The Lab-to-Live white paper, produced in partnership with Appledore Research, explores the critical shift required for modern networks to adopt a seamless testing and deployment approach. As cloud-native networks become central to enabling scalable, resilient, and agile infrastructure, traditional testing methods can no longer keep up. Lab-to-Live is a holistic strategy that integrates lab testing, network deployment, and operational monitoring into a unified lifecycle, fostering continuous improvement and stronger collaboration across development and operations.

Key takeaways from this research emphasize the importance of agile testing environments and proactive monitoring for cloud-native network resilience. With networks increasingly defined by software-driven applications, ensuring reliability involves rapid fault recovery and a shift from hardware-based resilience to software-based fault tolerance. This approach leverages continuous testing and visibility across all network components to proactively address failures, optimize resource usage, and support multi-vendor environments.

The paper also addresses the unique challenges in cloud-native network management, including complex supply chains and elevated security risks. Lab-to-Live testing builds confidence in production changes and minimizes potential disruptions by validating network resilience before deployment. This closed-loop process from lab to live operations provides telcos with the flexibility to scale, innovate, and secure their infrastructure.