Organizations Increasing

Their Adoption of Network

Functions Virtualization
to Reduce Complexity and Ease Management

W H I T E PA P E R

IT infrastructure has become more complex than ever, especially when it comes to networking
and the reality of highly distributed infrastructures. That’s why many enterprises are turning
to network functions virtualization (NFV). This paper provides insight on the state of NFV
adoption and offers a specific approach to optimizing the benefits of the technology.

When it comes to networking, having a lot of options may not always be a good thing. Think about the
different networking approaches enterprises must consider:
• Wired and wireless
• Physical and virtual
• On premises and cloud gateways
• Enterprise backbone and remote office
• LAN, WAN and MAN
• Best-of-breed network components and converged/hyper-converged infrastructure
• Voice, data and unified communications

Not only that, but today’s enterprise networks must support a growing number of distributed functions,
from basic routing, security and load balancing to WAN optimization, network management and domain
name systems. The resulting complexity—and the potential for skyrocketing Capex costs—is driving
enterprise networking decision-makers to seek out new technology options to create a forward-thinking yet
future-proofed network architecture in an increasingly hybrid IT environment.
More and more often, the solution organizations are
exploring for this maze of networking considerations and
requirements is network functions virtualization (NFV). Not
only does NFV dramatically simplify how corporate networks
are planned, deployed and managed, but it typically does so
in a cost-efficient, reliable, expandable and secure platform.
Those are important reasons why research indicates global
revenues for NFV will exceed $5.6 billion by 2022.1
To help networking and IT professionals better understand
the opportunities and challenges associated with deploying
NFV technology, new research based on responses from
more than 1,300 IT and networking professionals from
around the world is now available. The research, summarized
within the following pages, covers such NFV topics as:
• Key drivers for NFV adoption
• Current state of NFV adoption
• Preferred NFV deployment strategies
• NFV-related challenges
organizations already have deployed NFV to at least some
degree, and another quarter of respondents indicate their
organizations are planning future deployments (see Figure 1).
Among all respondents, 57% say their organization either
have already deployed or plan to deploy NFV.
Another important takeaway from the survey data is how
many different types of network functions either have
already been deployed virtually or are anticipated to be
deployed within the next 12 months. As shown in Figure 2,
security, network management, load balancing, SD-WAN
and routing were the functions cited most often.
Not surprisingly, the key drivers motivating networking
decision-makers to evaluate and adopt NFV align closely
with the top functions organizations say they want to
virtualize, including security, network management, network
availability and network agility (see Figure 3).
NFV deployment and utilization
strategies

Current state of NFV adoption
Although NFV is still a relatively new technology, it is quickly
gaining traction among network architects and decision-
makers. In fact, one third of survey respondents say their
How and where NFV solutions are deployed are extremely
important issues organizations need to understand, sort out
and deal with. Not all NFV solutions are created equal, and
not all organizations have the same goals or strategies for
where NFV functionality should be provided.

1 “Worldwide Telecom Network Functions Virtualization Infrastructure Forecast, 2018–2022,” IDC,

August 2018
Which network functions have you already
deployed or plan to deploy as NFV within the
What is your organization’s deployment and next 12 months?
use of NFV to date?
36%
Security

10% 34%
Network management

29%
Load balancing

43% 23% 28%

SD-WAN

26%
Routing
12% 21%
Network address translation
12%
21%
IP address management
Widely deployed Planned deployment
beyond 12 months 20%
Selected deployment No deployment WAN optimization
plans at this time
Planned deployment 20%
within 12 months Domain name system
1 “Network Function Virtualization Market Worth $70bn by 2024,” Global Market Insights,
July 25, 2018
Figure 1. Figure 2.

2
 What are or will be the most important Where has your organization deployed
factors in deciding to adopt NFV? or where does it plan to deploy NFV
functionality?
47%
Easier network management 48%
On-premises data center
42%
Enhanced security 40%
Headquarters facility
41% 27%
Improved network availability
Branch office
40% 25%
Enhanced network agility Colocated data center
34% Figure 5.
Reduced capex
31% When it comes to the most-favored approach to NFV
Increased network speed
deployment, survey respondents come down on the
28% side of an appliance or a cloud-like service, as Figure 6
Greater scalability
shows. However, substantial numbers of respondents
26% are comfortable with purchasing a fully outsourced, fully
Greater use of automation
managed, self-configurable network.
21%
Provide more network capacity
21% NFV deployment challenges
Multicloud connectivity
14% As is the case with most relatively new and emerging
Edge computing initiatives technologies, network architects and IT professionals need
Figure 3. to be aware of the ins and outs of NFV deployment. Doing
your homework ahead of time will not only speed initial
As Figure 4 shows, the majority of survey respondents say deployment of your NFV solution but also undoubtedly save
their initial NFV deployment has been done internally, your organization time, personnel cycles and money over
although more respondents indicate they have used some the long haul.
type of third party, such as a consultant or service provider.

Respondents say their organizations are deploying NFV in What approach does or would your
a number of different types of facilities, from on-premises organization prefer for NFV deployment?
data centers to colocated data centers (see Figure 5). The
benefits of NFV obviously are substantial enough to justify
the technology’s deployment at multiple types of facilities
throughout their global organizations.

How has your organization deployed or how 42% 58%

does it plan to deploy NFV functionality?

42%
Do-it-yourself/built internally
29%
IT consultant
26%
Network service provider
Appliance or cloud-like Outsourced, fully managed,
17% service self-configurable network
Cloud service provider
Figure 4. Figure 6.

3
For instance, survey respondents point out that the
single biggest factor that has limited or prevented their
organization from adopting NFV is a lack of experience with
the technology. In fact, nearly half of the respondents cite
this challenge as a gating factor, followed by deployment
and management costs of a new architecture, lack of in-
house talent to evaluate, deploy and manage the technology,
and security concerns (see Figure 7).
What has limited or prevented your
organization’s NFV adoption?
46%
No experience with NFV technology
39%
Costs of deploying and managing new architecture
30%
Lack of in-house talent
24%
Potential security loopholes
19%
Questions about NFV vendor viability
19%
Disrupting production environments during deployment
17%
Happy with existing hardware-based network architecture
Figure 7.
Undoubtedly, the next few years will see a substantial
increase in both overall experience with NFV technology and
in the creation of a new generation of network architectures
comfortable and familiar with deploying network
functionality as part of software, rather than in a potentially
confusing and expensive array of hardware.
What to look for in an NFV solution
To achieve and optimize the many benefits of NFV
solutions, organizations need to undertake a thorough
search of the many brands and platforms available to them.
Sorting through competitive claims and “market-techture”
is never easy, so it pays to start by understanding the most
important features to look for in a flexible, agile and future-
proof solution.
Chances are your organization will be committed to
studying NFV for such important workloads as hybrid
cloud connectivity, multicloud routing and a wide range
of distributed infrastructure. That means your ideal NFV
solution should include such features and functionality as:
• Support for a wide range of market-leading network
infrastructure components from established vendors
such as Cisco, Juniper, Palo Alto Networks and others.
• Close proximity to major content and enterprise
services.
• Support for software-defined WAN, multicloud
edge servers and distributed edge firewalls, all in an
integrated framework.
• Streamlined touch points for easy management and
reduced maintenance complexity.
• Fast deployment—hours or even minutes, as opposed to
days or weeks.
• Ability to scale networks quickly, reliably and securely
as business demands shift and new services and
applications are required.
• Access to tested, reliable and pre-integrated technology
ecosystems.
• Automated service library creation and delivery, across
multiple vendors, to generate entire workloads.
• Ability to interconnect and integrate users, devices,
partners, applications and virtual workforces regardless
of location or physical network infrastructure.
Equinix’s approach to NFV
One technology partner that has created a strong reputation
for NFV leadership and innovation is Equinix. With a long
history in connectivity and substantial global resources and
presence, Equinix has developed an agile, automated and
adaptive NFV platform to help organizations move network
functionality from the traditional hardware paradigm to a
virtualized, as-a-service approach.
Equinix’s Network Edge is designed for the reality of
today’s digital transformation movement, enabling a
consistent end-user experience, extensive use of
automation and analytics, instantaneous deployment of
virtualized network functions and widespread support for
both cloud-only and hybrid environments.
One of the most compelling benefits of Network Edge is the
ability to work seamlessly with an extensive range of leading
network services vendors, such as Cisco, Juniper, Palo Alto
Networks, Fortinet, Versa and others.
4
Network Edge allows organizations to select the virtual network functions About the Research
desired, deploy those services virtually at a number of Equinix’s own global
interconnect facilities and privately connect in real time to the cloud services The research cited within
required, including Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, this paper is based on more
Oracle Cloud and many more. than 1,300 responses from
networking and IT professionals
Network Edge enables cloud-to-cloud routing for the increasingly prevalent around the world, including
multicloud applications that are so essential to enterprise customers. This is North America; Latin America;
done without upfront capital dependencies or additional capital requirements, Europe, the Middle East and
enabling applications to be deployed closer to customers and their users Africa; and Japan.
anywhere throughout the world. The platform also supports such use cases as
multi-location/multicloud connectivity, hybrid cloud firewalls and branch-to- Respondents, drawn from the
cloud SD-WAN. global technology decision-
maker databases of TechTarget,
These and other reasons are why Frost & Sullivan, a leading technology represent a wide range of
research and advisory firm, called Network Edge a significant offering, noting it industries, organization sizes and
aligns well with key industry trends such as faster time to market for businesses job functions, including:
looking to expand globally, seamless connectivity for hybrid and multicloud
deployments and network optimization for mobility, big data and Internet of
Industries
Things use cases.2
• Manufacturing: 15%
Conclusion • Telecom: 13%
• Government: 12%
NFV’s potential to help enterprises reduce complexity, improve manageability
and provide a more scalable, future-proofed and cost-efficient architecture has • Financial services: 12%
been increasingly embraced by networking decision-makers. The research cited • Professional services: 10%
in this paper points to an expanding market acceptance of NFV, as well as the
likelihood of a continued uptick in demand for the technology in the coming
years as part of the growing trend toward virtualized, software-defined and Organization size
-delivered functionality. • Small (under 100): 26%
• Midsize (100-1,000): 34%
NFV has clearly demonstrated an ability to help network architects achieve a
• Large/enterprise: 40%
more flexible, scalable and agile environment at a time when IT and networking
functions must be resilient, responsive and secure both on premises and in
the cloud. Decision-makers looking for a solution that virtualizes a wide range Job function
of network functions should evaluate and select a solution that helps collapse
• IT/networking executive/
disparate, complex and geographically dispersed network segments into a
management: 38%
seamless, comprehensive architecture.
• IT/networking staff: 36%
Equinix’s Network Edge NFV solution is an excellent option for enterprise IT • Cloud architecture: 5%
leaders, network architects, service providers and other organizations that
• Other: 21%
need a way to tame network complexity and deliver a robust set of network
functions anywhere and anytime.
The research was fielded in the
summer of 2019.
For more information about Equinix’s NFV solution, please visit
https://www.equinix.com/services/edge-services/network-edge/index/.

2 “Equinix Network Edge: Bridging the NFV Gap in Enterprise WAN Middle Mile,” Frost & Sullivan, August 2019