Don't Let Management Challenges Derail NFV BenefitsDon't Let Management Challenges Derail NFV Benefits
NFV enables providers to move from dedicated hardware to virtualized software appliances in which they can accelerate application development and deployment.
March 6, 2015
NFV enables providers to move from dedicated hardware to virtualized software appliances in which they can accelerate application development and deployment.
In an industry where proprietary hardware used to be a competitive benefit, the push toward network functions virtualization (NFV) is something of a culture clash. However, network providers, compelled by competition, are beginning to incorporate IT-style virtualization at the edges of their application offerings to bring new services to market faster and at the same time reduce long-term costs. As NFV technology evolves, service providers will expand its use, trading in the resource-intensive, expensive hardware boxes of yesterday for more agile software-based environments.
Time To Virtualize
As with the enterprise IT move to virtualization, NFV enables providers to move from dedicated hardware to virtualized software appliances, allowing them to accelerate application development and deployment. Because of increased technical requirements, the shift toward virtualization is happening later in the networking space than it did in computing, but the same proven benefits apply:
Capital expense reduction: NFV reduces equipment costs. In place of the networking hardware that has traditionally been necessary in the demanding telecommunications space, NFV enables service providers to use a standard rack of servers for networking functions. This allows for the flexibility to scale specific capabilities across shared resources as required, as well as for more competitive pricing among networking vendors.
Operational expense reduction: The process of ordering, receiving, installing, upgrading and training staff on dedicated hardware is expensive and time consuming. In contrast, providers using NFV see significant operational savings by instantaneously downloading software, testing it in their networks and using standard, off-the-shelf IT tools to manage it – there is no unique hardware to swap out, spare and integrate into operations.
Faster time to market: The current evolution in networks is toward bundling multiple products for customers who want newer, faster, better services. The providers that develop and deploy those new services first will win the lion's share of the market. The consumer hunger for video on demand, for example, is driving vendors to create new product sets, but that's difficult to do quickly when heavily invested in proprietary hardware.
What About Management?
Service providers risk derailing the benefits of NFV if ineffective or unscalable management technologies are deployed. The worst possible solution is creating a customized management system, as some service providers have done in the past. Instead, leverage standard IT management solutions for provisioning, administering, monitoring and managing the new software appliances to ensure the operational expense of managing NFV doesn't outweigh the potential cost savings and delay time to market.
Every major network provider today is already deploying or is planning to deploy NFV, with most of the applications being virtualized at the outside rings of a provider's orbit of offerings. Because of unique carrier requirements, a variety of hypervisors will likely be required for widespread NFV adoption. This creates an additional management challenge that threatens success, if not planned from the outset.
Once service providers have virtualized multiple functions on thousands of virtual machines and hypervisors, for example, how will they avoid the same kind of sprawl that plagues enterprises? Service providers need to manage their hypervisors as IT manages – by leveraging familiar, minimally customized, upgradable tools. By contrast, if providers embrace the flexibility of multiple best-of-breed hypervisors, but then choose to create home grown management solutions, even if based on open solutions, the financial and labor cost involved will over time erode their cost savings and revenue generation.
The scalability and time to market demands on the service provider market are enormous, and providers need to adopt strategies and tools to support agility at scale if they have any hope of grabbing that lion share. Virtualization can be an enormous advantage in achieving that agility, as long as service providers leverage standard equipment and management tools that allow them to focus their expertise on innovation and differentiated customer solutions and not building custom IT operations for NFV.
Jerry McLeod is the vice president of business development at HotLink. He brings more than 25 years of technology experience with a strong track record with both Fortune 500 leaders and start-ups. His broad background spans both information technology and telecommunications markets, and includes executive roles in sales, business development, product management and general management.
Operational expense reduction: The process of ordering, receiving, installing, upgrading and training staff on dedicated hardware is expensive and time consuming. In contrast, providers using NFV see significant operational savings by instantaneously downloading software, testing it in their networks and using standard, off-the-shelf IT tools to manage it – there is no unique hardware to swap out, spare and integrate into operations.
Faster time to market: The current evolution in networks is toward bundling multiple products for customers who want newer, faster, better services. The providers that develop and deploy those new services first will win the lion's share of the market. The consumer hunger for video on demand, for example, is driving vendors to create new product sets, but that's difficult to do quickly when heavily invested in proprietary hardware.
What About Management?
Service providers risk derailing the benefits of NFV if ineffective or unscalable management technologies are deployed. The worst possible solution is creating a customized management system, as some service providers have done in the past. Instead, leverage standard IT management solutions for provisioning, administering, monitoring and managing the new software appliances to ensure the operational expense of managing NFV doesn't outweigh the potential cost savings and delay time to market.Every major network provider today is already deploying or is planning to deploy NFV, with most of the applications being virtualized at the outside rings of a provider's orbit of offerings. Because of unique carrier requirements, a variety of hypervisors will likely be required for widespread NFV adoption. This creates an additional management challenge that threatens success, if not planned from the outset.
Once service providers have virtualized multiple functions on thousands of virtual machines and hypervisors, for example, how will they avoid the same kind of sprawl that plagues enterprises? Service providers need to manage their hypervisors as IT manages – by leveraging familiar, minimally customized, upgradable tools. By contrast, if providers embrace the flexibility of multiple best-of-breed hypervisors, but then choose to create home grown management solutions, even if based on open solutions, the financial and labor cost involved will over time erode their cost savings and revenue generation.
The scalability and time to market demands on the service provider market are enormous, and providers need to adopt strategies and tools to support agility at scale if they have any hope of grabbing that lion share. Virtualization can be an enormous advantage in achieving that agility, as long as service providers leverage standard equipment and management tools that allow them to focus their expertise on innovation and differentiated customer solutions and not building custom IT operations for NFV.
Jerry McLeod is the vice president of business development at HotLink. He brings more than 25 years of technology experience with a strong track record with both Fortune 500 leaders and start-ups. His broad background spans both information technology and telecommunications markets, and includes executive roles in sales, business development, product management and general management.
Faster time to market: The current evolution in networks is toward bundling multiple products for customers who want newer, faster, better services. The providers that develop and deploy those new services first will win the lion's share of the market. The consumer hunger for video on demand, for example, is driving vendors to create new product sets, but that's difficult to do quickly when heavily invested in proprietary hardware.
What About Management?
Service providers risk derailing the benefits of NFV if ineffective or unscalable management technologies are deployed. The worst possible solution is creating a customized management system, as some service providers have done in the past. Instead, leverage standard IT management solutions for provisioning, administering, monitoring and managing the new software appliances to ensure the operational expense of managing NFV doesn't outweigh the potential cost savings and delay time to market.Every major network provider today is already deploying or is planning to deploy NFV, with most of the applications being virtualized at the outside rings of a provider's orbit of offerings. Because of unique carrier requirements, a variety of hypervisors will likely be required for widespread NFV adoption. This creates an additional management challenge that threatens success, if not planned from the outset.
Once service providers have virtualized multiple functions on thousands of virtual machines and hypervisors, for example, how will they avoid the same kind of sprawl that plagues enterprises? Service providers need to manage their hypervisors as IT manages – by leveraging familiar, minimally customized, upgradable tools. By contrast, if providers embrace the flexibility of multiple best-of-breed hypervisors, but then choose to create home grown management solutions, even if based on open solutions, the financial and labor cost involved will over time erode their cost savings and revenue generation.
The scalability and time to market demands on the service provider market are enormous, and providers need to adopt strategies and tools to support agility at scale if they have any hope of grabbing that lion share. Virtualization can be an enormous advantage in achieving that agility, as long as service providers leverage standard equipment and management tools that allow them to focus their expertise on innovation and differentiated customer solutions and not building custom IT operations for NFV.
Jerry McLeod is the vice president of business development at HotLink. He brings more than 25 years of technology experience with a strong track record with both Fortune 500 leaders and start-ups. His broad background spans both information technology and telecommunications markets, and includes executive roles in sales, business development, product management and general management.
What About Management?
Service providers risk derailing the benefits of NFV if ineffective or unscalable management technologies are deployed. The worst possible solution is creating a customized management system, as some service providers have done in the past. Instead, leverage standard IT management solutions for provisioning, administering, monitoring and managing the new software appliances to ensure the operational expense of managing NFV doesn't outweigh the potential cost savings and delay time to market.Every major network provider today is already deploying or is planning to deploy NFV, with most of the applications being virtualized at the outside rings of a provider's orbit of offerings. Because of unique carrier requirements, a variety of hypervisors will likely be required for widespread NFV adoption. This creates an additional management challenge that threatens success, if not planned from the outset.
Once service providers have virtualized multiple functions on thousands of virtual machines and hypervisors, for example, how will they avoid the same kind of sprawl that plagues enterprises? Service providers need to manage their hypervisors as IT manages – by leveraging familiar, minimally customized, upgradable tools. By contrast, if providers embrace the flexibility of multiple best-of-breed hypervisors, but then choose to create home grown management solutions, even if based on open solutions, the financial and labor cost involved will over time erode their cost savings and revenue generation.
The scalability and time to market demands on the service provider market are enormous, and providers need to adopt strategies and tools to support agility at scale if they have any hope of grabbing that lion share. Virtualization can be an enormous advantage in achieving that agility, as long as service providers leverage standard equipment and management tools that allow them to focus their expertise on innovation and differentiated customer solutions and not building custom IT operations for NFV.
Jerry McLeod is the vice president of business development at HotLink. He brings more than 25 years of technology experience with a strong track record with both Fortune 500 leaders and start-ups. His broad background spans both information technology and telecommunications markets, and includes executive roles in sales, business development, product management and general management.
