Werner Schaefer the VP of Network Functions Virtualization at Hewlett-Packard spent some time with me at Mobile World Congress to discuss the numerous carriers the company is working with to push NFV forward. Here at the show, HP discussed how they will accelerate their move to NFV through its OpenNFV initiative which will speed up deployments of the technology. Schaefer explained there is a huge architechture play at work here – beyond OPEX and CAPEX savings.
Here are some use cases the company is showing at MWC:
- Virtual customer premise equipment (CPE): The idea is to take all of the gadgets a carrier has to deal with and puts them in the cloud. Instead of having to deal with upgrading boxes and fixing them when they break, a carrier can keep it all in the cloud and upgrade as needed. This reduces cost and truck rolls.
- Content Delivery Network or CDN: Carriers are able to use NVF to push content closer to the customer.
- Evolved Packet Core: Utilizing the packet core to provide voice and advanced services.
H-P is touting its ecosystem and lab environment HP OpenNFV Labs as differentiators in the NFV space. “No single company can do this all alone,” said Schaefer as he explained why these announcements are important to offer. He continued, saying a carrier can’t afford any downtime so services need to be tested thoroughly before deployment.
The company further provides a sandbox to ensure things work correctly before deployment. In this way, carriers can come and see things working in the lab and perform “real-world” testing before continuing.
He says HP is a neutral company – they have no legacy solutions to protect and their partner ecosystem is unique, allowing them to provide collaborative solutions most effectively. Effectively this was a shot at NSN, Huawei, Cisco, Alcatel-Lucent and others.
Later on, Vinay Saxena, the Chief Architect of HP’s NFV SOlutions walked me through some of the use cases. Here are some photos from what I saw:
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