A new report from IHS Markit showed NFV deployments beginning this year, with 81% of service providers surveyed on track for next year
A vast majority of service providers remain on track to begin network functions virtualization deployments beginning next year, according to a recent report by IHS Markit.
The report found 81% of service providers surveyed said they plan to deploy NFV by the end of next year, with 100% of those questioned indicating they will deploy NFV “at some point.” Showing the market’s desire to roll out NFV platforms, the survey also found that 58% of operators have deployed or will deploy NFV this year.
“Many carriers in 2016 are moving from their NFV proof-of-concept tests and lab investigations and evaluations to working with vendors that are developing and productizing the software, which is being deployed commercially,” the firm noted.
These early NFV deployments are expected to focus on virtualized enterprise customer premise equipment, which has seen increased importance over the past several years. IHS noted these deployments are favored due to the ability to “assist with revenue generation because it allows operators to replace physical CPEs with software so they can quickly innovate and launch new services.”
In terms of continuing challenges, IHS found integrating NFV into existing networks remains an issue for a majority of service providers surveyed, with many citing a lack of “carrier grade” products. That concern is similar to what was expressed in an IHS survey from last year, which supplanted previous concerns over operations and business support systems.
“The industry is still in the early stages of a long-term transition to [software-defined networking] and NFV architected networks,” the report found. “Carriers will learn that some avenues are not as fruitful as expected, and telecom equipment manufacturers and software suppliers may well invent new approaches that open up newfound applications.”
IHS had previously reported it expects the service provider NFV market, including hardware, software and services, to surge from $2.7 billion in 2015, to $15.5 billion by 2020.
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