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…
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…
The OPNFV project released its first (“Arno”) build, and it may be more noteworthy for how the pieces it contains were selected than for its functionality. There’s logic to how OPNFV did its work, but there are also risks that its order and timing of releases pose. Arno is a platform that includes the infrastructure…
There are a lot of ways to get to LA from NYC and a lot of ways to realize the service agility benefits expected for NFV. Some paths are likely better than others in both these examples, and in both cases it may be necessary to travel a little to know what the best choice…
OpenStack is hot. IBM is going to acquire Blue Box and Cisco is acquiring Piston. You could look at this as a kind of consolidation signal, but I think it has other implications. In fact, it might signal some SDN maturity, some NFV questions, and some cloud directions. OpenStack is obviously the premier approach to…
SDN, NFV, and the cloud all suffer from a common challenge. You have to start somewhere and exercise prudence on creeping scope, but the changes all could make in IT/network practices are so profound that you need to look beyond early applications in search of both an architecture and a mission broad enough to cope…
In a couple blogs last week I was critical of Alcatel-Lucent’s positioning of a new product (NSP) and their expressions of SDN/NFV opportunity in a white paper done in conjunction with AD Little. I also raised questions about their positioning overall, and their ability to deliver on SDN/NFV benefit needs. I had a chance to…
The decision by Intel to acquire custom-chip-and-FPGA vendor Altera is another indicator that networking may be driving incremental opportunity in the server space. As the WSJ points out, more than half of Intel’s operating profits come from servers, though personal-system chips account for most of the company’s revenues. You can’t afford to ignore a change…