CenturyLink CTO sees network virtualization differently than AT&T

CenturyLink CTO Andrew Dugan is responsible for the company’s SDN and NFV platforms in addition to all his other network oversight. At the Cowen and Company event in Boulder, Colorado, this week, Dugan said he doesn’t know what AT&T means when the carrier says it’s virtualizing 75% of its core network by the end of 2020.“I’d like to figure out what AT&T means by 75% virtualization,” said Dugan. “I don’t get it. The concept of virtualizing the core router or an optical platform, that’s a lot of cost of your network to provide services. We’re not working on virtualizing that stuff.”Dugan said CenturyLink is focused on virtualizing systems that enable its customers to turn up and turn down services on demand, and it’s also focused on virtualization at the edge of its network. He said the company likes the benefits of putting a white box device on the customer premises and “letting a customer turn up a firewall or an SD-WAN appliance or a WAN accelerator” whenever they want.