Is Concurrency Being Left Behind In NFV Deployment Plans? – NFV/SDN Reality Check Episode 65

On this week’s show, we have a featured interview with Misbah Mahoodi, senior product marketing manager at F5, to discuss the need for more concurrently in NFV deployments.

But first let’s take a look at some headlines from across the space over the past week.

CenturyLink launched an software-defined wide-area network platform and is tempting enterprise customers to adopt the service through a proof-of-concept program. The SD-WAN platform is said to include site connectivity, equipment, software licensing, configuration, tuning, monitoring, and a management and analytics portal to support software-based centralized control for private networks over any available connectivity method.

CenturyLink noted the service can be self-managed or the operator itself can manage the platform using its own connectivity options or from a range of providers as part of an aggregated solution.

In a move to entice enterprise adoption, CenturyLink said its free 90-day PoC offer includes the delivery of customer-premise devices, access to a management portal and customer support for up to five sites. The telecom operator said the platform is currently being piloted by more than 10 enterprises, with commercial availability scheduled for the third quarter.

IDC earlier this year forecast the SD-WAN space to reach $6 billion in technology and service sales by 2020, with a compound annual growth rate of more than 90% over the next five years.

Also this week, a new report from Technology Business Research forecasts the network functions virtualization and software-defined networking markets will hit $158 billion by 2021, boosted by early adopters such as AT&T beginning to ramp investments into the NFV and SDN ecosystems.

TBR claims the 116% compound annual growth rate will be supported by the redistribution of legacy infrastructure capital expense as operators implement virtualized environments and gradually decommission legacy infrastructure platforms. TBR noted operators could see some external operating expense tied to vendors for maintenance and managed services to “support, integrate and operate software-mediated environments.”

The report predicts U.S. and European operators will drive three-fourths of the NFV and SDN spend each year through the forecast period, with Asia-Pacific operators expected to increase spending beginning in 2019.

For our featured interview this week we spoke with Misbah Mahoodi, senior product marketing manager at F5, to discuss the need for more concurrently in NFV deployments.

Mahoodi noted expectations for the ability to deploy fully functional applications and services in a secure and reliable environment across different segments is continuing to grow, boosted by the mobile telecom market moving towards more “5G” and “internet of things” implementations. This is in turn creating greater demand for concurrency in service provider networks.

Thanks for watching this week’s show, and make sure to check us out again next week when we are scheduled to speak with Radisys for a deeper look into the CORD and M-CORD initiatives.

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