The Winds of Change Blowing Through NFV

I recently attended NFV Meeting #6 in Okinawa, Japan with several of my distinguished colleagues.  While sitting in the audience during one session, listening to people comment and ask questions on the future of  network functions virtualization (NFV), I couldn’t help but reflect on the significant number of changes that are impacting the NFV community in some way.  Perhaps the torrential downpour which followed my arrival in Okinawa and the official start of rainy season had something to do with my state of mind, but I don’t think that was it!

NFV leadership changes are in the works, with elections coming at the NFV #7 meeting (Jul 29-Aug 1) following the recently announced departure of Prodip Sen from the Chairman role and Uwe Michel from the vice-chair role.  Further, organizational or structural changes are still being actively worked as the definition of “NFV Phase 2” is collectively debated and discussed amongst members.  Finally, two new, highly visible community activities are being birthed, directly as a result of the impact of NFV on our industry.  Specifically, these are the “NFV Open Platform Project” (initially lead by AT&T’s Margaret Chosi) and OpenStack’s recently announced NFV focused subgroup.

I see these changes as healthy and an indicator of the ongoing interest of the operator and supplier industry in all things NFV.  Certainly our own NFV related webinars, press releases and media publications have been generating strong, sustained customer engagement, and I only see that growing as Wind River dives into these new groups and helps to drive the community forward.

On the other hand, I heard a few comments in Okinawa from people wondering if NFV was stalling, losing its momentum.  This sentiment was influenced by the wide ranging views and open questions associated with the NFV Phase 2 debate.

What’s your view?  Is NFV health and evolving, or slowing down and withering?  I’d love to hear from you!

Ron Breault is the Director of Product Management & Strategic Initiatives for the Networking group at Wind River.  He is currently focused on network functions virtualization (NFV) products, and leads Wind River’s contributions in the ETSI NFV Industry Standards Group.  Ron is a long time industry veteran, with over 20 years of experience developing and supporting carrier grade communications platforms.

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