Building blocks of innovation: Composable IT for 5G and beyond

Composable IT is emerging as a foundational strategy – enabling flexible deployment of 5G Core, edge services, and private networks across industries. In a recent discussion, leaders from Rakuten Symphony, NTT Data, and Matrixx Software explored how modular, API-first architectures are supporting faster innovation, greater adaptability, and intelligent automation.

Speakers:

• Mina Nicola – Sales/Solution Architect – RAN, OSS, Cloud, Rakuten Symphony
• Luis Fernando Rubio Martínez – Telecom Executive Director, Europe & LATAM, NTT Data
• Elisabeth Andersson – Director, Office of the CTO, Matrixx Software

Watch the full interview.

The panel opened with a deep dive into how composable IT enables a shift from monolithic stacks to microservice-driven agility. With open APIs and modular systems, CSPs can break data silos, reduce operational overhead, and support faster go-to-market strategies – all while tailoring solutions for specific industries and customer segments.

The discussion also highlighted the need for seamless orchestration. As service composition becomes more dynamic and real-time, SMO (Service Management and Orchestration) and cloud-native design principles play a critical role in managing service lifecycles, enforcing SLAs, and ensuring cross-domain interoperability.

Real-world transformation at the edge

When it comes to 5G private networks, speakers emphasized that composable IT allows CSPs to simplify deployment for end users – especially SMBs who are not accustomed to managing complex network stacks. By abstracting infrastructure complexity, CSPs can deliver fully-integrated, cloud-managed network solutions that can scale quickly across use cases like manufacturing, mining, healthcare, and AR/VR.

This transformation is also driving demand for productization – turning technical capabilities into industry-ready solutions that are easy to consume, customize, and monetize. The combination of orchestration, cloud-native infrastructure, and AI-driven lifecycle management is enabling a new level of service fluidity and automation.

Key takeaways

• Composable IT unlocks modular innovation. Open APIs, microservices, and orchestration enable faster deployment of 5G and edge services.
  
• Orchestration is the new control plane. SMO layers support real-time scaling, lifecycle management, and SLA enforcement.
  
• Productization is essential. Technical capabilities must be translated into business-ready, tailored offerings.
  
• Private networks must be simple. CSPs need to offer turnkey, pre-integrated network experiences – especially for SMBs.
• Agentic AI is on the horizon. As networks become more autonomous, agents will play a bigger role in self-adjusting orchestration and service composition.

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"The silos of the data within disaggregated applications create a burden on the telecom operators. So by having a unified platform of open APIs, all comes under one place."

-Mina Nicola, Sales/Solution Architect – RAN, OSS, Cloud, Rakuten Symphony

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