A peek inside the structure of NFV shows that it's primed to be deployed quickly by carriers. That's partly due to ETSI's guidance, but also due to the fact

DevOps is a hot topic in networking these days, but the movement is young, so many people still do not understand exactly what it is or why it’s important.

Is it backwards day at the school of SDN? Too much attention is going toward the SDN equivalent of assembly language, rather than the area closest to the paying

With the advent of network functions virtualization (NFV), let's step back and remember that carrier-grade networking is a daunting task, one that goes beyond the tenet of high availability.

David Meyer clues us in on the lessons learned from a year elbow-deep in open-source. Code is the coin of the realm, as they say, but sustainable value comes

New traffic patterns from the likes of Netflix are causing lots of hairpinning and 'hot potato' traffic handoffs, all of which consume expensive PE router ports. Here's how ISPs

One theory about SDN is that it will give rise to a wave of white boxes, or bare metal switches. But given the number of unknown factors still floating

Plans for connected-vehicle technology bear more than a little resemblance to what the networking industry has been doing with SDN and, especially, NFV. Maybe it's time to start talking

The major advantage of a logically centralized control plane is improved data visualization which makes intelligent decisions about how to use that resource in support of the applications and

SDN overlays are necessary because networks were static back when IP networking was established. Now, applications can move, and overlays can help the network cope — but overlays come

NFV is gaining significant momentum in the industry. In response, the NFV ISG has set an aggressive timescale to release the initial set of technical documents approving the future

Yes VXLAN does need testing, even though it's 'only' a Layer 2/3 technology. The benefits of VXLAN can be realized more quickly by testing often, with realistic application traffic,

This is the year for carrier SDN and NFV to kick into gear, so how are we doing? A look at virtual networking, network overlays, management & orchestration, and

The Internet of Things is all fun and games until your refrigerator turns into a spambot. NFV has a role to play in handling security as our homes' connected-device

Super Bowl-sized Web ambitions flame out so frequently when the gaps in cloud and SDN tools get exposed. To truly take advantage of cloud computing, companies need the ability

In 2014, we can expect more production deployments of SDN, and that's going to force us to consider some key questions. Should the northbound interface be standardized, and how?

In optical transport, smaller DWDM equipment vendors could move toward SDN more aggressively than larger suppliers, because the latter might be eager to preserve their heavy investments in MPLS

Eric Carmès, CEO of 6WIND, addresses the recent ETSI approval of the CloudNFV Proof-of-Concept (PoC) application submitted by the CloudNFV™ initiative. The CloudNFV architecture provides end-to-end NFV implementation and

A few examples of NFV applications show why the technology is getting traction with both service providers and OEMs, considering the variety of potential benefits the technology could unlock

OpenDaylight has a steep learning curve for beginners, but it still proved a worthy platform in this small December hackathon, where five teams of SDN beginners got their fingernails

The metro is seeing tremendous traffic growth; cloud, content and service providers need visibility into apps; and the cost/revenue curves in today’s networks stink. Given those factors, how can

2014 Predictions on SDN and NFV by Kelly Herrell

To encourage IT organizations to move off the SDN sidelines, consultant Jim Metzler has created a mock RFI. Find out more, and hear his take on the state of

NFV Said to SDN: 'I’ll Be There for You'