagecontainer PodSpec, without the need of a custom Virtual Machine Instance declaration adding additionalthat adds additional complexity.
The CNP CRI implementation allows for true Host Pass through that allows one to pin-CPUs directly to
VMs for both unshared and shared implementations, bypassing elements of the hypervisor layer. This
implementation improves throughput, isolation and lowers jitter.

1.4 Software Defined Storage
Rakuten Cloud Native Storage (CNS) software defined storage is included part of our CNP cloud offeringand is incorporated via the Kubernetes CSI interface. CNS provides robust data persistency for stateful
Applications including always-on availability with self-healing and advanced data placement. It is built
from the ground up to support data and network intensive stateful and stateless applications.
CNS is the best of breed storage and data management solution for Kubernetes. CNS is built for highperformance that consistently beats competition with bare metal performance across many workloads.
It is highly-scalable and supports multiple petabytes under management in production deployments at
customer sites. It features:
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Built-in data resiliency through synchronous replication and automatic re-sync on failures.
Snapshots, backups and clones are application-centric (captures application data, configurationand metadata). Built-in encryption and compression.
Rapid failover of storage volumes to restore access to data even. under network partitions (8xfaster).
Built-in support for most databases and big data stores, including MongoDB, Cassandra,
ScyllaDB, Postgres, MySQL, Oracle, Oracle RAC, SAP HANA, Elastic, Splunk, Cloudera,
Hortonworks, and many more
Supports IOPs-based guaranteed Qos
Rich storage placement rules
Supports disks, SSD, NVMe and your existing storage arrays
Supports file, block and object storage
CNS can support any type of storage device connected to the cluster and offers enhanced data
management capabilities that is application aware.
Automated data rebalancing to avoid data hit spots.

Snapshots can protect not only the persistent data volumes across multiple POD and nodes it also
protects Kubernetes configuration including stateful sets, secretes etc. to any point in time. Snapshots
are thin provisioned and based on redirect on-WR technology and does not consume additional
replicated data.
CNS also provides backup and Clone capability which is very helpful or in place upgrade of stateful
applications and network services.

8|Page9|Page2 Infrastructure Orchestration
Rakuten Cloud Native Orchestrator is a hyper-automation, multi-data center and multi-cloud, platform
built on top of Kubernetes to automate all aspects of delivery and life cycle management of
infrastructure and Network services end-to-end from metal to service.
Rakuten Cloud Native Orchestrator is based on cloud native technologies and achieve portability,
efficiency and as a service delivery of network functions. The Open architecture allows MNOs to selectthe best of breed software defined elements from different providers while maintaining a unified andefficient infrastructure independent orchestration and automation processes.
Rakuten Cloud Native Orchestrator orchestrates and manages the lifecycle of any workflow including,bare-metal provisioning, cloud platform instantiation, Application provisioning and Methods ofProcedures (MOPs), a metal to service orchestration, all of which can be auto-triggered through a policy
engine. One platform, with unifying workflows.

2.1 Bare Metal-a-a-S & LCM
Before any application, NF or controller can be installed, a server must be updated and configured.
Rakuten Cloud Native Orchestrator performs full bare-metal life cycle management and can verify,
install, upgrade, configure and bootstrap your server infrastructure. These are not simple scripts, they
are contextually-aware workflows with numerous user defined checks points and forks, that guide yourinstallation to its desired conclusion. Transform a server, without configuration or operating system, via
the Baseboard Management Controller (BMC), Ethernet or serial, connection. Monitor and manage
readiness:●●●

Basic Input Output System (BIOS) and BMC configurations
NIC, Solid State Drives (SSD), Field Programmable ASICs (FPGA), non-Volatile Memory express(NVMe), Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID), firmware upgrades
OS installation, Drivers, Services and Software Packages

Rakuten Cloud Native Orchestrator bare metal provisioning has been used in numerous provider
networks and spans a wide range of pre-integrated Intel and AMD server models.

2.2 Cluster LCM
Rakuten Cloud Native Orchestrator is multi-cluster aware and can simultaneously run multiple data
centers. Multi-cluster designs are the norm in both 5G and private 5G, as discussed earlier, sinceapplication, NF and control resources can lie anywhere from the far edge to a national data center
location. With Rakuten Cloud Native Orchestrator, you can deploy CNP locally, in the cloud, regionally, atthe edge, at the far edge and in public clouds such as AWS EKS and Azure. You can use a standardized
approach for some cluster designs as well as custom designed for particular locations or services. Likeother declarative interfaces, elements in this case CNP clusters, can be modeled and reused. In this case,everything is captured in JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) scripts. Rakuten Cloud Native Orchestrator

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editor allows you to open these scripts, modify them, check them for errors and enact them all on one
motion.
Once instantiated, predefined automated workflows such as cluster upgrades, copy, master nodechanges, moves and deletes are pre-instantiated so you don’t have to build them. Customers can also
add additional workflows for custom behavior. Typical operations include:

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Installation and configuration of the Cloud platform
Multiple HA models
Configuration and cluster instantiations, scaling, healing and termination
Upgrade of the K8 Clusters and configuration for observability

2.3 Application LCM
Rakuten Cloud Native Orchestrator contains several tools for defining applications, As was the case ofcluster workflows, one can model the key variables, resources, networking, image location and otherresource modeling parameters. Then Rakuten Cloud Native Orchestrator provides both prebuilt
workflows that cover all of your lifecycle tasks, as well as customization options. Pre-defined workflows
include instantiate, start, stop, upgrade, rolling upgrade, terminate and move for virialized andContainerized applications.
The only differences between implementing each are the package definitions. Any applications can beonboarded using Helm charts, 3rd party executors, Yet Another Markup Language (YAML) and custom
scripts to create bundles that are available in a marketplace format.
Rakuten Cloud Native Orchestrator application management can manage variety of applications such as:data bases, big data solutions, AI/ML, analytics stacks, load balancers, message queues, controllers etc.
The application life cycle manager works in concert with CNP to take advantage of advanced workload
placement, networking and application aware storage.

2.4 Methods Of Procedures Management
A MOP is a generic term that describes any step-by-step sequence for performing any task. It tells
technicians or automation tools how to execute the actions, in order to perform that task. In addition tothis general functionality, the Rakuten Cloud Native Orchestrator MOPs facility can be used to manage
the lifecycle of physical devices, such as radios, sensors and networking appliances. These are performedby taking “existing” or new scripts and ingesting them into the MOPs workflow. MOPs can be executed inbatch jobs or triggered by a policy engine that records the change of component states or receives a
notification. Rakuten Cloud Native Orchestrator can send values to a resident or remote Prometheus
collectors that in turn feeds the policy engine. We also have a MOPs design studio to create and catalog
your MOPs. All of these can be triggered automatically by our policy engine. MOPs can span multiple

11 | P a g edomains, for example if a failure is detected, commands can be sent to servers, switches, SDN controller
appliances, pagers, email, etc. in any order

2.5 Inventory Management
See the next section for more details. Rakuten Cloud Native Orchestrator has full observability into
servers, compute nodes, networking and can directly correlate it to any Kubernetes cluster, andapplication. All nodes are auto -discovered and auto-tracked as you add, move, change and scale.

2.6 Edge Platform Operations
Rakuten Cloud Native Orchestrator and CNP have deep insight into all elements: physical resources,
cloud platform, and services. Furthermore, it can correlate and display views across any strata from a full
drilldown to a solution-wide view, including application, service, pod, node, cluster, server, datacenter,
multi-cloud. Using these metrics, customize and monitor at multiple levels, not just top down or bottoms
up. Based on this multi-level awareness, this information can be used to troubleshoot, auto-repair,migrate, notify or trigger a MOPs operation using a policy engine. The monitoring systems give you true
everything-awareness as well as the tools to use it.
Assess the configuration, system health, readiness and usage of your bare-metal infrastructure and all
the related resources IT resources.
Monitor your Kubernetes clusters. View pod level statistics, cluster health, performance and resource
utilization, events, pod relocates, instantiations, terminations, persistent volumes created, volume
relocations, disk rebuilds, volume rebuilds, users active, resource pool capacity, node capacity, kubelet
daemons, node exporter (exposed via Prometheus), docker daemons, container, master status changes
and many more.
Perform detailed drill down statistics for Services, infrastructure components and 3rd party applications
on performance, utilization and health, replica set counts, auto-scale statistics and numerous usage
metrics.
Rakuten Cloud Native Orchestrator is designed to enable chargeback and is capable of exporting all
trackable metrics ranging from physical resource utilization, throughput, packet flows, per pod, per node,
per cluster. These metrics work in conjunction with our multi-tenancy and roles-based access modules
for fine granularity among users.
Another added feature of Rakuten Cloud Native Orchestrator’s advanced correlation capabilities is toanalyze those “what if?” scenarios with our “Sherlock” tool. Determine the blast radius impact of any
system failure including, CPU core failure, unreachable network destinations, worker node restart,
master-node failover, roll-out failure, cluster failure, multiple instance failure or for any otherconfiguration variable using declarative modeling. Explore, plan and automate for any failure scenario.
Blast radius analyses and automation are not limited to single events but can include multiple events
across clusters and data centers.

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*AMD and AMD EPYC are trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
*Microsoft, Windows Server and Azure are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies.
*Red Hat Enterprise Linux is a trademark of Red Hat, Inc., registered in the United States and othercountries.
*Linux is the registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States and other countries.
*SUSE is a registered trademark of SUSE LLC in the United States and other countries.
*VMware ESXi is a trademark or registered trademark of VMware Corporation in the United States andother countries.
*MongoDB is a registered trademark of MongoDB, Inc.
*Cassandra is either registered trademark or trademark of the Apache Software Foundation in the
United States and/or other countries.
*ScyllaDB is registered trademark of ScyllaDB, Inc.
*Postgres is a trademark or registered trademark of the PostgreSQL Community Association of Canada.
*Oracle, MySQL and JavaScript are registered trademarks of Oracle and/or its affiliates.
* SAP HANA is a trademark or registered trademark of SAP SE or its affiliated companies in Germany andother countries.
* Elastic is a trademark or registered trademark of Elastic N.V. and its subsidiaries.
* Splunk is a trademark or registered trademark of Splunk Inc. in the United States and other countries.
* Cloudera is a registered or unregistered trademark in the United States and other countries.
*AWS and Amazon EKS are trademark of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates.
*All other trademarks are property of their respective owners and are only mentioned for informative
purposes.
*Trademark indications such as ™ and ® may be omitted in the description of the trademarks of eachcompany.

Click here for more information on Lenovo servers.

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