Service Providers Open to Outsourcing to Reduce SDN/NFV Complexities
Hosted solutions can help operators bring virtualized services to market in weeks.
While the general consensus is that transformation programs including cloudifying the network with SDN/NFV will be critical for operators to remain competitive in the digital economy, the reality is that it’s taking a lot longer than expected for operators to get to this point.
It takes service providers roughly 18 months to launch a commercial virtualized service.
Part of the hurdle involves the concerns around the cost, complexity and risk involved in deploying SDN/NFV. Given the operational and business-related complexities of moving to a virtualized environment, a recent survey of service providers by Heavy Reading and Netcracker found that more than three-quarters of respondents—77 percent—expressed an interest in outsourcing part of their solutions to third-party vendors.
Part of the concern comes from timing, as service providers expect SDN/NFV deployments to take a long time as they work through technical and commercial issues. Specifically, the survey found that it takes service providers an average of 18 months to launch their first commercial virtualized services, with 25 percent saying that it’s taking more than 2 years to get services out the door.
These numbers are not very heartening for operators given the fierce competition they face in capturing market share, especially on the B2B side. The good news is that operators are open to working with trusted partners to host and manage solutions in order to get up and running faster, lower capex and reduce the risk of managing their operations.
Survey respondents said that they were most likely to have third parties host service orchestration and SD-WAN services. This is largely due to the fact that there is a race among providers to deliver SD-WAN services to enterprises.
After SD-WAN, the next most popular functions operators consider outsourcing include VNF and SaaS marketplaces as well as self-service portals. These options will help service providers deliver a differentiated customer experience while expanding their offering portfolios.
Netcracker: A Trusted Partner for Cloud Transformation
Netcracker Business Cloud is the industry’s first full-stack SDN/NFV solution that’s available as a service. It can help operators launch differentiated cloud services in a matter of weeks rather than months or years.
Service providers can choose to use Netcracker Business Cloud in a hosted environment or a multicloud environment using their own cloud or a public cloud. This range of options allows operators to begin in a hosted environment and either remain with that scenario or gradually bring function in house. By having the hosted option, operators are able to bring services like SD-WAN to market quickly, generate new revenue and minimize concerns about capex or other factors that are often associated with self-deployed solutions.
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