Service Virtualization: Unlock the Power of Data Driven Virtual Services

5G and the applications it enables, including IoT, requires a significant upgrade and overhaul of carrier infrastructure beyond the radio networks (RAN). To support the diversity of applications, explosion in number and types of devices, capacity and scale of traffic, CSPs (communications service providers) are turning to adoption of data center innovation adapted and re-developed for telco networks. Virtualization, software-defined controls, distributed computing technologies in the form of NFV, SDN and MEC play key roles in the new telco infrastructure. One of the key technologies is SDN, which is important to creating flexibility in the network to support 5G constructs such as network slicing. SDN’s centralized management and distributed controls over complex software-defined networks across the mobile infrastructure is also a key element in 5G scalability.

SD-WAN is transforming the way businesses build their networks. Employees in a work-from-home situation are demanding more accessibility with greater speeds, and networks need to meet those demands while retaining strict security. Network administrators have increasingly turned from VPN systems to SD-WAN in order to keep up with these new requirements.

With most employees working from home amid today’s COVID-19 outbreak, VPN and remote access to enterprise resources have drastically increased. This is a huge challenge for the IT and security departments as many security experts believe that the current VPN deployments are designed for a small percentage of employees of the organizations and not for the overwhelming number of teleworkers who now need to access them repeatedly throughout the workday.

Software-defined networking (SDN) has defined networking for the past ten years. It's been hugely influential: helping network engineers achieve much needed improvements in automation, agility and efficiency. SDN has its limits, and it's now time to look beyond SDN and day 0 and day 1 automation and into a future that continually aligns the network and business intent.