NFV What's the virtual reality for CSPs?
PLATINUM SPONSOR:
GOLD SPONSORS:
SILVER SPONSOR:
ANALYST REPORT
Introduction
C
ommercial deployments of automated virtual infrastructure are still limited. However, all three key aspects of network virtualisation – cloud computing, network functions virtualisation (NFV) and software-defined networking (SDN) – are steadily advancing to commercialisation. The reason for this is because CSPs are increasingly facing service competition from alternative service providers that have built their services on automated, scalable platforms using cloud computing and SDN. As such, CSPs need to change their network and operations to continue to stay relevant and competitive in the emerging communications-enabled digital economy world. CSPs need to improve their service agility, which refers both to faster development of internal systems and new services and to reduced time-to-market for launching error-free services Figure 1 depicts CSPs’ weighting for the three key drivers for network virtualisation based on Analysys Mason’s most recent research. CSPs trialling network virtualisation accept that operations support systems (OSS) automation will enable service agility and improve operational flexibility, with cost savings regarded as beneficial by-products.
deployments today are: virtualised IMS deployments for VoLTE; virtual CPE deployments for small to medium enterprises (SME) and residential broadband services; and virtualised EPC (evolved packet core) deployments for Internet of Things. This has led Analysys Mason to update its network virtualisation timeline with NFV (not SDN) network functions being commercially available sooner than first predicted in 2013 (see Figure 3). For a successful deployment of a new service on NFV/SDN infrastructure CSPs recognise the need for, at a minimum, orchestration features and functions which are mandatory for vNGN-OSS. This report identifies key functional blocks needed for a vNGNOSS architecture to transform CSPs into digital service providers.
The authors are Glen Ragoonanan, the lead analyst for the Infrastructure Solutions, Service Delivery Platforms and Software Controlled Networking research programmes at AnalysysMason, and Dana Cooperson, the research director for AnalysysMason's Network-Focused Software research programmes
Today, NFV is more real than SDN for CSPs Figure 1: CSPs’ weighting of drivers of network virtualisation [Source: Analysys Mason, 2015]
Established CSPs may need up to 10 years to complete the transformation to a new OSS architecture that is less expensive, more agile and more automated – one that matches the flexibility of a virtualised network, while still managing a traditional network. Analysys Mason calls this a vNGN-OSS. 80% of CSPs Analysys Mason has spoken to are favouring a service-led deployment strategy for network virtualisation rather than a lifecycle-upgrade or platform-migration strategy as described in Figure 2. The three key NFV/SDN-enabled services CSP
VANILLAPLUS MAGAZINE I APRIL / MAY 2015
CSPs are increasingly facing service competition from alternative providers such as over-the-top service providers including Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft/Skype, Netflix, Hulu, and data centre providers such as RackSpace, Equinix and others. These alternative providers have a fundamental competitive advantage compared with CSPs: they have built their services on automated, scalable platforms using cloud computing and SDN. As such, CSPs are looking to transform themselves and become digital service providers (DSPs) to compete and better meet the changing needs of their digital consumers. CSPs need to change their network and operations to continue to stay relevant and competitive in the emerging communications-enabled digital economy world.
29
ANALYST REPORT
Figure 2: Summary of main network virtualisation deployment strategies
Deployment strategy
Description
CSPs considering this strategy
Service-led strategy
Investment for a new service allows the 80% introduction of NFV and SDN for the service in a greenfield-like implementation isolated from existing network complexities. Three services driving this approach and examples of CSP deployments are: VoLTE built on virtualised IMS, which Korea Telecom launched in 2014; smallmedium enterprise (SME) services and residential broadband services built on virtual CPE deployments that AT&T (Network on Demand), Deutsche Telekom (Cloud VPN), Telefónica (home gateway for residential broadband) and Verizon (enterprise cloud bursting) have launched; and IoT built on virtualised EPC deployments, which SK Telecom plans to launch nationally.
Lifecycleupgrade strategy
Investing in upgrading end of life infrastructure with virtual network functions (VNFs) to replace physical infrastructure. This approach does not require the CSP to have an explicit business case for network virtualisation if it can get the upgrade done with the same or lower budget.
Platformmigration strategy
5% This is an IT-like approach. The CSP defines a scalable virtualisation platform reference architecture and migrates infrastructure (VNFs) and services onto the platform over time. Migration is triggered by a combination of infrastructure and server investments as in the above two strategies, but avoids the past practice of creating deployment silos. Telefónica’s UNICA platform and AT&T’s Universal Services Platform, a convergent digital voice platform, are examples of this strategy.
15%
[Source: Analysys Mason, 2015]
Three key technologies are giving CSPs the opportunity to transform their telecoms infrastructure from physical and inflexible to virtual and agile: • Cloud computing: virtualisation of standardised commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) IT (x86 architecture) hardware of compute, storage and server networking into virtualised instances, to make CSPs’ back-office OSS/BSS support systems and enterprise applications as well as enterprise cloud services consume less power, cooling and floor space while maximising compute, storage and networking resources flexibility. However, cloud computing technology only guarantees 99.9% reliability. • Software-defined networking (SDN): separates the data and control planes of communications core and transport network resources for dynamic configuration and management using an intelligent software product – an SDN controller. SDN’s goals are to enable faster deployment and change of connectivity services – such as VPNs, layer 2 services, data centre interconnect – and to optimise CSPs’ exponential traffic growth across its network. • Network functions virtualisation (NFV): a carrier-grade and orchestrated – automated – version of cloud computing that will guarantee 99.999% reliability for CSP network functions such as IMS functions, PCEF/DPI (Policy & Charging Enforcement Function/Deep Packet Inspection, EPC functions, HSS and Diameter routing. NFV has progressed further and offers more immediate capex savings in CSPs’ networks. SDN is lagging NFV in CSPs’ network trials and deployments, but is being used in their data centres. CSPs will need to harness all three virtualisation technologies to drastically transform operations, business and service delivery and
30
related management infrastructure, processes and systems and become agile, competitive, relevant DSPs.
Network virtualisation deployment strategies Regardless of the deployment strategy used, CSPs will require significant systems integration for successful virtualisation deployments. The systems integration can be internal or externally provided by a vendor or systems integrator. AT&T has opted for an in-house development, integration and management approach together with external vendor solutions and support to launch its ‘Network on Demand’ ethernet services. However, most CSPs are selecting vendors to transfer the risk of deploying NFV/SDN solutions. Telefónica announced in March 2015, for example, that will use HP as its prime integrator for its UNICA virtualised network platform. Figure 2 summarises the three main network virtualisation deployment strategies CSPs are considering: We expect CSPs will use multiple strategies where and when it makes sense within their networks. Telefónica’s UNICA was initially meant to host an array of virtualised IMS and mobile core functions in Spain; however, Telefónica will likely extend UNICA to support other new VNFs and services across multiple operating companies as well. Telefónica is uncertain whether or not it will extend UNICA for all future services such as 5G mobile and has not ruled out the advent of additional platforms. In addition, Telefónica took a service-led approach in Brazil, where it is not the incumbent, when it deployed virtualised CPE to support residential broadband services. Verizon launched its enterprise cloud bursting service with a combination of cloud computing and SDN technologies using a service-led strategy, whereas it is using a lifecycle-upgrade strategy
VANILLAPLUS MAGAZINE I APRIL / MAY 2015
Figure 3: NFV and SDN functions likely initial adoption timeframes in CSP networks, 2013–2023 [Source: Analysys Mason, 2015]
to replace end-of-life infrastructure as opportunities arise. CSPs will need to employ the right combination of strategies to support business goals without recreating silos that have increased their operational costs and inefficiencies in the past.
• Not all functions will be virtualised with NFV, including highperformance, low latency functions that need dedicated appliances, such as DDoS security functions in ISP or Gi LAN, aggregation routers, optical equipment and legacy for SS7/SIGTRAN network functions.
Service-led deployments are dictating the NFV/SDN timeline
Because it is not possible to virtualise every network function CSPs’ next-generation networks (vNGNs) will be a mixture of virtualised and traditional physical network assets encompassed by or overlaid with cloud computing, NFV and SDN software management technologies where most of the core – namely the service layer – is virtualised first.
Figure 3 illustrates Analysys Mason’s view of the likely timeline of NFV- and SDN-driven infrastructure deployments. Virtualisation of BSS/OSS systems based on cloud computing has begun and will continue throughout the timeframe, mostly in CSPs’ private cloud environments. The following assumptions underlie the NFV/SDN timeline, based on Analysys Mason’s discussions with CSPs: • NFV adoption will be faster than SDN because immediate benefits are clearer. • Network functions that do not require high-performance, dedicated processing and yield significant cost-reduction and service-velocity benefits will virtualise first. • Commercial availability of VNFs on the NFV timeline has exceeded Analysys Mason’s 2013 forecast through a combination of CSPs’ service-led deployment strategy and network functions replacement based on the lifecycle-upgrade strategy. • Three years after commercial availability of NFV- or SDN-enabled functions, deployments will increase from exploration to adoption of these functions by CSPs. • CSPs will need OSS and orchestration functions that support NFV/SDN to move from the exploration stage to adoption with a standardised deployment approach. • Increasing mobile video traffic over LTE and ETSI’s MEC (Mobile Edge Computing) initiative will increase mobile CDN solution availability.
VANILLAPLUS MAGAZINE I APRIL / MAY 2015
An evolved vNGN-OSS architecture is needed for vNGNs CSPs need a new OSS architecture that is less expensive, more agile and more automated than the status quo: one that matches the flexibility of a virtualised network, while still managing traditional network functions in a hybrid vNGN.
OSS abstraction is the first stage of vNGN-OSS evolution CSPs accept that the benefit of network virtualisation is service agility, which requires increased operational efficiencies through automation. OSS abstraction of the virtualised network infrastructure (VNI) through NFV orchestrators (NFVOs) and SDN controllers will support the coexistence of traditional physical and virtualised networks, reduce operational disruption for at least the next 5-10 years, while virtualised elements represent less than 40% of total network assets. Figure 4 illustrates Analysys Mason’s high level view on an evolved vNGN-OSS architecture which uses OSS
31
ANALYST REPORT
Figure 4: vNGN-OSS architecture evolved to provide multiple levels of abstraction to manage established and new virtual infrastructure [Source: Analysys Mason, 2015]
abstraction conceal the complexity of network virtualisation under orchestrators, while preserving OSS processes and operations using established OSS and user interfaces. Established OSSs will require a modular upgrade and APIs to support NFV and SDN control of virtual network infrastructure (VNI) through VNF managers, NFVOs (NFV orchestrators) and SDN controllers. OSS abstraction will ensure that CSPs can simplify and streamline service fulfilment and assurance control of both physical and virtual networks for established services, while reducing the infrastructure cost with commodity hardware. SDN trials and use cases generally target traffic control and management, although the emphasis on service assurance OSS functions is increasing. Analysys Mason sees the following as essential to vNGN-OSS as shown in Figure 4 above: • Two orchestration layers – network and service –are needed and must be integrated for an end-to-end view and operation of catalogue-driven (semi-) automated service delivery and lifecycle management: - Network orchestration: the ability to create, manipulate, (de)activate, and manage network resources across CSPs physical and virtual infrastructure. This orchestrator will have in-depth VNF intelligence of configuration and management which it will abstract from the upper OSS and service layers. - Service orchestration: will take customer service order and decompose them to network service orders which it can pass to the network orchestration layer. There will be a need for a common data model and translation for this, which does not exist today. This is more akin to SID from the TM Forum, while for network orchestration vendors are gravitating to IETF’s NETCONF and YANG data modeling. • A unified, dynamic inventory is needed that will be essential to ensuring automation of the creation, manipulation and recreation of network resources as well as understanding the physical and logical/service inventory in a single view. This can automate
32
capacity planning and network optimisation processes. Today most inventories are disjointed, which increases CSPs’ inefficiencies and causes cost leakage on untracked network resources. • A master policy database in the OSS layer that can allow the CSPs to configure and manage the vNGN environment based on predetermined and approved user-defined business and operations network and service designs, configurations and policies. This OSS policy database will need to overlap with existing service layer policy functions such as PCRF (Policy & Charging Rules Function) for delivery and management of customer empowered self-service enabled by a vNGN with a vNGN-OSS management layer. • Near-real-time analytics for service assurance to improve network predictability, with open- and closed-loop automation workflow options. • Improved security administration, hierarchy, zoning and auditing functions for manual and automated tasks. The dynamics of a vNGN environment will require more automated security with multiple failsafe mechanisms, which will be applied across the infrastructure but managed from the OSS layer. The lack of OSS standards is inhibiting vNGN adoption. As such existing and new telecoms software suppliers are developing their own vNGN-OSS architectures. The work in the ETSI NFV Management and Orchestration (MANO) working group is driving CSPs such as AT&T and NTT Communications to develop their own in-house OSS technology. In June 2014, the TM Forum launched its Zero-touch, Orchestration, Operations and Management (ZOOM) project to support the development of open, dynamic APIs, exposing standardised network and management functions at all layers of a NFV architecture, but not SDN. The TM Forum will provide an update on ZOOM at its TM Forum Live! event in June 2015, but it has started to look beyond the technology and into the business process and organisational changes needed.
VANILLAPLUS MAGAZINE I APRIL / MAY 2015
CSPs accept that OSS abstraction provides a default migration path for them. Initially, OSS abstraction will deliver service fulfillment and assurance control for existing services through new software control layers of VNF managers, NFVOs and SDN controllers. However, for maximum benefit, CSPs expect that vendors will develop new, mature vNGN-OSS that will: • Orchestrate and manage physical and virtual network resources for both existing and new services • Continually reduce the complexity, development and maintenance costs of CSPs’ OSSs • Reduce the time and cost of integration through open interfaces and hardware and software interoperability standards • Provide near-real-time view and control of operations, with policy-controlled automation and analytics • Encompass delivery and lifecycle management of services, where resource management is implicit • Potentially modernise operations to converge network and IT planning, build, operations and maintenance • Increase operations flexibility and service delivery agility.
OSS automation is critical for service agility OSS automation is essential if a CSP’s aim is to increase service agility. It requires new OSS functions and features that can perform auto-additions of new network elements, functions and technologies, and can deliver services using a combination of network and service policies. These OSS features will effectively optimise CSPs’ end-to-end plan-to-provision (P2P) OSS processes and, as a result, increase their service agility. Figure 5 illustrates how an automated OSS can improve CSPs’ service agility by automating existing manual processes.
VANILLAPLUS MAGAZINE I APRIL / MAY 2015
Figure 5: OSS automation of new network elements and functions to increase service agility [Source: Analysys Mason, 2015]
Full OSS automation does not exist yet, but CSPs view it as a crucial vNGN-OSS requirement for increasing their service agility and enabling them to differentiate themselves from other CSPs as well as IT-centric competitors, including digital media and data centre providers. As a result, vNGN-OSSs need ‘automated service readiness’ to increase service agility and deliver business benefits to CSPs. Figure 6 describes three OSS automation use cases that can increase CSPs’ service agility with a vNGN environment.
33
ANALYST REPORT
Use cases
Description
Network augmentation
• If there is increased market demand for existing services, network capacity monitoring can alert the CSP of the need for new VNFs or NFV infrastructure (NFVI) because all existing virtual machine capacity has been exhausted. • New NFVI could be automatically discovered and sent configurations from the control plane, based on the network configuration policy. New VNFs could be pre-configured from a pre defined network architecture in the control layer, to automatically configure the new VNF when it is implemented in the network. New NVI and VNFs would be made available to the OSS inventory to support network readiness, service fulfillment and assurance processes.
Add new NFVI, VNFs and/or technologies
• New network functions (UDC/UDR, PCRF, DRA, ANDSF), technologies (LTE, SON) and NFVI (server, storage, network I/O [high-speed optical]) can be added similar to the first use case. However, it will deliver a new service which was not possible without the new technology or VNF, such as 300Mbit/s mobile broadband with QoS using LTE-A and service policy rules. • The service catalogue would model new resources and service specifications and, when discovered, the new network capabilities would be instantiated and made available in the OSS inventory to support network readiness, service fulfillment and assurance processes.
Create services from existing resources
• Launching new services ensures CSPs will stay competitive. With network virtualisation, VNFs can be created from dormant NFVI to deliver new services without additional capex. • Existing capacity will be queried. If available, VNFs can enter the creation, inventory, configuration and management cycle (see Figure 5). If not, either network augmentation or new addition use cases will be invoked to create, deliver and manage the new service being requested.
Figure 6: Use cases for OSS automation in vNGNs [Source: Analysys Mason, 2015]
CSPs must plan and prioritise their virtual network investments in a phased approach
34
Irrespective of the deployment strategy(ies) (see Figure 2) used by CSPs, there are three phases for the successful migration to an agile CSP with a vNGN-OSS needed for completion: 1. Initial deployment of a vNGN: vNGN investments to augment or replace the network service delivery infrastructure. The vNGN should not be implemented in a silo environment, which would lead to spending on multiple networks and operations domains. Today, advanced CSPs are in this phase and are deploying VNFs with a service-led strategy. Ideally this will be on a scalable, uniform, virtualised vNGN platform using the platform-migration strategy. 2. Co-existence with vNGN: In this phase, VNFs and physical infrastructure will coexist and the CSP cost will increase. These costs will largely come from hardware costs, and co-existing OSS and orchestration solutions to provision, manage and assure physical and virtual network functions for existing and new services. Infrastructure and service migration are critical to the success of this phase; the lack of industry standards and the nascence of OSS and orchestration co-existence are inhibitors for CSPs. AT&T, NTT, Telefónica and Verizon needed to do internal development to operate their network virtualisation enabled-services. 3. Transformation to vNGN and vNGN-OSS: CSPs clearly identify legacy systems and infrastructure, and either replace or retire them with newer, lower-cost virtualized alternatives which are more readily integrated into the CSPs virtualised vNGN platform and its flexible vNGN-OSS architecture. The faster this transformation is completed, the better the service agility benefit gains CSPs can achieve. Historical trends indicate that if CSPs continue their operations as they are, costs will increase gradually but continually over the next 10 years. As a result, a holistic service agility framework for transformation to a vNGNs with vNGN-OSS will require people, processes and systems changes.
VANILLAPLUS MAGAZINE I APRIL / MAY 2015
Organisational challenges of automation The organisational changes required to implement and automate virtual networks cannot be underestimated and must be thoroughly factored into virtualisation plans and business cases. Assessment of the effort needed to increase process automation should include: • Staff restructuring, hiring and (re)training
However, there are fundamental disconnects among various CSPs' and vendors' vNGN-OSS architecture approaches. These differences could lead to inflexible architectures where multi-vendor plug-and-play software components are elusive. Figure 7 illustrates the vNGN-OSS vendor landscape, today. Leading NEPs and IT vendors have the most to lose in terms of hardware infrastructure and are building their own server hardware portfolio to protect their hardware businesses.
• In-house and outsourced development • Procurement processes and terms changes • Operation of dynamic VNFs versus static physical elements • Incorporation of agile development and DevOps methodologies. CSPs’ evolution to automated vNGN-OSSs provides a good opportunity to assess, rationalise, and consolidate existing systems so that new silos do not simply replace old ones.
vNGN-OSS vendor landscape summary Key vendor types are attacking the vNGN-OSS upgrade opportunities afforded by network virtualisation. Tier-1 OSS vendors will use the strength of their installed bases and their expertise to aggressively protect their current revenues and grow through products and services for network and operational transformation, advocating OSS abstraction and evolution for an extended period. New entrants using NFV orchestration and SDN controller software to build ‘new’ OSS features into these new control points for their market entry include established NEPs with limited OSS portfolios; start-ups; and enterprise IT vendors seeking to enter the telecoms vertical. NEPs with leading OSSs are focusing vNGN-OSS solutions on network orchestration functions and features, while leading OSS vendors and new entrants are focusing on service orchestration.
VANILLAPLUS MAGAZINE I APRIL / MAY 2015
Figure 7: Key vendor types pursuing the CSP vNGN-OSS opportunities [Source: Analysys Mason, 2015]
Established as well as new vendors will need to develop vNGNOSSs with increased OSS automation functions to ensure a mutually beneficial outcome for themselves and CSPs, by:
35
ANALYST REPORT
Figure 8: Critical success factors for network virtualisation [Source: Analysys Mason, 2015]
• Allowing CSPs to continue to use or extend their established OSS processes and systems, thus maximising the return on their investments while ensuring minimal disruption to operations and customer services • Limiting changes to CSPs’ operating and organisation structures by allowing them to continue to buy and operate multi-vendor OSS solutions, for which the various vendors bear the costs of R&D, development and maintenance • Accelerating the development of their software skills and assets, because they will continue to be vital suppliers to CSPs • Providing a basis for differentiation: vendors will be able to continue to differentiate themselves on their products, while CSPs differentiate themselves on service agility and innovation using vendors’ solutions.
Looking forward: Service agility, innovation and automation Today, commercial network virtualisation deployments remain limited and vNGN-OSS automation is still under development. However ,virtualisation – cloud computing, NFV, SDN – technologies have increased the pace of network transformation in the last two years compared with its pace over the past 30 years. We are at the start of a very long journey to implement NFV and SDN. Analysys Mason’s roadmap and forecast assumes network virtualisation will not significantly impact the traditional telecoms markets until after 2020. By 2023, the NFV market will be the largest of the three sub-segments of the US$30 billion software-controlled networking opportunity. Advanced CSPs have three near term actions to capitalised on network virtualisation and become not only relevant to its digital customers but high competitive as a DSP: • Establish sound business cases for NFV and SDN. • Plan business and network evolution priorities with cloud, NFV and SDN technologies. • Identify and manage organisational and process changes needed for NFV/SDN adoption in the network.
36
VANILLAPLUS MAGAZINE I APRIL / MAY 2015
COMPANY PROFILES
Company summary Amdocs, established in 1982, is headquartered in Chesterfield, Missouri, USA. It has 22,774 employees working in 60 countries and, in 2014, it reported revenues of US$3.6 billion. Amdocs has about 200 service provider customers in more than 60 countries across all telecoms software segments. The company is publicly traded on the NASDAQ. Amdocs Network Cloud Ecosystem partners include: ADVA, Allot Communications, ASOCS Networks, AudioCodes, Brocade (Connectem), Check Point, Cloudify, Contextream, Dell, Flash Networks, HP, IBM, Intel (Wind River), Juniper Networks, Metaswitch Networks, MRV, Netsocket, Nominum, Oliver Solutions, Openstack, PeerApp, Radware, Radcom, Redhat, Sandvine, Tango Networks, Tropo and VMware
Market credentials Amdocs Network Cloud Service Orchestrator is a catalogue-driven system designed to help CSPs transition from traditional physical networks to next generation NFV/SDN environments. It creates and manages network services based on real-time network events and customer data. The system helps continuous design, fulfilment and assurance of network services, from numerous virtual network function (VNF) vendors, using the industry’s ETSI based standard for NFV management and orchestration (MANO) and multiple SDN controllers such as Juniper’s Contrail and OpenDaylight. In February 2015, Amdocs launched the Order Delivery Orchestrator system to enable CSPs to support their enterprise customers across the order delivery lifecycle and improve time-to-cash and reduce the cost for the delivery of complex enterprise orders. It is a cataloguebased orchestration solution that supports hybrid order execution consisting of both traditional physical and virtual services, such as virtual firewall and virtual customer premises equipment (vCPE) across multiple vendors' fulfilment stacks.
Key differentiation Amdocs has a large OSS installed base worldwide with the ability to deliver end-to-end integrated product suites, backed by its large managed services business for supporting CSP OSS/BSS transformations. Its OSS domain expertise and NFV/SDN orchestration involvement has led to its Amdocs Network Cloud Service Orchestrator and Order Delivery Orchestrator, which provide a vendor-agnostic and catalogue-driven fulfilment model for hybrid NFV/SDN networks. Furthermore, Amdocs is building Amdocs Network Cloud Ecosystem, which is an NFV partner ecosystem that includes 26 specialised providers of VNF and virtualised infrastructure (NFVI), today, in order to ensure multi-vendor interoperability.
Competitive landscape Amdocs’s competitors in NFV/SDN orchestration space includes other major OSS vendors, NEPs and IT players such as Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco, Ericsson, Huawei, HP, IBM, Nokia, NEC/NetCracker and Oracle as well as many emerging vendors entering the market with vendoragnostic solutions, such as CENX and Cyan. Further competition comes from open source solutions from in-house development by CSPs with OpenStack source code.
VANILLAPLUS MAGAZINE I APRIL / MAY 2015
Company summary CENX was established in 2009 in New Jersey, USA and now has 130 employees. Customers include several global Tier 1 service providers and data centre providers, including two of the top four mobile CSPs in North America. In addition, the company has partnerships with Accedian Networks, CA Technologies, Ericsson and VM Ware. Privately held, CENX does not disclose revenues. Investors include: Cross Creek Advisors, DCM Ventures, Ericsson, Highland Capital Partners, Mesirow Financial Private Equity and Verizon Ventures.
Market credentials CENX’s core product for NFV and SDN is its Cortx Service Orchestrator, a service lifecycle management and orchestration solution for Carrier Ethernet and IP services over traditional infrastructure, NFV/SDN infrastructures, or a hybrid. The product is aligned with the Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) Lifecycle Service Orchestration (LSO) concept. It continuously audits various network and service data, such as inventory, performance, trouble tickets and provisioning, from multiple sources including existing OSS, NMS/EMS, SDN controllers, NFV MANO systems and correlates and unifies these inputs into actionable intelligence for service fulfilment and assurance through automation and real-time analytics. The solution is modular and consists of multiple software modules; continuous data audit, service visualisation, workflow orchestration, automated inventory reconciliation, automated ordering and provisioning, real-time troubleshooting, network analytics, SLA management and capacity planning.
Key differentiation CENX has multi-vendor network connectivity heritage to provide an end-to-end service orchestration solution that can co-exist with CSPs’ existing infrastructure and operations, and facilitate CSPs’ transition to next-generation virtualised networks with NFV/SDN. The orchestration solution supports a wide range of use cases around mobile backhaul, enterprise connectivity, cloud exchanges, NFV/SDN orchestration, and just-in time capacity management. The Cortx Service Orchestrator product has a unified service information model with data analytics capabilities, which helps CSPs manage ever-increasing network complexity by using abstraction over multiple OSS functional silos across hybrid multi-domain networks and by providing a real-time network search and service visualisation capability. The product enables automation of key service fulfilment and assurance processes, such as inventory management, performance monitoring, fault isolation, ordering and provisioning.
Competitive landscape CENX faces market entry barriers by competing against established OSS vendors that are defending market share and extending into NFV/SDN service orchestration domain, such as Amdocs, HP, NEC/NetCracker, Oracle and others, as well as from network equipment providers with OSS portfolios and NEPs with an IP/Ethernet hardware, such as Alcatel-Lucent, Ciena, Cisco, Coriant, Ericsson, Huawei and ZTE.
37
COMPANY PROFILES
Company summary Comarch is publicly listed software vendor and systems integrator specialising in the telecoms and financial sectors. The company’s main telecoms offerings cover OSS systems for network management, planning and optimisation, service fulfilment, asset management and service assurance. The company also has BSS solutions for billing and charging, customer relationship management and self-care.
Market credentials Founded in 1993, Comarch has been growing steadily to become one of the strong innovative European OSS providers in the market. Its OSS/BSS suite is now deployed in a wide base of European, North American and Asian Tier 1 CSPs, with whom they hope to grow through the introduction of NFV and SDN in their commercial networks.
Key differentiation Comarch has been preparing its OSS suite for NFV and SDN readiness for the last couple of years with CSP customer collaborations and proof of concept projects. Its approach to the evolution of the OSS is based around making all elements as close to real-time as possible, bringing it in line with this inherent quality of a virtualised network. It sees each virtualised network element developing beyond being just a virtualised version of a physical node into a ‘micro data centre’ capable of many advanced additional functions. Comarch sees a real-time OSS will eventually become part of the network rather than operating in a separate layer above, blurring the lines between the network and network management. It also believes that in the years of hybrid NFV and traditional network function, a single OSS should be designed to control the all elements. Comarch is currently in the advanced proof of concept phase for these evolved OSS functions.
Competitive landscape The company is under competitive pressure from other leading OSS vendors that are also evolving their product suite to be ready for next generation hybrid networks and have a greater installed base of OSS deployments with progressive CSPs. Some of these major CSPs have been building out networks of worldwide data centres to support next generation OSS in the cloud, also with fully real-time platforms.
Company summary JDSU was established in 1999 and is headquartered in Milpitas, California, USA. With approximately 5,000 employees, the company reported revenue of US$ 1.7432 billion in 2014. The company is publicly traded and has partnerships with Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco Systems, Ericsson and Hitachi Data Systems Among its many CSP customers are AT&T, BT, SingTel, Deutsche Telekom, MTN, Telmex, Verizon, CSL (Hong Kong), SoftBank, Partner Communications and Telefónica.
Market credentials JDSU is a provider of service assurance systems, software and services, enabling design, build, deployment, operation, troubleshooting and optimisation of high performing, next-generation networks. Starting out as a pure test and measurement vendor, the company has diversified its portfolio into network, service and customer experience assurance, covering transport, core and radio access networks (RAN). Key CSP focused assurance offerings include Ethernet Assurance, Customer Experience Assurance, Video Assurance, and Location Intelligence. These are complemented on the enterprise side with Application Aware Network Performance Management, which together with its probing solutions enables JDSU to address the challenges of CSPs delivering Enterprise Managed Services and Cloud Services. The company is innovating in the NFV space, and is collaborating with industry peers under the auspices of TM Forum to develop a proof of concept for maximising profitability with NFV.
Key differentiation With extensive market presence and a large customer installed base in over 164 countries, JDSU is the second-largest vendor in the probes systems segment and fourth-largest in the service assurance market. The acquisitions of Trendium, Arieso and Network Instruments enable the company to offer customer experience assurance (CEA) solutions on a true end-to-end, handset-to-core basis. The company is taking a leading role in driving the development and definition of assurance requirements for NFV based networks, and benefits greatly from NFV-ready technology acquired from the companies mentioned above.
Competitive landscape With the acquisition of Tektronix Communications, NetScout will pose an even larger threat to JDSU. Smaller vendors such as Anritsu, Astellia, Empirix and Polystar are nimble and innovative, and may pose a threat in new markets. In the CEM area, major network equipment providers such as Ericsson, Huawei and Nokia Networks will continue to be a strong competitive threat in the future. The ongoing organisational changes at JDSU may divert the management focus away from the pressing customer and market demands, although the bulk of these changes are now in-place enroute to the company’s transition to become the Viavi Solutions. By actively participating in NFV innovations, the company has demonstrated its ambition to lead the industry transition to NFV.
38
VANILLAPLUS MAGAZINE I APRIL / MAY 2015
Company summary Razorsight is a private company founded in 2003 and headquartered in the Washington DC, USA area. Razorsight provides cloud-based analytics software to the telecoms industry. Razorsight’s predictive insights enable communications service providers (CSPs) to optimise customer relationships and improve margins and operational efficiency. Razorsight solutions address: network capacity planning, preventative network maintenance, proactive customer experience, customer acquisition and retention, margin improvement and SLA management. Razorsight provides solutions delivered via a cloud-based software suite, which reduces the hardware costs and enables a lower cost of ownership all based around a software as a service (SaaS) pricing model. Razorsight is used by significant CSPs including AT&T, Verizon, TMobile, Sprint, Comcast, Telus, Orange, CenturyLink, Virgin Mobile and Windstream as well as dozens of others.
Market credentials Razorsight has developed a deep expertise in analysing complex telecommunications data throughout its history and uniquely understands how to help CSPs improve key business processes and customer insights. By working exclusively within the telecoms sector Razorsight understands the variety and complexity of data sets and systems deployed. This enables its analytics solutions to be applied to optimise processes by proactively initiating network changes. The move to NFV (network functions virtualisation) by network equipment vendors exposes network functions more readily to allow business analytical insights to automatically drive network functions.
Key differentiation Razorsight was one of the first software companies to go to market with a cloud-based delivery model for its software, delivering a scalable, high-performance and cost effective platform that can meet the big data requirements of CSPs. The synergies between NFV that is delivered over a cloud based infrastructure allows for both solutions to be easily integrated. Business functions that require the use of real-time data processing and analysis are supported on the Razsorsight platform that enables near instant network changes driven proactively by customer experience and quality of service triggers.
Competitive landscape Razorsight has competitors that include general-purpose analytics tool vendors as well as consulting firms. In addition OSS/BSS application vendors are working to extend the intelligence of their solutions by attempting to add analytics tools into their back office solutions.
About Analysys Mason Analysys Mason is a trusted adviser on telecoms, technology and media. We work with our clients, including communications service providers (CSPs), regulators and end users to: • design winning strategies that deliver measurable results • make informed decisions based on market intelligence and analytical rigour • develop innovative propositions to gain competitive advantage. We have more than 250 staff in 12 offices and are respected worldwide for exceptional quality of work, independence and flexibility in responding to client needs. For 30 years, we have been helping clients in more than 100 countries to maximise their opportunities.
Consulting • Our focus is exclusively on TMT. • We support multi-billion dollar investments, advise clients on regulatory matters, provide spectrum valuation and auction support, and advise on operational performance, business planning and strategy. • We have developed rigorous methodologies that deliver tangible results for clients around the world. For more information, please visit www.analysysmason.com/consulting
Research • We analyse, track and forecast the different services accessed by consumers and enterprises, as well as the software, infrastructure and technology delivering those services. • Research clients benefit from regular and timely intelligence in addition to direct access to our team of expert analysts. • Our dedicated Custom Research team undertakes specialised and bespoke projects for clients. For more information, please visit www.analysysmason.com/research
VANILLAPLUS MAGAZINE I APRIL / MAY 2015
39