The long-held adage about old dogs and new tricks may be in line for a rethink, at least as far as telecom network operators are concerned.
Communication service providers around the world continue to experiment with SDN and NFV-related technologies in order to simplify operations, improve agility and increase profitability. Such significant transformations will take many years to manifest themselves — especially given the potential disruption and traditionally risk-averse cultures among most CSPs.
This is why it has been so surprising, and refreshing, to see AT&T – one of the oldest CSPs on the planet — publicly discussing not just its transformation goals, but also its progress. AT&T has been vocal about its plans to leverage SDN and NFV technologies to keep up with rapid traffic growth, and it’s giving everyone a pretty clear view of its benchmarks and the progress it is making toward hitting those targets.
Most recently, John Donovan, senior executive vice-president of technology and network operations at AT&T, told analysts that the company’s SDN-enabled Network-on Demand service is “driving up to 95% improvement in our provisioning cycle times and getting rave reviews”.
In earlier statements, AT&T executives have said that the company is committed to virtualising more than 75% of its network by 2020, and that it expects the first 5% if the network functions it has identified to be virtualised this year. It also plans to increase its use of open source technologies from 5% to 50% over the next few years.
The public pronouncements by AT&T about its virtualisation progress are much more than the usual corporate chest-thumping. By announcing specific goals for virtualisation, AT&T is providing some clear targets that will help cut through the general hype surrounding NFV. Concerns about whether the technologies are ready for production should be assuaged by the fact that one of the largest CSPs in the world is embracing them, and is already reaping the benefits.
Heavy Reading is now developing a program that will extend this type of virtualisation reality check to the CSP community in general. We’ll be rolling out the initiative in the fourth quarter of this year. As they say in the teaser business, more to follow in the coming weeks.
Other CSPs should be encouraged by AT&T’s results and challenge themselves to stake out equally aggressive timelines for technology adoption. Those that do will best position themselves to succeed in a cloud-driven environment where innovation moves more quickly than ever before and competitive pressures continue unabated. Those that don’t risk being left behind. Aging canines, take heart.
By Roz Roseboro, senior analyst, Heavy Reading
