Understanding the vendors: four different paths toward Virtualization

• What’s the virtual difference between SDNFV providers?
• How have they differentiated their approaches?
• What have they learned on ‘the journey’?
• www.telecomtvperspectives.com/series/ttv-special/nfv-5-years-in/

Much has been heard of the Communication Service Provider (CSP) ‘journey’ towards software defined networks (SDN) and network functions virtualization (NFV). But what about the vendor journey? If CSPs are finding so-called digital transformation a major experience, then the purveyors of hardware and software to the telecoms industry are surely on a journey that is equally, if not more, bracing. The old certainties of long hardware refresh cycles, lucrative software licensing and strong standards against which to fashion offerings, are all in a state of flux. This is a threat to some and an opportunity for others.

So now that we are five years into NFV’s ETSI incarnation, we thought it was time to take stock and ask a sample of ‘transformation’ providers about their own journeys. We interviewed representatives from four companies - Amdocs, Lumina Networks, Metaswitch and VMware - and discovered that all four had strikingly different ways of approaching the NFV opportunity.

The result was a major TelecomTV multimedia feature: NFV: 5 Years in...  In it we mixed our interviews and analysis with video segments from the companies concerned. 

In four in-depth interviews we asked them how they’ve differentiated themselves to their potential customers? What they see as their strengths and how their approaches had changed over the last few years? What sort of telco are they aiming to appeal to? What do they see as their roles - supplier, catalyst or partner? What have they learned so far, and what to they think CSPs have to better take on board if their virtualisation and digital transformation goals are to be achieved?

Take a few minutes to give it a read, we think it will be well worth your time.