ChannelVision September - October 2016

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Part of a larger move to automate their networks and also transform internal
processes, operations and service offerings, three-quarters of carriers participating
in the IHS Markit software-defined networking (SDN) survey say they have already
deployed or will deploy SDN in 2016. A full 100 percent say they will deploy the
technology at some point.
That’s largely because service providers believe SDN will fundamentally change
telecom network architecture and deliver benefits in service agility, time to revenue,
operational efficiency and capex savings, said Michael Howard, senior research
director carrier networks, IHS Markit.
“And these operators want SDN in most parts of their networks,” he continued.
Survey respondents’ top three SDN-targeted network domains for deployment by the
end of 2017 are within data centers, between data centers and access for businesses.
Not that carrier network executives are throwing caution to the wind. The industry
is still in the early stages of a long-term transition to SDN and network functions
virtualization (NFV) architected networks, said Howard. Carriers are “biting off small
chunks of their networks,” or “contained domains,” in which they will explore, trial,
test and make initial deployments of SDN, said Howard.
It will be many years before bigger parts of networks or entire networks are controlled
by SDN, but Howard pointed to a few operators that are leading the way including AT&T,
Level 3, Colt, Orange Business Systems, SK Telecom and Telefónica, among others.
The top barriers in this year’s survey are the lack of carrier-grade products and
integration of virtual networking into existing physical networks. Primary drivers for
service provider SDN investments and deployments are simplification and automation
of network and service provisioning, as well as service automation, according
to the IHS Markit survey.
Carriers Moving Fast
to SDN Martin Vilaboy
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LETTER
6 ChannelVision | September - October, 2016
Source: Aberdeen Group
Source: IHS Markit
Global Carriers' Top SDN/NFV Applications
for Producing New Sources of Revenue
Source: Computer Economics
Outsourcing Trend: IT Security
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%
-6%
-4%
-2%
0%
2%
4%
Number of
positive
mentions
through social
media
channels
Customer
retention
Average
revenue per
call
Improvement
in average cost
per customer
contact
Improvement
in average
handle time
4.3% 4.4%
-4.5%
-1.0%
-3.4%
2.3% 2.2%
1.5%
Year-over-year percent change
vCPE virtual
managed services
Metacloud
Bandwidth
on demand
Virtual
private cloud
Elastic
service chaining
Services
Percent of Respondents
Increasing
59%
About
Same
41%
Percent of Organizations