Many communication service providers (CSPs) looking to lower costs, deliver new services faster, and scale network services on demand are exploring network function virtualization (NFV). At Mobile World Congress 2018, IBM is demonstrating how CSPs can transform their networks to NFV with Cloud, IoT, Security and Blockchain.
After years of trials there are still few wide-scale NFV-based network services in production, and there are almost no NFV implementations with multi-vendor VNF’s deployed. What’s the hold-up? And what can be done about it?
Here are four common problems service providers encounter when attempting to justify a project to put NFV services into production and some ways to address them.
The business case
The problem
Moving to cloud-based SDN and NFV networks may necessitate a transformation that replaces legacy services that are generating significant but declining revenue at high profit margins. After seeing the business case for NFV, many CSPs still struggle to comprehend the need to modify a service that is working and highly profitable. Service providers need to believe that the benefits promised by transforming to NFV are more than the benefits of continuing to evolve their legacy networks.
The solution
The first way to strengthen the business case is to build a business case the reflects the total cost of ownership (TCO). Some CSPs have built NFV transformation business cases that do not show the cost of maintaining legacy services. The risk of failure and high cost of maintaining legacy networks with high levels of manual effort need to be taken into account to make the business case for NFV compelling.
The trigger
The problem
For many CSPs the business case for NFV transformation lacks a clear trigger that necessitates transforming immediately. If legacy services are profitable and low-risk, CSPs ask, why spend money transforming them right away? Why not wait until services become unprofitable before transforming them?
The solution
CSPs looking for a compelling trigger should implement a precursor analytics project to specifically examine incoming service orders and report the number of orders that would be impacted if an equivalent NFV service were available. This approach allows CSPs to measure the impact transformation would have on their actual incoming orders. If built correctly, the analytics project to quantify the business case should also suggest which services to do first.
The cultural divide
The problem
A move to SDN and NFV for network services requires network organizations to change the way they design, build and operate network services. The multi-tenant cloud environment assumed by NFV is very different from a traditional network operating environment. Network architects, planners and operations teams are used to designing a solution for a specific piece of equipment operated in a specific way. The move to cloud based multi-tenant SDN and NFV operating environments for network services introduces new questions.
The solution
Perhaps the best chance of success for CSPs to overcome these cultural issues is to look at successful IT data center transformation projects for guidance. Many IT data centers have used an approach of adopting SDN first. SDN can work across the legacy environment, which means operators can begin by offering some services with an ability to modify them on demand. This is beginning of the transformation cloud based, dynamic services which are built using NFV components. The approach supports the agile development paradigm where services can be brought to market sooner, as well as digital service provider paradigm since it embraces self-service.
The fast follower strategy
The problem
Many CSPs would rather focus on being quick to replicate an idea or technology once it has proven itself than take the risks associated with being the leader themselves. For NFV this has translated into a situation where a number of CSPs have done trials but are waiting to see the results of production implementations at the few CSPs prepared to take the lead before they themselves implement production services.
The solution
CSPs should look for small projects to start their NFV transformation such as transforming firewalls, route reflectors, packet gateways or load balancers to software-only devices. By starting with smaller projects to transform components, CSPs wouldn’t have to wait for others to publish successful examples of transforming entire services.
