Repositioning for Success

Marc Cohn, Market Development, Ciena Corporation

New leadership, renewed charter, and an enhanced structure to facilitate the transition from requirements to implementation

Marc Cohn, Market Development, Ciena Corporation – Santa Clara, CA  USA

Wandering through the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, at the social gathering of the ETSI Network Functions Virtualisation Industry Specification Group (ETSI NFV ISG), was like a trip down memory lane. International Business Machines (IBM) mainframes (e.g., 360/370, which I spent many a night working on at the University of Missouri in the 1970s), Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) minicomputers (I was a systems manager for the PDP-11 and VAX-11/780 at McDonnell Douglas in the 1980s), and a slew of computers, calculators, and gadgets whose manufacturers have faded from memory.

But in an austere exhibit rests the system that truly changed the world- the IBM PC. Aside from its size, price point, and design, what made the PC different was IBM’s decision to open up the platform, decoupling the software from hardware, publishing open specifications, fostering the greatest ecosystem the world has ever known.

Three decades later, networking and telecommunications are bracing for a major transformation as communications platforms prepare to be opened by Software Defined Networking and Network Functions Virtualization, with similar impact to the opening of the computing world.

The 7th meeting of the ETSI NFV ISG was co-hosted by Ericsson and Citrix in the Santa Clara Convention Center, whose warm hospitality, comfortable surroundings, and ideal weather made for a highly successful meeting. Attendance surged to over 300 people; not surprisingly the 3 highest attended NFV meetings were held in Silicon Valley (NFV #4 (355), NFV #7 (303), and NFV #2 (285)).

Over the past year-and-a-half, the ISG has grown beyond the capability of all but the largest corporate facilities:

• 37 operators spanning the globe (up 4 since NFV #6 held in May)
• Mailing list approaching 1,200 participants
•  226 ISG members (up 18 since NFV #6)
• 23 Proof of Concepts (PoCs) accepted (up 5 since NFV #6)
• 15 active work items

NFV #7 marked the last meeting for the Chair (Prodip Sen (HP)) and Vice Chair (Uwe Michel (Deutsche Telekom)), who played a major role in the ISG’s growth and success to date.

Throughout NFV #7, the ISG focused on repositioning the organization for long-term success, an initiative loosely referred to as NFV Phase 2. Among the key outcomes:

• Elected new leadership, as the current Chair and Vice-Chair stepped down
• Facilitated the transition from the Requirements Phase to the Implementation Phase
• Revisited the ISG operational structure in anticipation of the transition
• Discussed high-level scope for 2015 and beyond

Open elections were held for the NFV ISG Chairman and Vice-Chairman, who recently stepped down from their posts at the previous meeting in May.

Outgoing Chairman Prodip Sen commented, “Serving as a founding member and the first chair of the NFV ISG has been an extremely rewarding experience. We started out to create momentum in the industry, and provide guidance on the way forward to the vision. We have achieved these goals, but clearly much still needs to be done. The good thing is that with this global team we have created, there is no dearth of ideas and participation. I am fully confident that the new leadership will continue our positive trajectory towards long-term success. ”

Outgoing Vice-Chair Uwe Michel stated “When we started the NFV ISG back in 2012, we did not envision such rapid growth and enthusiastic validation. I feel fortunate to be able to work with such a strong leadership team, who are truly committed to achieving an industry vision for NFV.”

Steven Wright, AT&T, who formerly led the NFV Infrastructure (INF) working group, was elected the new NFV ISG chairman. “I am excited to guide the NFV ISG as we transition our focus from requirements to implementations. I would also like to thank Prodip Sen and Uwe Michel for their leadership and significant contributions, which have been instrumental to our success.”

Tetsuya Nakamura, NTT DOCOMO, who formerly was the Assistant Technical Manager of the NFV Technical Steering Committee (TSC) and Chair of the Software Architecture (SWA) working group, was elected the new NFV ISG Vice-Chair. “I am honored to be elected vice chair of the NFV ISG at such a critical time, as the ISG repositions itself to focus on adoption.  We are especially appreciative of my predecessor Uwe Michel, who has been a major part of our success from the beginning. ”

The ISG continues to make solid progress on the NFV Release 1 baseline. Eleven new deliverables from multiple working groups were made available for public reviews. A liaison statement was approved to invite comments from the many NFV ISG liaisons.

“I continue to be pleased with our progress towards NFV release 1, which is targeted towards December”, stated Diego Lopez (Telefonica), NFV Technical Manager and Chair of the NFV Technical Steering Committee. “Each of our technical working groups is making tremendous progress as we worked towards a solid technical baseline, which is critical as NFV Phase 2 gets underway.”

Another major topic discussed at NFV #7 was the future of NFV ISG, referred to as ‘NFV Phase 2’. The original charter for the ISG, approved in late 2012, is scheduled to expire in January, 2014. Prodip Sen led a robust evening discussion on the future of NFV, assisted by Klaus Martiny, Vice-Chair, Network Operator Council (NOC) and incoming Steven Wright.

Key outcomes from NFV #7 regarding NFV Phase 2:

• The ISG passed a motion to extend the NFV charter by 2 years, to continue to operate under the current ETSI Terms of Reference (ToR)
• The ISG accepted a new NFV ISG mission statement, which shared the vision, mission, and values of the NFV ISG:
  The NFV ISG’s mission is to facilitate the industry transformation and development of an open, interoperable, ecosystem through specification, implementation and deployment experience. . .
• Several new contributions on NFV Phase 2 were submitted for consideration, many endorsed by multiple participants
• The ISG leadership will hold an interim meeting in late September to discuss the proposals and suggestions for NFV Phase 2, in preparation for NFV #8 in mid-November

“Interoperability is a key objective for Network Operators”, commented Don Clarke (CableLabs), Chair of the NFV NOC. “In the next phase we intend to intensify our efforts towards achieving interoperability for NFV, which includes normative work where appropriate, formalized dialogue with other industry and standards organizations including open source communities, and a continued emphasis on encouraging open NFV implementations and Proof of Concepts.”

At the closing plenary, the new ISG leadership invited the NFV ISG plenary to proactively contribute to the future of NFV, through comment on our documents, proposals for new work items, and recommendations on the organizational structure to position the NFV ISG for long-term success.

While progress since the formation of the ISG (4Q2012) has been tremendous, there is a long way to go. The ISG will be shifting their focus outward, reaching out to the standards bodies, industry groups, and open source projects, to influence their future work programs. A proposal was shared to stimulate discussion on how the NFV ISG can engage with the research community, to leverage their innovations, resources, and ongoing work as well as to create new academic courses to train a new generation of students to be multi-skilled in networks and software. In today’s environment, collaboration is the norm, implementations the target, and speed trumps completeness.

The next meeting of the ETSI NFV ISG (NFV #8) will be held from Nov 17-21 in Chandler, AZ (outside of Phoenix). At that time, the new leadership will assume their responsibilities, and decisions are anticipated on the plan for NFV Phase 2.

 

 

NFV ISG Leadership- poised for success
(NFV #7, Santa Clara, CA, August 1, 2014)

From the left: Diego Lopez (Telefonica), Technical Manager, Technical Steering Committee; Uwe Michel (Deutsche Telekom), former ISG Vice-Chair; David Boswarthick (ETSI); Margaret Chiosi (AT&T), Advisor to ISG leadership; Prodip Sen (HP), former ISG Chair; Steven Wright (AT&T), ISG Chair, Klaus Martiny (Deutsche Telekom), Vice-Chair, NOC; Don Clarke (CableLabs), Chair, NOC; Louise Clarke (ETSI)

Kneeling from left (Laurent Vreck (ETSI); Tetsuya Nakamura (NTT DOCOMO), ISG Vice-Chair

Interview with Hugh Bradlow, CTO, Telstra, Australia

In advance of Network Virtualization & SDN World in London on 27-30 May 2014, we caught up with Hugh Bradlow, CTO of Telstra, Australia, to ask him about his thoughts on SDN and NFV in 2014.

Welcome Hugh. What would you say has had the largest impact in terms of progressing SDN and NFV in telecom networks to date?

HSB: “Cloud data centres have had the biggest impact on progressing SDN as they offer immediate value.”

Do you feel that the industry is making as much progress towards implementing SDN and NFV this year as you would like?

HSB: “Any change to core infrastructure cannot be rushed, so the pace of introduction is valid.”

How is your company contributing to the realisation of SDN and NFV at present?

HSB: “We have been running trials of some of some the key new use cases (e.g. virtualised Residential Gateway) to determine value and performance.”

What do you think are the biggest hurdles towards implementing SDN and NFV at present, and how can they be overcome?

HSB: “The hurdles are similar to the introduction of any new technology. You are competing with an incumbent infrastructure which is delivering value and the technology is usually only a small proportion of the overall solution – the aspects that inhibit change from existing to new are all the things that go with the technology – OSS, OAM, human capital, etc. On top of that, you need to prove a business case based on total operating cost which is always difficult.”

5) Which areas of the network do you think should be prioritised for virtualization, and why?

HSB: “As mentioned above, data centres are an obvious use case and are already well progressed. Customer access is another priority opportunity because of the flexibility it allows in terms of service delivery (e.g. enabling a customer to configure multiple independent networks over one physical access path).”

6) What are your expectations for the development of SDN and virtualization in telco networks in coming years?

HSB: “Unless some compelling use case emerges, I think we shall see the introduction of SDN/NFV as part of lifecycle replacement of assets over time.”

Hugh Bradlow will be speaking in more detail about his thoughts and ideas at Network Virtualization & SDN World in London on 27-30 May 2014. For further information and to register for the event, please visit www.sdnworldevent.com.

Interview with Hrvoje Jerkovic, Service Quality Assurance Manager, Vipnet, Croatia

In advance of Network Virtualization & SDN World in London on 27-30 May 2014, we caught up with Hrvoje Jerkovic, Service Quality Assurance Manager, Vipnet, Croatia to find out his thoughts on the industry in 2014.

Welcome Hrvoje. What would you say has had the largest impact in terms of progressing SDN and NFV in telecom networks to date?
HJ: “In last few months we have seen real flood of announcements regarding NFV implementations. Some of them refer to Proof of Concepts, and some to implementations in real live networks. It is obvious that this is more than just upgrades to technology, and operators are very careful with this topic.
“Generally, the main reason lies in the opportunity to cut hardware costs by reusing the same COTS hardware platforms for different telco appliances. Through better utilization of hardware and through using distributed software block-architecture of NFV based telco elements, operators have the opportunity to make significant cost savings as well as optimization of resource usage.”
Do you feel that the industry is making as much progress towards implementing SDN and NFV this year as you would like?
HJ: “NFV presents a major shift in telco architecture. Such changes need time to develop to reach functionality and telco-grade stability of legacy architecture; therefore, I would answer yes. We have to accept the fact that no operator wants to gamble with their core business, even if the potential savings might be big. This is the reason for taking small steps and virtualizing only certain network functionalities on certain technologies.”

What do you think are the biggest hurdles towards implementing SDN and NFV at present, and how can they be overcome?
HJ: “In terms of hurdles, the main technical reason is non-maturity of current NFV based products. As mentioned earlier, many operators are making small steps, just because they don’t have full confidence to make bigger steps. Beside that, there is also a constant need for each operator to adapt the set-up of its processes driven by NFV architecture.”

Which areas of the network do you think should be prioritised for virtualization, and why?
HJ: “In the first phase, we should focus on network elements covering signaling and control functions. Some of them might be IMS related , VoLTE related, policy functionalities, messaging services, Gi services etc. After that, data plane nodes which have clearly specific and/or different requirements could follow in the second stage.”

What are your expectations for the development of SDN and virtualization in telco networks in coming years?
HJ: “Based on initial experience, SDN and virtualization’s footprint is likely to spread in certain steps, depending on operators’ plans to extend in this direction. The logical way forward for operators is to exchange legacy equipment when NFV-based solutions can fulfil functionality/stability requirements and old legacy equipment reaches an end-of-life state.”

 Which company do you most admire in the SDN / NFV space, and why?
HJ: “It would be impolite to pick any vendor right now. The interesting thing is that, beside traditional ICT vendors (also known as the big players), we see many small agile vendors on the market trying to position themselves in the mix as well. Both of these have weakness and strengths, and I think it’s good for industry and good for the market as well to see some new players.”

Hrvoje Jerkovic will be speaking in more detail about his thoughts and ideas on SDN and NFV at Network Virtualization & SDN World in London on 27-30 May 2014. For further information and to register for the event, please visit www.sdnworldevent.com.

Interview with Ampai Pornprasertsakul, Deputy Director, True Corporation, Thailand

In advance of Network Virtualization & SDN World in London on 27-30 May 2014, we caught up with Ampai Pornprasertsakul, Deputy Director at True Corporation in Thailand, to find out more about her perspective on SDN and NFV in 2014.

Ampai, welcome. What are your impressions of SDN and NFV in telecom networks to date?
AP: “Telecom operations are still in the process of exploring the SDN and NFV capability and impact. The realization is it is coming, and that we shall all need to prepare for it.”

What do you think are the biggest hurdles towards implementing SDN and NFV at present, and how can they be overcome?
AP: “The biggest hurdles that remain are how best to implement SDN and NFV, how to determine the biggest benefits we can get from them, working out how this new technology will impact our existing network, and what exactly the implementation costs will be. 　We also need to know how best to integrate SDN with network equipment, VAS and IT systems.”

Which areas of the network do you think should be prioritised for virtualization, and why?
AP: “Personally, I think that VAS (Value Added Services) should be prioritised first for virtualization. The reasons for this are the high feasibility of implementation in this area, and that VAS has less impact on key services. I believe that less mission-critical services should be tested first.”

What are your expectations for the development of SDN and virtualization in telco networks in coming years?
AP: “In coming years, I foresee that SDN and Virtualization will continue towards full network implementation. Eventually, I anticipate the integration of network, VAS and IT systems as one.”

Interview with Haim Geron, Senior Deputy Director-General, Israel Ministry of Communications

In advance of Network Virtualization & SDN World in London on 27-30 May 2014, we caught up with Haim Geron, Senior Deputy Director-General, Israel Ministry of Communications, to find out his thoughts on progress within the industry in 2014…

Haim, welcome. What would you say has had the largest impact in terms of progressing SDN and NFV in telecom networks to date?

HG: “I believe that the recognition by major manufacturers like Cisco, HP and Juniper, major Software co. like VMware and announcements by application giants like Facebook　about the development of Open Source based applications contributed to the rapid progressing of SDN and NFV to date.”

Do you feel that the industry is making as much progress towards implementing SDN and NFV this year as you would like?

HG: “Telecommunications experts always feel that the progress towards implementation is NOT what they would like and again and again get “disappointed that it takes roughly 10 years from concept to mainstream implementation. However, we see some positive signs that the adoption of SDN/NFV architecture my “break” the 10-year barrier.”

How is your company contributing to the realisation of SDN and NFV at present?

HG: “As a regulator, we favor any technical advance that may reduce cost for operators and eventually, some of the cost savings will be transferred to consumers.”

What do you think are the biggest hurdles towards implementing SDN and NFV at present, and how can they be overcome?

HG: “I believe that the current, huge ‘sunk cost’ of legacy networks imposes the biggest obstacle to the rapid implementation of SDN/NFV. One way of overcoming that　is to lower the entry-level barrier for new service providers who did not yet make a significant CAPEX in legacy networks. Another way is to devise sophisticated acquisition plans for SDN/NFV systems so that the CAPEX+OPEX of these new systems will be less than the long-term OPEX of the installed legacy systems.”

Which areas of the network do you think should be prioritised for virtualization, and why?

HG: “Obviously the Core Network will be prioritized because that’s where the applications get prioritized. In the access network, be it mobile or fixed, ‘a bit is a bit’.”

What are your expectations for the development of SDN and virtualization in telco networks in coming years?

HG: “Reducing cost for the benefit of consumers, flexibility in the development of new services and a fair and proper implementation of Net Neutrality principle.”

Haim Geron will be speaking in more detail about his thoughts and ideas at Network Virtualization & SDN World in London on 27-30 May 2014. For further information and to register for the event, please visit www.sdnworldevent.com.

Interview with Peter Zidar, Head of Standardisation Group, Telekom Slovenije

In advance of Network Virtualization & SDN World in London on 27-30 May 2014, we caught up with Peter Zidar, Head of the Standardisation Group at Telekom Slovenije, to find out his thoughts on SDN and NFV in 2014…

What would you say has had the largest impact in terms of progressing SDN and NFV in telecom networks to date?

PZ: “The largest impact is coming from implementations of cloud computing, Cloud RAN and M2M. At the core of cloud technologies are virtualization mechanisms. It is also important for network operators to reduce cost by avoiding proprietary hardware implementations and virtualizing network services. They can reduce CAPEX (by using of the shelf equipment) and OPEX (by running network functions in the data centre) by implementing SDN and NFV. Operators want to migrate from self-contained routers to a centrally-controlled distributed environment to simplify maintenance. Advantages of SDN and NFV can increase velocity of deploying new upgrades.”

Do you feel that the industry is making as much progress towards implementing SDN and NFV this year as you would like?

PZ: “Progress is still a bit slow but gaining momentum. Implementing SDN and NFV was at first slowed down by lack of proper standardization. With an increasing number of cloud services offered by network operators as well as upgrades to the C-RAN, these two technologies will make big step forward to become more widespread. It takes some time for network operators to be assured that the security, resilience and availability of their networks are not impaired when virtualised network functions and SDN are introduced.”

How is your company contributing to the realisation of SDN and NFV at present?

PZ: “We have implemented some SDN functions in our core network and are planning to participate at different EU projects, which are going to use those functions in conjunction with IoT and video routing. We are already preparing our networks for greater use of SDN and NFV.”

What do you think are the biggest hurdles towards implementing SDN and NFV at present, and how can they be overcome?

PZ: “The biggest hurdles are legacy networks and multivendor environments. Also, more SDN and NFV capable products should be available. One of the reasons for slow deployment is the lack of ability to load and execute virtual appliances in different but standardised datacentre environments, provided by different　vendors for different operators. Virtualization is causing some performance degradation, so it may not always be optimal, and some operators may therefore hesitate to implement it. Another hurdle is the necessary co-existence with legacy network elements and compatibility issues.”

Which areas of the network do you think should be prioritised for virtualization, and why?

PZ: “All new network elements should be prioritized for virtualization to appropriately scale and upgrade mobile networks in future. All cloud services, including C-RAN, are also obvious places to start with virtualization.”

What are your expectations for the development of SDN and virtualization in telco networks in coming years?

PZ: “I expect that network operators will first try to use SDN and virtualization to implement and deploy cloud services, and then use it also for Cloud RAN. The use of these technologies may very likely transform the vendor landscape. Each player will need to re-position itself in new markets. Vendors will offer virtualized versions of their products, and network operators will have to migrate their operations and skill base to a software based networking environment.”

Peter Zidar will be speaking in more detail about his thoughts and ideas at Network Virtualization & SDN World in London on 27-30 May 2014. For further information and to register for the event, please visit www.sdnworldevent.com.

Interview with Renu Navale, Senior Strategy Manager, Communications & Storage Infrastructure Group, Intel

In the build-up to Informa’s Network Virtualization & SDN World conference in London on 27-30 May 2014, we caught up with Renu Navale, Senior Strategy Manager, Communications & Storage Infrastructure Group at Intel, to find out her thoughts on the latest developments within the industry.

Welcome, Renu. What would you say has had the largest impact in terms of progressing SDN and NFV in telecom networks to date?

RN: Four tectonic shifts are fuelling a transformation in networking:

First, cloud has become the compute paradigm: Cloud has opened up new business models where compute can be purchased and provisioned on demand anywhere on the globe. This compute-on-demand model increases pressure on the network to keep up – to the point where networking is becoming a bottleneck and CapEX and OpEx models aren’t sustainable.

Next, there’s the emergence of Open Standards for Networking: The rise of software-defined networking has spawned a number of open standards that pave the way for an open ecosystem for networking solutions. Key examples include OpenFlow, Open vSwitch, and OpenStack.

Network Virtualization on the Rise: Server and storage virtualization have been around for years, allowing workload consolidation or pooling and provisioning of resources without regard for their physical locations. Now virtualization has extended to networking. Network virtualization allows IT to combine different physical networks into a single virtual network, or split a physical network into multiple virtual networks that are isolated from each other.

And finally, Moore’s Law Expands to Networking: Through the evolution of Moore’s Law and Intel library software optimization, Intel Architecture-based systems are now able to perform networking workloads on commercial off the shelf servers that once required ASICs and FPGAs utilized in dedicated proprietary appliances.

Do you feel that the industry is making as much progress towards implementing SDN and NFV this year as you would like?

RN: The rate of industry engagement in NFV is fantastic, with over 200 companies now signed up to the ETSI NFV initiative in record timescales.　 During 2014, we anticipate a downturn in publicity in line with the Gartner “Hype Cycle”, but there’s actually massive progress behind the scenes.

How is your company contributing to the realisation of SDN and NFV at present?

RN: Intel is leading the acceleration to an Open Network Transformation by enabling the delivery of “Best in Class” SDN & NFV solutions through:

• Creation of reference platforms via the Development & Integration of Intel building blocks (we are introducing a portfolio of associated hardware and software products

• Contributions to Standards, Open Source and Open interfaces (we are active in several SDN and NFV PoC and Standards initiatives across the ETSI, ONF, DMTF, and ODCA communities)

• Collaborations & industry partnerships

What do you think are the biggest hurdles towards implementing SDN and NFV at present, and how can they be overcome?

RN: The key challenges are proving the operational scalability of SDN & NFV to carrier levels, and the consolidation of IT and Network operations to handle the rate of service evolution demanded by the market.　 We are handling these by engaging in trials with several operators who are progressively expanding the scale of projects and associated risk mitigation. It is critical for the technology and business practices to complement each other to enable an operationally sound roll out of SDN/NFV. Other challenges are rollout of standards, vendor lock-in, and inter-operability challenges. An open and collaborative environment is critical to overcome this hurdle.

Which areas of the network do you think should be prioritised for virtualization, and why?

RN: We see virtualised Enterprise CPE as a great stepping stone for operators wanting to get started with production services, where the network speeds and the business risk are relatively low and the operations staff can get experience with an integrated IT and Network service approach. The “Services LAN” in both Fixed and Mobile Broadband networks looks like another key location to provide rapid service differentiation, intelligent handling of growing video traffic demands, and handle ever-increasing security challenges from Internet based threats.

What are your expectations for the development of SDN and virtualization in telco networks in coming years?

RN: We expect virtualisation of Telco networks to be widespread, with the introduction of NFV infrastructure in Access, Regional and Centralised network nodes, enabling “right placement” of applications to suit operational requirements. The adoption of SDN could be slower, as (unlike the datacentre case) centralised management of carrier infrastructure has been available for many years.　 　　　　　　

Which company do you most admire in the SDN / NFV space, and why?

RN: I think Intel’s approach to SDN and NFV is exemplary, based on the unflinching commitment to Open standards and enabling an entire market for the common good.

One company other than Intel would be AT&T…I think their Supplier Domain 2.0 initiative, coupled with their AT&T Foundry investments to lower the barrier to innovation – and their support of both large and small companies (Ericsson, Tail-f, Affirmed, Metaswitch, etc…) – is very disruptive and market-leading.

Network Virtualization & SDN World takes place in London on 27-30 May 2014. Renu will be delivering Intel’s key messages in a prominent keynote presentation at on the morning of Thursday 29^th May. To find out more and to sign up for the event, please visit www.sdnworldevent.com.

April 2014 bulletin

Welcome to the latest newsletter from SDN World News, guiding you through the latest developments in the world of Software-Defined Networking and Network Functions Virtualization.

There continues to be lots of movement in the market, with vendors constantly bringing out announcements of new NFV and SDN solutions – 2014 is certainly a year for great innovation! One of the announcements which has attracted a great deal of interest this month is Cisco’s new open protocol for SDN, OpFlex. Devised as an alternative to OpenFlow, it is already a popular standard among SDN vendors, with Citrix, Microsoft, IBM, Canonical, RedHat, Embrane and F5 all now collaborating and supporting the standard. Cisco plans to use OpFlex for its own Application Centric Infrastructure, forging a bold, strong path through the competitive landscape surrounding SDN and NFV this year.

Meanwhile, in its commitment to Network Virtualization, AT&T has recently expanded its Domain 2.0 group, with Amdocs and Juniper becoming the latest vendors to join the group, alongside existing members Ericsson, Tail-F Systems and MetaSwitch. Domain 2.0 has been devised as a discussion group surrounding the design and deployment of AT&T’s User-Defined Network Cloud, and is intended to help improve time-to-revenue, provide cost-performance leadership, enable new growth services and apps, ensure security, performance and reliability and facilitate new business and revenue models.

Also, the four-day Network Virtualization & SDN World conference is set to take place across four days in London on 27-30 May 2014, featuring an API Forum, SDDC Summit, SDN and NFV case studies by 50+ operators and including a comprehensive exhibition alongside the event. Operators can attend free of charge by registering here: http://sdnworldevent.com/free-pass-registration/. To find out more, please visit http://www.sdnworldevent.com or contact Owen.Lochner@informa.com for information on sponsorship and exhibiting. Please find below a round-up of other news we’ve spotted this month…

In the News:

Cisco Pushes Its Own Open SDN Protocol Alternative to OpenFlow

AT&T brings Amdocs and Juniper on board Domain 2.0

Huawei Opens the First Ever Asia Pacific OpenDaylight Lab

Redhat Collaborates with ConteXtream to integrate OpenStack Orchestration for their NFV and NFV Fabric for Carrier-Grade Solutions.

The CloudEthernet Forum and Metro Ethernet Forum Launch the Open Cloud Project

Heavy Reading Whitepaper: Decoding the Importance of Service Assurance in a Virtualized World

Freescale and Broadcom Each Take Aim at SDN and NFV

January 2014 bulletin

Happy new year to all our followers!

The main SDN and NFV buzzwords for 2014? We predict: Simplicity, Capability, Speed, Openness and (most importantly) Value For Money!

It’s certainly a bright new year in many ways, in which we are likely to see a whole raft of new virtualization ideas and deployments coming through.

There has been much discussion surrounding SDN and NFV developments in the last few weeks. At the Carrier Network Virtualization conference and exhibition in Palo Alto on 9-11 December, valuable discussion ensued around the future pathway of network virtualization, now that so many possibilities are emerging. A very popular White Box panel asked, can you now tell the difference between a White Box switch by an ODM and one bought from a large traditional vendor? In terms of performance, it is argued that it is very often no longer possible. However, in terms of support around the product, many still prefer the aftercare attention and extra resources provided by established vendors. Yet as the ODMs begin to increase in size and scope, a similar level of aftercare might one day also be available from them. Several new players asserted in discussion that moving away from the established vendors would make way for much more creativity in terms of how technology is used… Only time will tell as to how many operators make that jump.

2014 also marks the final year of the ETSI NFV ISG project in its current form. They have already achieved a great deal, but now the focus will be on drawing their work towards a conclusion which will help to shape the future of the industry. Definitely one to watch…

Meanwhile, the four-day Network Virtualization & SDN World event take places across four days in London on 27-30 May 2014, featuring an API Forum, SDN Summit, many SDN and NFV case studies and over 60 speakers. The brochure is due to be launched in 2-3 weeks’ time.  To find out more and to apply to take part, please visit www.sdnworldevent.com or contact Owen.Lochner@informa.com for information on sponsorship and exhibiting.

Please find below a round-up of other news we’ve spotted this month…

Wishing you all a happy and healthy year ahead,

Georgina Wilczek, Editor, SDNWorldNews.com

In the News:

The Industry’s Top Five Movers and Shakers for 2014

What to Watch in 2014

SDN Still Failing to Spark Interest in Europe

Plans for the first OpenDaylight Summit take shape

A Look At Cisco’s SDN Future

SDN Will Never Happen, SaysVMware Exec 

What Makes an Open Source Project Successful

NFV Said to SDN: “I’ll Be There For You”

SDN Bulletin: October 2013

It’s been a busy month full of industry meetings, the most recent of which was the Broadband World Forum in Amsterdam last week.

Marc Cohn, Chair of the Market Education Committee for the ONF, highlighted an interesting differentiator between SDN and NFV, in that SDN can provide considerable OPEX savings for telcos and carriers, while Virtualization holds more promise for lowering CAPEX. Together, SDN and NFV hold the potential to transform telco networks substantially for the better, but monetisation will always be the greatest driver for change.

Meanwhile, Antonio Manzalini from Telecom Italia put forward a positive assessment of the continuing growth of the SDN and NFV markets, stating, “The most profound technologies are those that disappear and weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life” – if applied successfully, this could well be the case for both technologies in 20 years’ time.

Don Clarke from BT, Chair of the Network Operator Council for ETSI NFV ISG, also gave a valuable update on the ETSI group’s activities to date and outlining their plans in the future. (Please see a ETSI’s tweet below to access their recently-published NFV specification documents).

Don also predicted that SDN and NFV-related conference agendas will look very different in 2014 from those of this year, as more and more use cases are established and SDN and NFV move out of the ideas phase towards mainstream use.

Indeed, we already have over 20 carriers confirmed to present at Carrier Network Virtualization in Palo Alto on 9-11 December 2013 and this number is still rising: www.carriernetworkvirtualization.com.

Plans for our annual Network Virtualization and SDN World conference and exhibition in London on 27-29 May 2014 are also taking shape. If you have any ideas for the programme which you would like to feed into this, please do get in touch, as the research process for this is now beginning.

All the very best to you this autumn. Please find below a round-up of what we’ve spotted this month…

Best regards,

Georgina Wilczek
Editor, SDN World News

In the News

Interview with Imran Malik of Du, UAE

Key takeaways from Juniper SDN Keynotes at Broadband World Forum 2013

Huawei Launches Industry’s First SDN/NFV Orchestration and Management System

BBWF: Ericsson Shares Carrier SDN Cloud Vision

Interview with Don Clarke, BT and Chair of the Network Operator Council, ETSI NFV ISG

Latest Top Tweets

SDN Tech ‏@sdn_tech 29 October
Featured Whitepaper by #Qosmos: Service-Aware #Network #Architecture and Real-Time Visibility http://nfv.io/HgvddE #SDN #NFV @qosmos_news

OpenDaylight Project ‏@OpenDaylightSDN 26 October
#SDN and #NFV: Unleashing the Power of the Network http://bit.ly/19FJCJB

Roy Chua ‏@WireRoy 26 October
Session Border Controller packaged in OVF format. VoIP meets NFV! Dialogic to Support NFV with Virtualized SBC. http://nfv.io/1hhww9y

Open Networking Foundation ‏@openflow 18 October
Confused about the difference between #SDN and #NFV? This article from @SDNCentral might help! http://bit.ly/12OSRSd

ETSI ‏@ETSI_STANDARDS 14 October
First #NFV specifications published. http://bit.ly/19AmSJJ . Download them at http://bit.ly/19AmSJK

Ray Le Maistre ‏@raylemaistre 11 October
@Telefonica Preps #NFV Trial — Brazilian broadband users to get a taste of the networking future. http://add.vc/hLp

Dimitris Mavrakis ‏@dmavrakis 7 October
A new article on SDN and NFV following the IIR #sdnsummit in Prague: http://blogs.informatandm.com/16462/sdn-and-nfv-update-value-chain-disruption/ … SDN and NFV: value chain disruption?