Gearing up support systems for software defined and virtualized networks

The key to success in the digital market is the ability to adapt, and true business agility requires flexibility in terms of networks, services, and customers. The combination of SDN and NFV plays a key role in gearing up support systems for business agility.

Apart from decoupling services from resources, together SDN and NFV enable life cycle management to be detached from physical constraints. Today, for example, it is possible to provision an SDN/NFV service instantaneously without the need to deploy new physical resources. This flexibility is the foundation of network agility.

However, one of the most significant challenges for operators and service providers today is time to market (TTM). Traditionally, TTM has been about putting services into the hands of paying users as quickly as possible. Today, TTM is about reacting quickly to the rapidly changing needs of the modern user.

Support systems – OSS/BSS – naturally play a key role in automating the different workflows, as ideas for new services move from concept to implementation and into operation.

The concepts of SDN, NFV, the virtual data center and rapid adaption to changing consumer needs form the pillars upon which network, service and customer agility are built. This Ericsson Review article describes how support systems – OSS/BSS – need to be geared up for these disruptive technologies to increase the level of flexibility in networks.

Gearing up support systems for software defined and virtualized networks