The OPNFV Project, a carrier-grade, integrated, open source platform intended to accelerate the introduction of new products and services using Network Functions Virtualisation (NFV), has announced the results of a global survey commissioned by Heavy Reading to understand network operators’ perceptions of OPNFV and how the project can help accelerate NFV transformation.
The data indicated an overwhelming majority (99%) of those surveyed agree that at just 21 months in, OPNFV is poised to deliver on its promise to accelerate NFV.
The survey was designed to gauge market perceptions of the OPNFV project, including expected outcomes, its role in shaping open source NFV, industry intent to leverage OPNFV output, and overall impact. The survey follow-up a baseline survey also conducted by Heavy Reading in September 2015. Specifically targeted towards telecommunications network operators, the data reveals an updated look at the drivers, barriers, timelines and critical upstream integration needed for OPNFV to succeed in advancing open source NFV adoption.
Key findings include:
- OPNFV is critical to the telecom industry. While 99% of those surveyed believe OPNFV will deliver on its promise, 93% also believe OPNFV is either essential or important to the telecom industry as a whole. And 97% of those surveyed plan to leverage the output of OPNFV in some way.
- Upstream integration is more important than ever. 99% agree OPNFV is relevant to upstream open source projects. Respondents overwhelmingly (85%) ranked OpenStack as the most important upstream project to OPNFV’s success, followed by OpenvSwitch (49%), KVM (42%) and OpenDaylight (37%).
- NFV is making headway. While NFV deployments are still young, operators are further along in the journey than they were eight months ago. Data shows that only six percent of operators have no NFV strategy planned at all, compared to 14% in September 2015.
- Barriers remain. Some of the biggest barriers for organisations to get involved with OPNFV include “lack of skill set” and “lack of upper management support.” While these factors are keeping some organisations on the sidelines, many (47%) recognise NFV is a priority for their company and the majority of those (53%) indicated they know how to get involved with OPNFV when their organisation is ready to pull the trigger.
- Security. Security was cited as the top technology that OPNFV should investigate. Given it’s an area the project will continue pursuing in terms of features and guidelines, renowned security expert Mikko Hypponen is headlining the conference with a presentation on “Complexity: The Enemy of Security” on Thursday, June 2
- Management and Orchestration (MANO), and the related value OPNFV can provide, is increasingly important. Ranked as one of the top three technologies OPNFV should investigate (along with security and OSS/BSS integration), operators believe OPNFV can aid in addressing MANO by proposing industry-wide APIs in support of orchestration; demonstrating integration of of MANO projects into the OPNFV platform; and providing upstream feedback to MANO projects components (including Virtual Infrastructure Managers, Virtual Network Function Managers, and Software Defined Networking controllers).
“It’s inspiring to see that the industry believes in the importance of what we’re doing with OPNFV,” said Heather Kirksey, director, OPNFV. “Our strong community continues to grow and thrive and while we’re still a young organisation, the results of the survey indicate we’re still on the right path. It’s important we get a regular pulse on what the industry needs so we can refine our approach, and focus our efforts on how best to accelerate open source NFV.”
The survey results, which include input from more than 90 network operator professionals–ranging from those focused on engineering, Research & Development, network planning and corporate management– to primarily based in North America, Europe and Asia, were shared on stage during the second- annual OPNFV Summit, which brings together developers, end users, and upstream communities working to advance the creation of an open source framework for NFV. More details on the survey results are available here.
Open Platform for NFV is a carrier-grade, integrated, open source flexible platform intended to accelerate the introduction of new products and services using NFV. It brings together service providers, vendors and users to collaborate in an open forum on advancing the state-of-the-art in NFV. http://www.opnfv.org.
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