Author: Tom Nolle

I guess that like many out there, I regard Cisco announcements with a mixture of interest and cynicism.  I remember well the times when Cisco would announce a “five-phase strategy” that was (whatever the technology focus) always something that they were already in Phase Two of and never something that was actually delivered in “Phase…

I’ve commented in a number of my blogs that the standards process for both SDN and NFV have failed to address their respective issues to full effect.  The result is that we’re not thinking about either technology in the optimum way, and are at risk for under-shooting the opportunities both could generate.  There are some…

The end game for any new technology is deployment based on business value, and I’ve noted many times that the biggest challenge faced by NFV is getting out of the lab and into the network.  That’s now starting to happen, at least as a small step, through a Masergy service called Virtual f(n).  It’s not…

SDN and NFV security are issues that rank high with network operators and users, but “security” is an issue that ranks high with everyone and ranking doesn’t always equate with rational action.  Of 48 operators I’ve talked with over the last six months, all place SDN and NFV security among their top three issues.  Enterprises,…

I had an interesting exchange with a big national carrier on the subject of management integration and unified modeling of services.  I’ve noted in past blogs that I was a fan of having a unified service model, something that described everything from the tip-top retail experience to the lowest-level deployment.  I pointed out that such…

I’ve blogged now about “edge-based” and “interior” NFV service opportunities, and in the latter I noted that I was going to treat the case of “interior nodes” separately.  Many of you will probably understand why that is the case, but I hope to show everyone why nodal services are different, and perhaps generate some discussion…

Virtual CPE (vCPE) is one of the hotter topics these days, and even though it has its roots in NFV the concept seems to be taking some tottering steps on its own.  As it does, it may be exposing some evolutionary trends that could supplement or replace aspects of the NFV value proposition, and even…

NFV is going to require deploying VNFs on something; the spec calls the resource pool to be used “NFV Infrastructure” or NFVI.  Obviously most NFVI is going to be data centers and servers and switches, but not all of it, and even where the expected data centers are deployed there’s the question of how many,…

I blogged yesterday about the need to create mission-specific “upperware” to facilitate the development of new services and experiences.  The point that was that NFV is not enough for that; you have to be able to develop and organize functional atoms for assembly according to some application model or all you’re doing is pushing VMs…

At Light Reading’s Big Telecom Event, Cisco SVP of Global Service Provider Delivery Cedrik Neike said that telcos have to transform themselves into platform providers.  Well, telcos would agree at least that they have to transform themselves into something other than what they are now—connection and transport providers.  Maybe platform providers would be better, but…