Virgin Media O2 protects critical cloud service with supported foundation

Virgin Media UK, began a digital transformation project to update its business support systems (BSS) and online charging systems (OCS). The service provider chose to build the new environment for these systems, IT Private Cloud, with Red Hat cloud platform technology, backed by Red Hat® Enhanced Solution Support.

Virgin Media UK, part of Virgin Media O2 and the UK’s second-largest mobile network operator,
began a digital transformation project to update its business support systems (BSS) and online
charging systems (OCS). The service provider chose to build the new environment for these
systems, IT Private Cloud, with Red Hat cloud platform technology, backed by Red Hat Enhanced
Solution Support. With 24x7 access to Technical Account Managers (TAMs) and other support
staff, Virgin Media O2 can avoid costly delays, provide a consistent experience, and protect its
reputation by quickly troubleshooting and resolving issues.

Evolving services to stay ahead in a competitive market
Virgin Media O2, a joint venture between Liberty Global and Telefónica SA, is one of the United
Kingdom’s largest businesses, with more than 46 million broadband, mobile, phone, and home
subscribers. The service provider recently began a project to modernize its business support
systems (BSS) and online charging service (OCS) by replacing more than 80 legacy systems.
As part of this project, Virgin Media O2 sought to build a highly available on-premise platform,
IT Private Cloud, to support a variety of technology solutions, including Netcracker Customer
Journey Management, Juniper Networks Contrail SDN (software-defined networking) controller,
and VMware Avi Vantage load balancer.
Due to its broad impact on the business, the platform was rated platinum class, or requiring the
highest level of service where it required production-level support from the beginning of the
project—even during development phases. To create IT Private Cloud, Virgin Media O2 sought an
infrastructure solution that not only provided robust technology capabilities and stability but also
provided expert enterprise support before, during, and after implementation to ensure availability
and optimal performance for critical business services.

Building a stable private cloud with comprehensive expert support
Virgin Media O2 decided to use Red Hat platform technology as the infrastructure foundation for IT
Private Cloud, supported by Red Hat Technical Account Management (TAM) and Red Hat Enhanced
Solution Support. This service provides 24x7 access to engineering and other technical experts.
“Without our IT private cloud platform, we would have no business,” said Alan Bickley, Head of
Infrastructure Engineering, Virgin Media O2. “It’s critical to building, delivering, and supporting the
services that our business and our customers depend on.”
Red Hat OpenStack Platform and Red Hat OpenShift provide modular, agile IT infrastructure to
optimize IT operations for existing, traditional applications and modern, cloud-native applications
and technologies. These integrated solutions offer a consistent operational experience through
unified, automated management and elastic scalability to support changing business demands.
Red Hat Enhanced Solution Support is Red Hat’s highest support tier, providing ongoing guidance
and resources for products, integrations, and other needs across customers’ Red Hat deployments.
It includes:
- A 15-minute response time and 4-hour restoration service level agreement (SLA) for
Severity 1 incidents.
- Access to 2 Red Hat Technical Account Managers (TAMs) for Red Hat OpenStack Platform
and Red Hat OpenShift.
- Access to a dedicated team of technical support engineers.
During implementation, the TAMs helped Virgin Media O2’s teams implement the new platforms and
migrate applications, including resolving any potential delays. They now work proactively alongside
the service provider’s internal teams, including attending daily standups and weekly team meetings
to shared updates on Red Hat features that may help enhance Virgin Media O2’s private cloud.

Delivering reliable telecommunications services to stay competitive

Achieved rapid issue resolution with 24x7 support
If critical issues occur in its Red Hat environment, Virgin Media O2 can access its dedicated Red Hat
support team immediately through a direct hotline. For less urgent issues, cases submitted through
the web support portal receive replies within 15 minutes—no matter the day or time.
Red Hat TAMs work closely with product engineering teams to get information and guidance directly
from the experts who develop Red Hat’s OpenStack and OpenShift technology. “After all, the
resolution may lie within the product configuration or architecture design areas, which wouldn’t be
covered by traditional support models,” said Bickley.
When issues arise that create a service impact across multiple vendors, the Red Hat TAMs and
support team join calls with Virgin Media O2’s internal team and the third-party vendors to find
solutions. With this cross-team and cross-company approach, O2 UK can rely on Red Hat to quickly
mobilize the right people to resolve any issues in the infrastructure supporting IT Private Cloud.
“With Red Hat Enhanced Support Solution, we can ensure the high availability we need for our
NetCracker BSS stack that supports device purchasing, plan upgrades, and other critical business
functions,” said Bickley.

Established trusted relationship with technology experts
Working with the same group of people from Red Hat on a daily basis has helped Virgin Media O2
build confidence in their ability to not only solve problems faster and more reliably but also to look for
opportunities to align technology with the service provider’s business goals and strategy. For example,
the Red Hat team provided guidance on best practices for implementing a third-party
monitoring solution for IT Private Cloud.
“We see our Red Hat TAMs and the Enhanced Solution Support team as an extension of our internal
team,” said Bickley. “We don’t have to keep going over the same background information with
different people each time we call. That’s a key benefit for quick restoration if any issues occur.
We know each team member, and they know us and our environment, from how the implementation
went to the history of any fixes we’ve applied. Their dedication has proven invaluable.”

Avoided costly project delays with enterprise support
Using a supported, stable platform backed by enterprise support from Red Hat has helped Virgin
Media O2 avoid implementation delays that could add up to hundreds of thousands of pounds in
costs—for the service provider and other involved vendors.
“Our Red Hat technologies have been continually up and running with our platform readily
available, helping us maintain uptime and avoid delays,” said Bickley. “Taking longer to deliver
the new functionality would have meant engaging external contractors longer. The smooth
implementation supported by our Red Hat Technical Account Managers helped us avoid those
delays and related costs.”

Expanding support relationship to new projects
After its success using Red Hat services to support IT Private Cloud and its digital transformation
efforts, Virgin Media O2 is planning to expand the relationship to other critical projects, such as
network modernization.

“Red Hat Enhanced Solution Support Service is exceptional,” said Bickley. “Without keeping our
critical services running and available, we would have no business. Working with Red Hat’s experts
is key to our exploration of technology solutions to new business opportunities. We are highly
satisfied with the value of the service, demonstrated by our renewal of the contract for an additional
three years.”

About Virgin Media O2
Virgin Media O2 is a British mass media and telecommunications company based in London,
England. The company was formed in June 2021 as a 50:50 joint venture between Liberty Global
and Telefónica through the merger of their respective Virgin Media and O2 UK businesses

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