NFV Evaluation: Cisco, Juniper & Others Are On Board

This is what industry leadership looks like.

Steve Saunders, Founder, Light Reading

August 12, 2015

2 Min Read
Light Reading logo in a gray background | Light Reading

Well that didn't take long.

It's only been 48 hours since we issued the first invitations to our NFV interoperability evaluation program and I'm delighted to announce that the first participants have already signed up. (Metaswitch, the first to reply, took less than an hour... Kudos and points for their alacrity!).

Now, I'm not going to say that I'm completely surprised, since Light Reading and EANTC wouldn't be putting this much effort into the program unless we had seen that there was a clear and present demand for interoperability from the world's leading service providers. But I will say that I am absolutely delighted by the number and quality of the respondents.

Here's the roster of participants that have committed to testing interoperability with either NFVi or VNF solutions, or both:

  • Cisco (NFVi and VNFs)

  • Juniper (NFVi and VNFs)

  • Metaswitch (VNFs)

  • IneoQuest (VNFs)

In addition to the above vendors, we have received dozens of responses from other companies that are perusing the invitation, and more participants will undoubtedly follow.

I have been overseeing laboratory testing on and off for over 20 years in our industry and, factually, I've never seen a response as expeditious as this. Clearly this is a good omen for this program, and for the state of NFV (and the New IP revolution).

Of course, not everyone was quite so enthusiastic. We did have one company that told us they thought our evaluation would promote creation of proprietary industry standards, whereas their customers "want open standards."

This is not a position that holds water, partly because we have invited (and very much want) open source projects such as OPNFV to be included in the evaluation. And secondly because it is this particular vendor's customers (quite literally, its actual customers) that are asking us to perform the interoperability testing in the first place.

A huge "thank you" from myself and EANTC to the companies listed above for having the confidence and the courage to step up and deliver on service providers' requests for independent and authoritative interoperability validation.

This is what industry leadership looks like.

  • If you would like more information on how to participate in the evaluation process, feel free to contact me at [email protected]

    — Stephen Saunders, Founder and CEO, Light Reading

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About the Author

Steve Saunders

Founder, Light Reading

Steve Saunders is the Founder of Light Reading.

He was previously the Managing Director of UBM DeusM, an integrated marketing services division of UBM, which has successfully launched 45 online communities in less than three years.

DeusM communities are based on Saunders' vision for a structured system of community publishing, one which creates unprecedented engagement among highly qualified business users. Based on the success of the first dozen UBM DeusM communities, the UBM Tech division in 2013 made the decision to move its online business to the UBM DeusM community platform – including 20 year old flagship brands such as Information Week and EE Times.

Saunders' next mission for UBM is the development of UBM's Integrated Community Business Model (ICBM), a publishing system designed to take advantage of, and build upon, UBM's competitive strengths as a leading provider of live events around the globe. The model is designed to extend the ability of UBM's events to generate revenue 365 days of the year by contextually integrating content from community and event sites, and directories, to drive bigger audiences to all three platforms, and thereby create additional value for customers. In turn, these amplified audiences will allow business leaders to grow both revenues and profits through higher directory fees and online sponsorship. The ICBM concept is currently being discussed with a broad group of business leaders across UBM, and is earmarked to be piloted in the second half of 2013 and early 2014.

UBM DeusM is Saunders' fifth successful start-up. In 2008, he founded Internet Evolution (www.internetevolution.com), a ground-breaking, award-winning, global online community dedicated to investigating the future of the Internet, now in its fifth year.

Prior to Internet Evolution, Saunders was the founder and CEO of Light Reading (www.lightreading.com), Heavy Reading (www.heavyreading.com

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