From legacy to leadership: How cloud-native ODA is reshaping telco DNA

As the telecom industry modernizes its digital core, cloud-native Open Digital Architecture (ODA) is proving to be more than just a technical migration – it’s a strategic redefinition of what it means to be a modern CSP. In a recent session, leaders from Jio and Rakuten Symphony explored how ODA, CI/CD, and DevOps are reshaping telco operations and paving the way for scalable, AI-driven infrastructure.

Speakers:

• Dr. Sudhir Kumar Mittal – Executive Vice President & Director Architecture, Jio Platforms Ltd
• Sandeep Arora – SVP & Head of Sales – India, APAC, MEA, Rakuten Symphony

Watch the full interview.

The panel began with a sharp reminder: CSPs can no longer afford to be weighed down by legacy architectures. The shift to cloud-native isn’t optional – it’s essential to meeting evolving customer expectations, scaling digital services, and future-proofing operations. He emphasized that many operators today are drowning in tech debt, with rigid systems designed for yesterday’s demands.

The leaders outlined how Jio’s journey evolved from a greenfield setup to managing one of the world’s largest telecom footprints. Interoperability was a major challenge – and a key reason for adopting TM Forum standards and component-based design via the ODA Canvas. This shift toward standard APIs, common information models, and modularized deployments has become critical to reducing integration complexity and enabling scale.

Building for agility: CI/CD and DevOps

As cloud-native principles take hold, CI/CD and DevOps are becoming the beating heart of transformation. These practices don’t just improve release cycles – they enable automation, observability, and speed across the stack.

Frameworks like ODA must be supported by mature DevOps pipelines and AI-driven automation. The industry is already seeing AI generate code, validate updates, and optimize deployments in ways that accelerate time-to-market. This means CI/CD won’t just support AI – it must be designed to evolve with it.

Componentization, combined with ODA Canvas, allows even large telcos like Jio to run automated regressions and safely push upgrades without disrupting operations – a crucial step toward achieving real agility.

Key takeaways

• ODA is the future-proof foundation. Shifting from legacy monoliths to modular, interoperable components enables agility, scalability, and reuse.
  
• CI/CD and DevOps are essential enablers. They bring velocity, consistency, and automation into multi-vendor environments.
  
• AI is reshaping the development pipeline. From code generation to lifecycle management, AI is becoming integral to CI/CD.
  
• Cloud-native thinking transforms operations. Treating telco networks as large-scale distributed data centers requires IT-style governance, observability, and resiliency.
• Autonomous, AI-native networks are next. Intent-based APIs, agentic orchestration, and self-healing systems are no longer science fiction – they’re on the roadmap.

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“AI will play a very big role in developing these telco frameworks in the time to come – coding will be done a lot through AI. And how we use that in the framework of CI/CD will be an important part.”

-Sandeep Arora, SVP, Head of Sales (APAC and MEA), Rakuten Symphony

For more insights on how Rakuten Symphony is helping CSPs transition from traditional networks to agile, AI-native digital infrastructure, follow us here.