March - 2015 - issue > CXO View Point
IT Trends - Expectation in 2015
By Paul Coates, Vice President, Channels, APAC and Japan, Riverbed Technology
Network functions virtualization (NFV) takes off, even without SDN
Continued development of SDN technologies is to be noticed in 2015, and buyer confusion will not abate as the incumbent switch and router vendors jockey for position. But NFV, already being widely deployed into service providers, will make its way into "classical" enterprise networks without the need for any SDN refresh. Virtualized network functions allow organizations to dynamically provision networks wherever they're needed, on an on-demand basis, independent of any underlying fabric.
While SDN continues to attract much attention, actual enterprise deployment remains low. Like "cloud", "SDN" has been defined and redefined in various ways, often to advance particular agendas. This leaves potential buyers with a challenge to justify the costs and disruptions that an SDN deployment typically incurs. Fortunately, the path toward NFV is much clearer. Modern general-purpose CPUs provide equivalent or better performance than custom hardware, and software can now replace nearly every "middle box" that sits somewhere in a network. Originally of interest mostly to service providers, NFV allows enterprises to separate network functions from location, allowing applications and data to be "projected" wherever and whenever needed.
Data breaches grow larger and more frequent
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