Press Release
DriveNets, the networking software company, today announced the results of a survey conducted by Heavy Reading on the future of service provider networking which quantifies the significant early commercial interest in disaggregation of core and edge networks and supports the lead taken by AT&T with the release of their Distributed Disaggregated Chassis (DDC) specifications to the OCP.
"We knew there was a lot of interest in disaggregation, but how ready the telecom industry is for radical changes in their IP networks surprised us. The survey results show that operators globally are deeply committed to open technologies and to software-based solutions to improve network profitability and to efficiently scale to meet future network demands," said Sterling Perrin, Principal Analyst, Heavy Reading.
Service providers face increased demand for services and speed while struggling to maintain profitability. They are now looking to learn from the Cloud hyperscalers who solved similar challenges by breaking from traditional data center solutions to disaggregation of hardware and software resource virtualization and the use of standard white boxes. The report, commissioned by DriveNets, finds that across the industry the days of vendor lock-in are numbered as service providers seek disaggregation to build IP networks in the way the hyperscalers built the cloud.
Key findings include:
Change in Service providers networking space seems inevitable. Nearly half (46%) of survey respondents reported that they expect radical changes in the next three years to their IP network architecture, with another 30% reporting that their organization is still deciding. Just 20% reported no expectations for radical change.
The no. 1 drive for change is the need to lower network costs to maintain profits, no. 2 scaling to handle traffic growth and no. 3 reducing the complexity of their networks.
Software replaces vendor lock-in. The most important selection criteria for a new vendor with 52% of respondents was a software-based networking solution, with disaggregation of hardware and software at the second most important at 40%. Incumbent IP vendor was a low priority, important to only 27% of respondents.
"These findings confirm the global trend we are experiencing within an industry that has barely changed for 30 years. We hear from our tier-1 service provider customers and our ecosystem partners that the market is shifting to an open model. DriveNets has an ecosystem of leading ODMs such as Broadcom, Ufispace, Delta and Edgecore and DDC leadership with Drivenets Network Cloud which supports the largest scale disaggregated routing cluster on the market. We are excited that DriveNets is well positioned to be a key vendor in the new disaggregated network market," said Ido Susan, Co-Founder and CEO, DriveNets
