Hewlett Packard Enterprise is rolling out software designed to close the management gap separating physical and virtual networks.

HPE Service Director, announced last week, is designed to help communications service providers manage services across hybrid networks that comprise physical and virtual network elements. According to Hewlett Packard Enterprise , service providers using HPE Service Director can benefit from the agility that New IP networks offer and increase revenue by launching new services more rapidly and at lower cost.

"There is no such thing as a greenfield NFV implementation," said David Sliter, vice president and general manager, HPE Communications & Media Solutions, said in a statement. "Our approach to OSS provides a more dynamic service model, enabling CSPs to bridge existing physical and new environments and dramatically improve their overall service agility."

The software connects with OSS systems to automate network problem solving, so allowing operators to better deliver quality of service assurance to customers, Sigge Andreasson, HPE NFV and OSS marketing lead, tells Light Reading.

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HPE Service director builds on HPE NFV Director's management and orchestration (MANO) to automate and share information for managing physical and virtual networks through a single pane of glass. (See HP's NFV Director Merges Physical, Virtual.)

The software will be available in the spring, with pre-configured solutions for specific use cases, starting with HPE Service Director for vCPE (virtual customer premises equipment).

Bridging physical and virtual networks is a key challenge for the New IP community. Network operators have billions of dollars invested in networking equipment that they're not going to simply bulldoze so they can build anew. How vendors approach that challenge is a differentiator.

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— Mitch Wagner, , West Coast Bureau Chief, Light Reading. Got a tip about SDN or NFV? Send it to [email protected].