NFV, SDN drive rapid innovation
BARCELONA, Spain – The notion of network function virtualization has to some extent confounded mobile network operators dependent on complex – and expensive – legacy architectures.
But as consumer demand facilitated by fiber and gigabit connections increases, network operators are pushed to NFV as a way to more quickly deliver services and innovations.
Current Analysis VP Peter Jarich sat down at Mobile World Congress with Affirmed Networks CEO Hassan Ahmed and Martin Zuurbier, CTO of Elephant Talk, to discuss the finer points of capitalizing on NFV solutions.
“What does market timing look like?” relative to NFV, SDN deployments, Jarich asked. “We know this is new. On the other hand, it feels like we’ve been talking about it for years yet we can’t point to lots of great examples.”
“I think the market is here,” Ahmed said. “The last couple years were about evangelizing. I think it’s actually arrived.”
He pointed to more than 20 commercial deployments, including to tier-one operators, completed by Affirmed.
“The use of NFV is definitely happening now. What we find is most operators are mentally on the page of looking at NFV as their future architecture. It used to be that people worried that when this new technology came along, could it really keep pace with the legacy? Our platform, as new technology, is outperforming the best of the legacy.
“There’s absolutely zero downside to the operator moving,” Ahmed continued. “This, I think, is a tipping point in the marketplace where you’ll see this accelerate.”
“When you look to this, when you see the whole economic sphere coming together, I think that mobile operators, very soon won’t have a choice,” Zuurbier said.
Jarich asked about the potential for monetization of NFV and software-defined network deployments.
“You can save your way to a profit but you can’t save your way to growth. How do you think about monetization and what opportunities NFV opens up?”
Zuurbier likened a virtualized network to an iPhone, with numerous applications fully embedded; he emphasized the increased governance and security associated with NFV.
“The biggest problem in today’s legacy network architecture,” Ahmed said, “is they’re so inflexible. It’s a year-long exercise to do anything.”
He said innovation has to be delivered “in Internet time. That’s where the service architectures of NFV make a big difference, when you can reduce nine months to hours or minutes.”
For more from this session, click here.
