Ericsson Cuts Deployment Time 50% With GitLab to Deliver Faster Value to its OSS/BSS Customers

For more than two decades, Ericsson delivered business and operational support systems to telecom operators on a reliable cadence. Each deployment took three to four months, with major updates every three to four years. The rhythm worked because it aligned with the steady and predictable evolution of telecommunications infrastructure.

"Our deployment methodology was optimized for stability and predictable quarterly cycles," says Daniel Costa Soares, Head of Software Automation and Support, Ericsson OSS/BSS. "As cloud infrastructure created demand for faster innovation cycles, our Cloud portfolio enabled us to transform our approach while maintaining that same reliability."

Ericsson’s OSS/BSS solutions aren't optional infrastructure. When a telecom operator's billing system fails, revenue stops flowing immediately. These are the platforms that keep operators connected to billions of subscribers worldwide and help them collect revenue.

But cloud-native architecture changed everything. Cloud migration represents a competitive imperative that determines telecom market positioning. Without robust automation capabilities, Ericsson's OSS/BSS customers would simply avoid migrating to cloud infrastructure, effectively shutting Ericsson out of next-generation opportunities. Customers' demands for faster innovation cycles meant that deployments, which once took months, now needed to happen in weeks.

Ericsson could have incrementally automated their existing toolchain; instead, the OSS/BSS team decided to make a leap, enabling GitOps deployment for its Cloud portfolio using GitLab as the enabler for its GitOps Platform.

Managing enterprise OSS/BSS software deployments across more than 300 global communications service providers (CSPs) demands seamless orchestration across multiple tools, systems, and workflows.

"GitLab's integration capabilities are outstanding," says Costa Soares. "Integrations with Jira, Confluence, and the majority of security tools are ready right out of the box, which decreases our effort in implementing any CI/CD loops."

With GitLab, Ericsson reduces deployment time, delivering significant cost savings on multi-million-dollar OSS/BSS projects. According to Costa Soares, the transition would have been financially impossible without automation, noting that Ericsson can now update twice as frequently while optimizing costs.

For the telecom operators Ericsson serves OSS/BSS, this velocity shift is transformative.

Increased velocity raised the stakes for quality assurance. To prevent catastrophic failures, managing large enterprise software systems requires comprehensive testing.

GitLab's integration with Ericsson’s test orchestration engine enables validation of 2,000-3,000 test scenarios per OSS/BSS deployment, a 10x increase that covers far more potential vulnerabilities. "We're talking about software that is super complex," says Costa Soares. "With that much code, it's better to test many different scenarios. Verifying quality for our customers with this level of comprehensive testing is a real differentiator."

GitLab enables this scale through integrated visibility across deployment and quality pipelines.

"I'm seeing not only the pipeline of the deployment, but also the pipelines of test quality and software quality all in a single pane of glass," says Costa Soares. "It's making it all easier and cheaper because there's so much less manual work."

This approach helps Ericsson proactively identify and address issues before they reach customer networks, eliminating the bottlenecks that previously limited testing scope and effectiveness.

The team successfully completed multiple deployments using GitOps delivery practices across various OSS/BSS products. These projects had mandatory requirements in RFPs for automation enabled by GitOps, making this capability a key differentiator for CSPs to realize the full benefits of cloud products.

Through GitLab's platform, Ericsson manages all infrastructure and deployments directly from Git repositories, creating one reliable source for OSS/BSS deployments. This approach maintains critical audit trails and compliance requirements while enabling automated deployment orchestration across distributed infrastructure.

"The faster deployment capabilities GitLab enables directly contribute to our business growth," says Costa Soares. "Customers choose us because we can deliver innovation at the speed their markets demand."

Looking ahead, Ericsson continues to push automation boundaries with emerging technologies.

"We're currently exploring GitLab Duo in a proof of concept to evaluate its capabilities," says Costa Soares. "The AI integrations, including GitLab's connection with Amazon Q, open new possibilities for automation that reinforce GitLab's platform position."

By consolidating its DevSecOps toolchain into a single platform, Ericsson transformed how mission-critical telecommunications software reaches global markets, delivering faster and more reliable deployments that keep billions of subscribers connected worldwide.