One New Zealand builds a future-focused network with Red Hat

Facing a complex technological environment built through multiple acquisitions, telecommunications service provider One New Zealand needed a scalable foundation to support the next 5-10 years of connectivity services. To unify its fragmented architecture, the company collaborated with Red Hat to establish the One Horizontal Cloud platform, powered by Red Hat OpenShift and Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform. This transformation reduced delivery times by 40% and operating costs by up to 45%, empowering engineers to focus on higher-value services and allowing the deployment of a fully cloud-native 5G core.

Benefits

• Reduced delivery times for new workloads by 40%
• Decreased operational costs for deployments by 30-45%
• Accelerated in-service software upgrades to be 40 times faster
• Achieved a unified architecture for critical networks

Telecommunications is an industry under constant change and is entering an era where millions of devices need to be connected. One New Zealand runs business-critical infrastructure that the New Zealand economy relies on; however, its highly virtualized but fragmented technology was becoming an issue.

One New Zealand’s complex environment had been built over multiple years through various acquisitions. Crucial systems, including voice, messaging, and 5G core platforms, operated on entirely separate architectural frameworks. This fragmentation created isolated structures and engineering challenges affecting One New Zealand’s ability to innovate, scale, and achieve rapid speed to market.

“We need to prepare our business for the next 5-10 years of connectivity,” said Kieran Byrne, Chief Technology Officer at One New Zealand. “However, like many telcos, our complex environment was holding us back. This lack of cohesion made it incredibly difficult to innovate and continuously deliver reliable services to our customers.”

To resolve these architectural challenges, One New Zealand conducted an extensive market search to find a unified technological backbone.

The organization chose to collaborate with Red Hat because it offered an open, scalable, telco-grade platform that allowed the company to integrate services and containerize workloads in a standardized way. One New Zealand worked with Red Hat Consulting to design a standard reference architecture and build a new foundation called the One Horizontal Cloud.

At the core of this transformation is Red Hat OpenShift, which is supported by Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform and Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes to provide end-to-end automation and reliable service delivery. Recognizing that a move to container-based architecture requires a massive shift in mindset, One New Zealand also heavily invested in its people. The company used Red Hat Learning Subscription and classroom-based, gamified training to help its engineering teams transition to the new environment.

“The result is the One Horizontal Cloud, the foundation of our ambition to transition to a completely cloud-native network and IT infrastructure,” said Byrne. “And through our partnership with Red Hat Consulting, we gained access to global best practices and reference architectures, allowing us to develop new operating models and truly maximize the platform’s potential.”

Accelerated service delivery and reduced costs

The standardized platform allowed One New Zealand to achieve a 40% reduction in delivery times and a 30-45% decrease in operational costs for deploying new workloads. Projects that previously took weeks or months to deliver can now be completed in days. Additionally, in-service software upgrades are now 40 times faster than they were on the previous traditional platforms, providing a highly standardized and reliable upgrade process.

Increased efficiency with zero touch processes

By implementing uninterrupted automation and zero touch provisioning, the company can automatically provision bare-metal servers, operating systems, cluster loading, and security configurations. This end-to-end lifecycle automation has shifted engineers away from manual configuration tasks and toward proactive, high-value work for the business.

“This transformation has been a game changer,” said Byrne. “By implementing end-to-end automation and zero touch provisioning, we can now automatically provision everything from bare-metal servers to operating systems and configurations.”

Achieved a unified architecture for critical networks

The One Horizontal Cloud established a common language and standard architecture, successfully breaking down historical barriers between networking, application, and cloud infrastructure teams. This unified architecture serves as the cohesive foundation for the company’s most critical applications, including subscriber databases, voice and messaging platforms, and a new 5G standalone core.

Transitioning these key elements to a single cloud-native mobile core allows One New Zealand to move at market speeds and deliver highly resilient digital products to its customers.

With the One Horizontal Cloud established as the foundation for its 5G services, One New Zealand is deploying its first full cloud-native mobile core and planning for the future. The company now plans to use its automated infrastructure to become the world’s most AI-based telecommunications operator.

One New Zealand is now actively expanding its platform to deploy AI use cases across its network and IT environments, with the goal of augmenting human capabilities in software development and network operations. The organization is also exploring further collaborations with Red Hat surrounding digital sovereignty and autonomous network operations observability.

“We have set a bold goal: to be the most AI-based telco in the world,” said Byrne. “We also look forward to extending our partnership with Red Hat in emerging areas like digital sovereignty to ensure long-term resilience.