Flexibility, scalability, time-to-market key drivers of SDN adoption
Software-defined networking (SDN) provides the management and orchestration tools needed to operate increasingly complex and increasingly virtualized networks. For operators, SDN creates efficiencies related to both spectral and network resource allocation, as well as related to level of manual operations, which has a direct line to personnel costs. For the enterprises served by operators, SDN brings an inherent flexibility and scalability needed to quickly stand-up and benefit from the creation of new services. SDN and network functions virtualization (NFV) have been a hot topic in telecom for years, but there’s still a significant delta between the level of the hype and actual live deployments. Let’s take stock of how operators and enterprises are adopting SDN-type technologies.
In a recent survey sponsored by Verizon and conducted by Longitude, 165 “senior IT leaders from large global organizations responded to a poll indicating that 15% of companies are “piloting or deploying SDN.” The researchers project that figure to rise to 57% within two years. Based on responses, 31% “see their SDN deployments happening at a slower pace,” a three- to five-year timeframe.
In terms of expected outcomes, 49% hit on scaling network functions; 44% “believe SDN will give them a competitive edge;” the same percentage “point to their need to deploy services to internal lines of business more quickly. Other SDN-enabled advantages highlighted are network security, application performance and network resilience. Read the full report here.
Two IT leaders surveyed said their respective companies are using SDN to reduce network complexity at remote sites and to innovate more quickly to foster a competitive advantage. SDN is “already proving invaluable in remote places because it’s reducing the need to get skilled technical hands into far-flung areas at short notice,” according to Mark Timbs, CIO of construction, infrastructure and property firm Lendlease. IKEA Head of IT Operations and Shared Services Alex EE said, “The need for us to develop at the front end with apps and experiences for our customers impels us to move more quickly…We’re trying to be much quicker than before—particularly with innovations such as our smaller city and pop-up stores—which means we can’t wait around for someone to get approval to dig up a line for us.”
On the operator side, AT&T was an early mover with its Domain 2.0 NFV/SDN program, which morphed into the Enhanced Management, Control, Orchestration and Policy (ECOMP) software. ECOMP was later combined with Huawei’s OPEN-O software, which was then made available through the Linux Foundation as open source software under the new name Open Network Automation Platform (ONAP).
In a March post to AT&T’s Innovation Blog, Chris Rice, SVP, AT&T Labs, Domain 2.0 Architecture and Design, noted the operator had virtualized and gained software-control of 55% of its network in 2017 with plans to reach 75% software-control of “core network functions” by 2020. He tied the commercialization of 5G with the need to deploy SDN and NFV across the network.
As it relates to 5G, Rice said those tools are “how we’ll deploy not just our stand network services in our centralized network cloud, but new mobility, consumer and enterprise low-latency applications at the network edge in our edge cloud. Open source software has allowed us to more cost-effectively manage, better control and more quickly deploy network services than ever before.”
Earlier we mentioned the personnel-related implications of the softwarization of networks. In a recent piece by the Atlanta Business Chronicle, AT&T CFO is quoted as saying, “We are shifting from hardware to software. I would expect” less personnel. “We’ve had less over the last five years.”
