STATE OF NFV AND OPNFV: AN UPDATE Key Findings from Heavy Reading's June 2016 Study on "What Operators Think of OPNFV" A Linux Foundation Collaborative Project
TABLE OF CONTENTS Executive Summary... 3 Key Findings... 4 State of Operator Involvement in NFV and OPNFV... 4 Next Steps for NFV and OPNFV... 10 Conclusion... 13 2
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY In June 2016, OPNFV commissioned Heavy Reading to perform a survey on the state of Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) and the perceptions of the Open Platform for NFV (OPNFV) project in the global carrier community. The survey followed a similar one that had been performed in November 2015. As such, it brought to light some interesting trends regarding the forward progress of NFV. The survey was completed by ninety (90) respondents from worldwide service providers that varied in size from less than $50M USD in revenue to more than $5B USD. All respondents were registered in Light Reading's database, and most had previously participated in a study on open source solutions. Many operator types were represented, including converged, mobile, fixed line, cloud and cable. Respondents ranged from engineers and technical planners to corporate management and strategists for research and development. The survey results shed light on how OPNFV is accelerating NFV adoptions, including OPNFV's role in shaping open source NFV, industry intent to leverage OPNFV output, and the overall impact of OPNFV on the success of NFV. The data reveals an updated look at the drivers, barriers, timelines and critical upstream integration needed in this unique era of network transformation. The high points of the survey revealed that respondents: View OPNFV as critical to the telecom industry See open source integration as more vital than ever Believe that NFV assisted by OPNFV is making impressive headway Recognize that there are still barriers and challenges to adoption Want security and MANO to be the next areas of emphasis for OPNFV This information brief highlights some of the key lessons from the survey. 1 1 The full set of slides showing the raw data for the report is available here from OPNFV's Resources Page, and there is also a video of the survey results presented by veteran telecommunications industry analyst Roz Roseboro. 3
KEY FINDINGS Fundamentally, this survey illustrates the notable progress of NFV deployments and the primacy of OPNFV in the fulfillment of NFV s mission. State of Operator Involvement in NFV and OPNFV It's useful to begin with a sense of where communications service providers stand with their NFV strategy and implementations. While NFV deployments are still young, operators are further along in the journey than they were eight months ago. As shown in Figure 1 below, 21% of respondents are in production deployment with NFV up from 9% in the fall study. We are now developing our NFV strategy: 33% We have an NFV strategy but have not started executing it yet: 20% We are in the testing/proof of concept stage regarding NFV: 20% We are in production deployment with NFV: 21% We have no NFV strategy planned at this point: 6% Source: Heavy Reading, June 2016, n=90 Figure 1: Operator State of NFV Strategy and Execution While roughly one-third are still developing a strategy, fully 41% are either in proofs of concept (PoCs) or production, and another 20% claim to have a solid strategy in place. Data shows that only six percent of operators have no NFV strategy planned at all The question then turns to the role of OPNFV in advancing this progression from strategy to deployment: the survey revealed that 93% of network operators view OPNFV as important to the success of NFV; they view it as either essential or important to the telecom industry as a whole. 4
Important, but not essential: 61% Marginally important: 7% Essential: 32% Source: Heavy Reading, June 2016, n=60 Figure 2: Importance of OPNFV to the Telecommunications Industry There was also an option, which no one selected, to say that OPNFV was not at all relevant. Since all respondents found OPNFV important, it s revealing that over half (54%) said that they are actively following OPNFV, and all but 19% of the respondents are actively contributing, or planning to contribute, to OPNFV (Figure 3). Actively follows OPNFV, but is not contributing yet: 54% Does not follow OPNFV, but that may change over time: 19% Actively involved and contributes directly to OPNFV: 27% Source: Heavy Reading, June 2016, n=90 Figure 3: Operator Level of Engagement with OPNFV All respondents who stated they were not following OPNFV indicated that they plan to do so over time. There was an option which no one selected for respondents to say that they had no plans to either follow or contribute to OPNFV. 5
The ways in which NFV is important to these respondents is also quite interesting. Not surprisingly, the top two areas of focus are interoperability testing and development of a reference architecture. It's worth noting that respondents were asked to pick just one "top area" of concern for this question shown in Figure 4, so the answers can be considered more strictly prioritized than if they were picking several items. Interoperability testing Developing a reference architecture Promoting network operator interests to upstream projects Providing testing facilities Helping converge architectural concepts Prototyping and fleshing out concepts Influencing upstream projects Functional and system testing 0 5 10 15 20 25 Source: Heavy Reading, June 2016, n=90 Figure 4: Most Important Things that OPNFV is Doing 6
Interoperability and the proper integration of new solutions are constant concerns for operators, so it's encouraging that OPNFV addresses these areas. The provision of testing facilities is also a significant requirement that OPNFV is providing. 2 In one of the most interesting questions of the survey, and one that had not been asked previously, Heavy Reading sought to determine how operators were planning to leverage OPNFV. As Figure 5 shows, fully 97% reported that they plan to leverage the output of OPNFV in some way. We will use OPNFV to evaluate vendors NFV-I solutions: 33% We will use the information on how various components integrate together to help us in our commercial and technical evaluations: 11% No plans: 3% We will adopt OPNFV as our reference architecture: 10% We will consider OPNFV as we develop our reference architecture: 42% Source: Heavy Reading, June 2016, n=90 Figure 5: How Operators Plan to Leverage OPNFV A plurality (42%) of respondents plan to use OPNFV to deliver a reference architecture for NFV, and one-third are using NFV to evaluate vendors NFV infrastructure (NFVI) solutions. 3 The fact that 10% said they plan to use OPNFV itself as a reference architecture is an encouraging sign of confidence. 11% of respondents said they will use knowledge in technical evaluations this may indicate an interest in pursuing best-of-breed solutions. This is an option that OPNFV enhances by facilitating flexible choices in open source components and their configuration into unique platform scenarios. 4 Between the November 2015 and June 2016 surveys, the benefits that operators are expecting from OPNFV remained fairly consistent. The top two responses rapid deployment assistance and easier integration were again the only choices selected by over 50% of the respondents. 2 OPNFV has addressed this in part through the Pharos Project, which develops an OPNFV lab infrastructure that is geographically and technically diverse. There are 13 Pharos Labs hosted by the Linux Foundation and Community companies 3 For a discussion of operators experimenting with OPNFV to evaluate different NFVI choices, see the OPNFV Plugfest Report, which contains examples of NFVI PoCs for virtualized IMS and EPC end-to-end systems. 4 A list of the pre-built scenarios for the Brahmaputra release can be found on this testing discussion page. 7
More rapid deployment of NFV Easier integration Accelerated adoption Higher-quality products Increased understanding of underlying technologies Reduced risk Other 0% 10% Nov-15 20% Jun-16 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% Source: Heavy Reading, June 2016, n=90 Figure 6: Expected Benefits from OPNFV One interesting change, however, is that these choices "switched places" as to which was selected more often, quite possibly indicating that deployments are moving farther along, and that operators see OPNFV as a main driver for this. The other major benefits integration, adoption, product quality, better technical understanding and reduced risk all remained quite consistent. 8
Virtually all the respondents agreed that OPNFV is relevant to upstream open source projects. Respondents overwhelmingly (85 percent) ranked OpenStack as the most important upstream project to OPNFV s success, followed by Open vswitch (49 percent), KVM (42 percent) and OpenDaylight (37 percent). OpenStack OpenSwitch KVM OpenDaylight Carrier Grade Linux Open Data Plane ONOS DPDK Open Contrail Ceph 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% Total Sample Non-NA Source: Heavy Reading, June 2016, n=89 Figure 7: Upstream Open Source Projects Enhanced by OPNFV As many OPNFV contributors also work on these upstream projects, OPNFV may be considered a reliable bellwether as to the continued relevance of those projects it will be interesting to see how operator perceptions change as they get more involved with upstream projects and with OPNFV. A question that was asked for the first time in the June 2016 survey was how likely it is that OPNFV will deliver on its promises. As Figure 8 shows, nearly one-quarter of the respondents are very confident that this two-year-old project will fulfill its promise. Somewhat confident: 74% Very confident: 24% Not confident: 1% Source: Heavy Reading, June 2016, n=90 Figure 8: Confidence Level that OPNFV will fulfill its Promise Perhaps more importantly, fully 99% (all but one respondent!) have some degree of confidence that the goals of OPNFV will be realized. 9
Next Steps for NFV and OPNFV The survey then turned to the questions of expected and desired directions for OPNFV in the near future (Table 1). Respondents were asked to select the top three technologies. Score is a weighted calculation. Items ranked first are valued higher than the following ranks; the score is the sum of all weighted rank counts. Table 1: Top Technologies to Explore Going Forward Rank Item Score 1 Security 123 2 Management/orchestration (MANO) 101 3 OSS/BSS integration 74 4 White boxes 68 5 Containers 58 6 VNF interoperability 58 7 Skills training 48 Security was cited as the top technology that OPNFV should investigate. Recognizing its growing importance in the community, last year OPNFV formed a security working group dedicated to improving security through architecture, documentation, code review, upstream interwork with other groups, vulnerability management and security research. Their work provides an umbrella group focused on developing securitycentric functions within the ecosystem, including a proposal to deliver a security management system for OPNFV. Management and Orchestration (MANO) ranked second in technologies that OPNFV should investigate. In the November 2015 survey it also ranked highly but was selected at about the same rate as OSS/BSS integration. The fact that it ranked much higher here illustrates that as operators move further along with NFV, they are gaining a fuller appreciation of the challenges of MANO and how critical MANO is to making NFV work. Given the growing interest and work on the topic of orchestration, the OPNFV board in December of 2015 decided to lift any initial scope restraints that would have restricted work in this area. In line with how operators believe OPNFV should engage MANO (Figure 9), OPNFV is now proposing industry-wide APIs in support of orchestration, demonstrating integration of MANO projects into the OPNFV platform, and providing upstream feedback to MANO components. 10
Propose industry-wide APIs in support of orchestration Demonstrate how MANO projects (e.g., OPEN-O, OSM) can be integrated into the OPNFV reference platform Offer upstream feedback to MANO projects components, including VIMs, VNFMs, and SDN controllers Promote a common information model, including PoCs, initial implementations, etc. Validate/refine ETSI NFV interface specifications defined in the IFA 00x specifications Enable benchmarking and performance analysis Figure 9: How OPNFV Can Help Address MANO 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 Source: Heavy Reading, June 2016, n=89 Along these lines, and naturally affecting the future direction of OPNFV, are the issues that carriers are currently struggling with (Figure 10). Multivendor VNF integration OpenStack vs. proprietary public vs. proprietary private DevOps, CI/CD tools (e.g., git, Gerrrit, Jenkins) VNF/MANO integration Automation tools (e.g., Chef/Puppet) Containers 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 Source: Heavy Reading, June 2016, n=88 Figure 10: Current NFV-Related Challenges for Operators Multivendor VNF integration is the only selection made by more than half of the respondents, but other key questions include where and when to use OpenStack versus proprietary choices for cloud infrastructure, and how to bring about better automation workflows, including DevOps. 11
The final question in terms of OPNFV's future progress was to cite the potential headwinds that could hinder usage of OPNFV. Respondents were asked to select three challenges and Table 2 reflects the raw scores for these selections. Table 2: Challenges Faced by OPNFV Rank Item Score 1 Managing competing company agendas 103 2 Unclear strategy 78 3 Concerns about open source technology 73 4 Lack of buy-in across the vendor community 65 5 Perception 60 6 Awareness 51 7 Lack of operator commitment 49 8 Lack of resources with relevant skill set 47 As operators continue towards NFV adoption, it's natural that competing company agendas would emerge. The issue of OPNFV's own strategy showing up here is interesting: as an open source integration project that interacts heavily with many upstream projects, it's natural that the strategy may evolve as the state of NFV infrastructure matures. It's noteworthy, however, that "unclear strategy" has a much lower score than it did in the November 2015 survey, and that the mission is coming into focus. It's also interesting that "concerns about open source technology" and "lack of vendor buy in" remain highly ranked as perceived challenges. Still, open source is universally accepted among the largest carriers, who need more innovative solutions and need them faster. Smaller service providers are quickly (but admittedly not instantly) following suit. Similarly, vendors are aware of the importance of open source to their customers: they are providing more viable solutions using open source, even if the issues of what to continue handling in a proprietary, rather than open, manner are naturally continuing to be sorted out. All in all, the challenges faced by OPNFV are actually the essential challenges faced by carriers and vendors, and inform the very issues that OPNFV is designed to address. 12
CONCLUSION The Heavy Reading survey clearly shows that OPNFV is heavily used and trusted among network operators and service providers who are moving steadily towards the adoption of NFV services. Respondents overwhelmingly agreed with high confidence that OPNFV is delivering on its promises to play a key role in this time of industry transformation. Operators view OPNFV as critical to the telecommunications industry, and see open source integration as vitally important. They are moving faster towards adopting strategies and in many cases, building PoCs or actually deploying services for an NFVbased future. OPNFV is helping operators make this a reality. In fewer than two years, OPNFV is earning an unprecedented level of trust in terms of both direction and ability to execute over time. Forward progress remains very steady as the benefits begin to be realized, and as vendor and carrier strategies and agendas continue to crystallize. The next steps for OPNFV are to make progress in the areas of security and MANO, and work has already been starting in these areas throughout 2016. For information on how to help define these crucial areas and move the cause of NFV forward, please consult the How to Participate and the Resources pages at www.opnfv.org. 13