Industry group TM Forum unveiled a project to build a validation platform for interoperable software, a move the organisation believes will ease operator efforts to modernise IT processes and deployment of cloud-native networks.

The Open Digital Architecture Component Accelerator Project will be created in partnership with a number of large players including operators Vodafone Group, Orange and Axiata Group, alongside Oracle, Accenture, Global Wavenet, Globetom, SigScale and Whale Cloud.

Once complete the system will be used by members of the organisation to validate software components against interoperable open digital architecture standards.

Speaking to Mobile World Live, TM Forum chief digital officer John Gillam said: “Natural evolution and M&A have taken their toll on architecture and the default place CSPs find themselves in is having to group the whole stack into a monolith, so every time somebody says they want to change it, it’s a multi-month and multimillion pound exercise.”

He added this issue had created demand and momentum around open APIs and produced a need for the project the organisation unveiled today (1 December) to help widen the number of vendors able to supply segments of systems to operators to provide greater choice.

In a statement, Vodafone global director of IT strategy and architecture Carlos Valero added the project would help: “understand the best approach to building out cloud native IT”, noting it would also “help shape current and future R&D.”