If you feel like developments in the world of cloud and virtualization are already happening at breakneck speed, prepare for it all to get much faster.
Companies are beginning to realize the potential of virtualization to replace the hardware and tools used to manage and secure networks, such as firewalls, routers and switches. This new approach, called network function virtualization, or NFV, is just starting to move from theory to reality. Alongside software-defined networking (SDN), it's already revolutionizing how innovators look at network structure.
“We are very, very passionate about [NFV]," said Aamir Hussain, executive vice president and chief technology officer at CenturyLink. "And we will continue to invest in this area because it will help us automate operations, reduce our overall cost, remove barriers to entry for new markets, and reduce time to market.”
CenturyLink began working with NFV a couple of years ago and is steadily building out the technology. As the company builds what Hussain calls a “programmable service backbone” and as its take rate increases, his team is also examining new models and methodologies as it chooses vendors to work with.
The Year Ahead
SDN will define the next year of networking, said Hussain, because it circumvents or at least simplifies the current requirements for setting up a network: power, space, switches and routers that all require manual setup; planning out the IP, transport and service layers separately; and figuring out how customers will map their services back through all those layers.
“The end result [of the normal process] is you lack visibility across all layers of the stack as you are trying to either pinpoint a problem or add new services and capabilities,” he said.
NFV, in contrast, virtualizes major network functions, which lets companies easily set them up and tear them down as needed. In fact, the whole process of setting up those network functions can be automated, making the software-defined network predictable, fast and transparent.
Network Virtualization in Practice
In one real-world example, CenturyLink set up a content distribution network (CDN) with caches throughout—devices with memory that keep most-requested content near the edge of the network so users can access it more quickly. Instead of setting up the network using physical hardware, CenturyLink used virtual machines.
“We can build them very fast, get rid of them very fast—add them as you need them and delete them as you need them,” said Hussain.
NFV technology can also be used to ease some of the burdens commonly associated with IT security.
“We have developed several partnerships with our current security vendors to be able to take their software stack and virtualize it,” said Hussain. For example, he noted, Fortinet has been working to virtualize its software, put it on a server blade and deploy it in an NFV environment. Security in general, said Hussain, is “less complex in a virtual environment than it is to have a dedicated piece of hardware and manage that effectively.”
Cost Savings—Over Time
One of the most alluring things about NFV is that its core benefits will also end up saving companies money. “We invested one-tenth of the money we would invest in rolling out a CDN and a firewall service in 35 locations than we would if we were to deploy a physical infrastructure,” said Hussain.
But don't expect comprehensive software-defined networks from end to end right now. Hussain estimates that, at least for a few years, even networks with virtualized functions will have to involve some fixed hardware elements. Further, the use of big data will be needed to create what Hussain calls "machine-to-machine learning"—or, the ability to predict where growth will be needed.
But, even in this evolving field, said Hussain, “what you will see is increased reliability and better time to market. This is still a relatively new space. There are really a handful of companies out there who have real SDN solutions. There are a lot of new players who are coming in, because virtualization is a pretty stable technology. The key is to make sure that whoever does it has full control over automation, reduces management overhead, and provides an ability to manage the complexity of the network on a policy base.”
Beyond 2015
Hussain's vision for NFV and SDN extends beyond 2015—he expects the technologies to evolve in a way similar to the evolution of Ethernet.
“A lot of companies launched Ethernet services, and then we started seeing these Ethernet exchanges coming alive," he said. "I expect NFV or SDN exchanges in the future, where partners will connect to each other through a virtualized firewall or a virtualized function where the customers' traffic can go from one place to another.”
Hussain also expects that third parties will build sets of services and sell them through NFV networks, but not until 2016 or later.
With that said, noted Hussain, “Companies who will provide virtualized routing solutions will play a key role in this ecosystem. The functionality that gets virtualized [using existing virtualization technology] and the management of that functionality is a fairly open space.”
