José Miguel Guzmán
Co-Founder Whitestack.
The telecommunications industry is facing a new technological crossroads. From virtualization in the 3G era, through the adoption of private clouds in 4G, to today’s transition towards microservices and containers driven by 5G, Telcos are confronted with a strategic decision: What Cloud model should they adopt?
The options are plentiful: proprietary platforms, semi-open solutions, or fully open-source approaches. These differences are not just technical; they also define the innovation model, integration flexibility, and, of course, long-term costs.
In proprietary models, hidden costs like Integration Fees significantly increase the TCO, limiting interoperability and slowing the evolution of the ecosystem. In contrast, fully open solutions transfer innovation directly from the open-source community to the market, enabling native integration between vendors without additional charges.
Deployment Models in the 5G Era
In 5G, containers have become the standard for deploying network functions. Many vendors have developed proprietary platforms on top of Kubernetes, where they manage their microservices internally. While efficient in orchestration, these platforms remain closed, limiting the full potential of the container ecosystem.
There are also solutions based on virtual machines, such as VMware Tanzu, which allow the creation of Kubernetes clusters over virtualized infrastructure. However, this approach can introduce complexities in the cluster lifecycle, especially during upgrade processes.
On the other hand, solutions like OpenShift enable the deployment of Kubernetes directly on bare-metal servers, eliminating the virtualization layer. While this reduces latency, it can result in lower hardware efficiency, as typically only one cluster is consolidated per physical node.
At Whitestack, we propose a hybrid approach: deploying Kubernetes clusters both on virtual machines and on bare metal, depending on site conditions. In regional data centers, the virtualized model maximizes compute density by enabling hardware multiplexing among network functions. In edge sites or smaller locations, the bare-metal model reduces complexity and optimizes CAPEX. This strategy allows us to achieve up to 30% additional hardware efficiency.
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CAPEX as a Financial Strategy for Telcos
Going against the global trend toward subscription-based models (SaaS and OPEX), Whitestack maintains a proposal centered on investment (CAPEX). This approach is natural for telcos, whose traditional infrastructure is based on amortizable physical assets and who seek to avoid the direct EBITDA impact associated with recurring models.
In real-world comparisons, a CAPEX model (initial investment + support) is approximately 25% more cost-effective than an OPEX model over a 3-year horizon, and up to 40% more efficient over 5 years. This difference allows operators to regain financial control over their cloud evolution without compromising service quality or innovation speed.
An Open and Collaborative Innovation Model
From its inception, Whitestack has embraced an innovation approach based on the world’s most widely adopted open standards. Rather than developing closed technologies, the company relies on the most established open-source projects with strong community backing.
WhiteCloud, its private cloud platform for IaaS, is built on OpenStack — a project with over 15 years of maturity, originally born at NASA and now led by the Linux Foundation. WhiteCloud has been deployed across dozens of telco data centers in Latin America, supporting both mission-critical network functions and nationwide services.
WhiteCruiser, Whitestack’s container platform, is built on Kubernetes — the container orchestration system created by Google and adopted as the standard by all major cloud providers. Thanks to this architecture, WhiteCruiser enables the deployment of 5G network functions as microservices, facilitating automation, scaling, and continuous updates.
This “innovating on the shoulders of giants” approach allows Whitestack to deliver solutions equivalent to those of global leaders, at up to 20% lower cost — without compromising quality or compatibility.
Is Private Cloud the Right Path for Telcos?
For Whitestack, the answer is yes. While the public cloud model works well for startups or small businesses, it does not scale cost-effectively for operators who require large capacities and highly available network functions. Moreover, many critical network functions are simply not designed to operate outside a private environment.
There are also key strategic considerations: Who controls the growth capacity, the data, and the sovereignty of the network? A private, open cloud model — under the operator’s control — addresses these concerns and enables the Telco to evolve with independence, agility, and sustainability.
More and more operators across Latin America are adopting this approach: a Telco Cloud built on open software, with no hidden fees, a flexible architecture, and a clearly competitive TCO.
In short: the future of telco cloud is not just about technology — it’s about the model behind it. And in that, Whitestack offers a mature, open alternative aligned with the real needs of the digital operator.
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Whitestack es una empresa líder en el despliegue productivo de soluciones basadas en tecnologías y código abierto, con un fuerte foco en la industria de telecomunicaciones.
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