NFV/SDN Reality Check: SDN Impact On Enterprise SD-WAN Efforts – Episode 45

On today’s show we have an interview with Kumar Ramachandran, co-founder and CEO of CloudGenix, on the impact SDN is having on enterprise SD-WAN efforts.

But first, let’s take a look at some of the top headlines from across the telecom related NFV, SDN cloud and software space from the past week.

First, the Open Compute Project announced the formation of its Telco Project focused on data center technologies for telecom operators.

OCP said the open forum will focus on communicating telecom technical requirements to the OCP community; look to strengthen the OCP ecosystem to address the deployment and operational needs of telecom operators; and look to bring its work to telecom data center infrastructure to provide increased cost-savings and agility.

Bolstering the program is the addition of AT&T, Deutsche Telekom, EE, SK Telecom and Verizon Communications as members of OCP. Also joining OCP are Equinix and Nexius, with the organization noting Nokia Networks has announced plans to incorporate OCP designs into its AirFrame Data Center portfolio.

Also this week, a new report from Technology Business Research expects telecom operators to increase their reliance on software technologies based on NFV and SDN to reduce costs and better compete against established software-based service providers.

The TBR report claims telecom operators over the next year will look to focus on consolidation and cost-cutting initiatives “to improve the profitability of their enterprise business,” citing recent moves by CenturyLink and Verizon in looking to divest their data centers and IBM’s recent acquisition of AT&T’s managed application and hosting service business.

TBR senior analyst Chris Antlitz said carriers like AT&T and Verizon were moving away from the public cloud business due to their inability to gain market share against established competitors such as Amazon Web Services.

Instead, Antlitz said operators will focus their 2016 cloud strategies on providing network connectivity and value-added services to solutions offered by leading cloud service providers and through interconnection platforms such as AT&T’s NetBond.

Antlitz added that in a move to reduce costs, carriers will emphasize using leasing agreements with data center providers to gain capacity, rather than investing in launching additional facilities.

Further, TBR said carriers were adopting NFV and SDN to reduce costs and gain agility in service offerings, citing AT&T’s Network on Demand platform and Verizon’s SDN-based SD-WAN offering.

The analyst firm added early adopters are set to reap the greatest benefit, gaining a time-to-market advantage in offering enhanced applications to enterprises.

Thanks for joining us on this week’s NFV/SDN Reality Check. Make sure to check us out again next week when we are scheduled to speak with Tech Mahindra on tips for CSPs in deploying SDN and NFV.

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