What is NFV?
Network Functions Virtualization, or NFV, is a method of virtualizing network functions so they run in software.
Why NFV is important to CSPs
This new type of data center infrastructure offers major benefits for CSPs. By reducing hardware requirements, they can deploy new networks much faster, reduce costs significantly, and enable greater flexibility with the capability to scale with fluctuating user traffic.
This scalability becomes more and more critical as end users watch more movies on their phones and tablets, chat via live video, play video games online, and pursue other activities that increasingly consume network bandwidth. The ever-expanding Internet of Things (IoT)—including smart homes, self-driving cars, VR headsets, and other things that connect to mobile networks—only adds to the bandwidth demands and further underscores the need for NFV.