The booming NFV and SDN market
The network functions virtualization (NFV) and software-defined networking (SDN) market is expected to be worth approximately $54.41 billion by 2022 with a compound annual growth rate of 71.4%, according to a new report by MarketsandMarkets. Accompanying the report is a list of major vendors impacting the market. Those to make the top of the list included IBM, Cisco Systems, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Juniper Networks and Huawei Technologies. Let’s take a closer look at the companies poised to head the NFV and SDN market.
IBM is one of the most well known computer companies in the world. Company consultants provide customers feedback on how to build and run a SDN environment. The consultants abide by a three step method that allows companies to optimize their current network while enlarging it to deploy SDN. The first step involves devising a SDN strategy based on SDN architecture, identifying issues within a company’s existing network that thwart SDN deployment. The second step involves consolidating and virtualizing the network to remove redundancies and minimize expenditures. And the last step involves automating and optimizing the network to enhance network agility and the end-user experience. The company also has IBM Client Innovation Centers where experts can advise customer about NFV, SDN and cloud technologies.
Cisco provides a range of networking switches, routers and management tools for a NFV and SDN network. In particular, the company has utilized the concept of SDN to develop software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN) products, including Intelligent WAN (IWAN), Meraki SD-WAN, as well as Viptela’s SD-WAN. IWAN equips IT departments with a set of traffic and control features to manage the network. Meraki SD-WAN allows IT infrastructure to be centrally controlled from a single dashboard using the cloud. And Viptela’s SD-WAN solution can be launched as an on-premises workload or in the cloud.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) allows companies to test software on their platform. HPE’s OpenNFV Partner Program, for example, allows partners to pre-test virtual network functions (VNFs) before live trials. In addition, HPE offers a wealth of applications for SDN as parts of its Software Developer Kit, which allows users to make apps for SDN products and review various SDN use cases. More recently, HPE debuted its HPE Edgeline Services Platform, a software-defined operational technology that lets partners bring services to the network edge for connected products.
Juniper Networks has an array of NFV and SDN solutions, such as contrail networking and contrail service orchestration. Contrail networking is a cloud network product that implements a SDN architecture automatically. The platform creates virtual networks using virtual machines, bare-metal servers and containers. Furthermore, Juniper’s contrail service orchestration leverages turnkey cloud orchestration to make a NFV management system and orchestration (MANO) software stack that tackles various NFV use cases.
Huawei’s NFV solution was named Best Technology Enabler at this year’s Mobile World Congress, one of the biggest events in the mobile communications sector. Huawei’s NFV solution is based on the Cloud Native concept, equipped with a distributed architecture to make the network more agile. Moreover, Huawei’s Virtualized Multiple Service Engine (vMSE), another cloud based open platform, enables third-party partners to deploy services within the network. Hawei has strived to establish itself as a leader in NFV standardization over the years, and is an active member member of the European Telecommunications Standards Institute’s NFV Industry Specification Group.
