Telco Data Centers Go Virtual at BTETelco Data Centers Go Virtual at BTE

Data center virtualization promises cost benefits with automation, new services, and agility. But it's tricky to implement. A panel of industry experts will explore those issues at the Big Telecom Event here next week, led by Heavy Reading senior analyst Roz Roseboro.

The topic: Telco Datacenters in the SDN/NFV Era.

"SDN and NFV are the two biggest things going on in the telco data center market -- it's all about the virtualization," Roseboro says. "Some are calling it the software-defined data center, the cloud-enabled datacenter -- it's about virtualization so you can automate everything."

People attending the panel will learn about the differences between SDN and NFV, and the benefits and challenges of each. "People talk about it as if they are one thing, but these concepts are taking part in different parts of the organization," Roseboro says. SDN is IT-driven and deals with data center issues. NFV is driven more by the network side of the business. "You're virtualizing what the network guys have been doing for 30 years. You're taking what they do and putting it into software. That's pretty scary." NFV takes the functions of closed, proprietary expensive hardware and puts them onto cheap servers. "It's very disruptive."

She adds, "It's not the technology that's the big issue. A lot of it is organizational and processes. You're fundamentally changing how you do service."

NFV gives new vendors an opportunity to get into the market and challenge incumbents, including Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) and Juniper Networks Inc. (NYSE: JNPR).

"From a telco standpoint, it offers the promise of lower cost, automation, new services, and agility. But it's not going to happen quickly, and it can be very disruptive," Roseboro says.

"Everybody agrees where we want to go. What we want to talk about is how we get there," she says.

Panelists are 6WIND CEO Eric Carmes; Geoff Hollingworth, head of Business Innovation, Silicon Valley, Ericsson AB (Nasdaq: ERIC); Hunter Newby, founder and CEO, Allied Fiber LLC ; and Rob Schrage, senior director of technology services, NTT America Inc. .

The panel will take place on Wednesday, June 18, 2:30-3:30pm.

And check out the whole agenda for Light Reading's Big Telecom Event (BTE), next Tuesday and Wednesday, June 17 and 18, at the Sheraton Chicago Hotel and Towers. The event combines the educational power of interactive conference sessions devised and hosted by Heavy Reading's experienced industry analysts with multi-vendor interoperability and proof-of-concept networking and application showcases. For more on the event, the topics, and the stellar service provider speaker lineup, see Telecommunication Luminaries to Discuss the Hottest Industry Trends at Light Reading's Big Telecom Event in June.

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