The Time is Now for NFV Service Providers to Fill ‘Big Boy’ Telco Shoes
It is pretty clear to most observers that the telco/communication service provider (CSP) industry is at a critical turning point. Telcos know that if they can get NFV (Network Function Virtualization) services that can help them deliver global deployment-worthy NFV services they cross the chasm — from early adopters to early majority stage — they can finally take the huge profit- and competitive- gaining opportunity that awaits them.
In other words, it’s way past the time NFV industry start filling “big boy” Telco and CSP shoes so they can finally deliver the always-on data mobile services that their customers have been demanding.
In fact, Telcos are so desperate for carrier-grade deployable solutions any way they can get them; they’re not waiting for standards and even engaging open source solutions. Plus, as the industry has moved through the process of figuring out NFV, many key projects have devolved into “standards stasis” or been overwhelmed by Openstack which have failed to produce results.
But there’s a catch, even though NFV has been through a five-year, heavy-lift software development stage including open source collaboration, building solid POCs and final implementations, NFV service providers are still missing what they need to fill “big boy” Telco shoes needs including the ability to:
- Design quality network services fast
- Consistently avoid human error
- Assure services can achieve high availability
- Handle multi-vendor VNF interoperability
$1M global telco industry must transition
Although the top Telco companies have done an amazing job adapting to a wireless, data oriented and cloud centric world, the old proprietary hardware-based technology they use has reached its limits. This $1 trillion global industry that touches a large percentage of the planet a large percentage of on the planet needs to get on board and transition with the rest of the world from propriety monolithic hardware model to software that’s deployable in the cloud. Why?
Though there’s great market pressure now, it will only get worse with new applications and business models coming on board, 5G looming, Internet of Things growing, and a race to virtualize all remote functions. The scale and technical complexity of the next wave of service provider networks will be beyond the ability of human hands-on management.
The NFV services tech to transition into the modern world is here, NOW
The good news is the technology to automate the manage the “big boy” networks exists today. What’s required is combining NFV, SD-WAN (Software-Defined Wide Area Networks), AI-driven automation, and cloud technologies.
The bad news is for established industries like telcos who have both defined and driven the market — but now are being asked to serve the market on the market’s terms — rapid change is hard. The NFV model of using virtualized software on top of commercial, off-the-shelf server hardware has great potential to deliver enhanced agility at lower costs. But in its current state of readiness it still doesn’t quite deliver what “big boy” telcos and CSPs demand and need for global deployments.
Combine the current state of NFV automation — with the harsh behind-the-eight ball reality of the telco industry’s existential pressure to transform their services — and you get why the time for NFV automation is NOW!
Pensa’s unique NFV solution enables the world’s largest telcos and CSPs to intelligently design, validate and quickly deliver advanced virtual networks and datacenters that are able keep up and grow in the new digital services age
