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.

Lenovo Intel Select Solution for NFV

Lenovo has joined the Intel Select for NFV Program and announced a Reference Architecture based on Lenovo ThinkSystem SR650/SR630 servers with one or more integrated Intel XXV710 NICs and Intel QuickAssist Technology (QAT). This solution also integrates OpenStack from Red Hat.

Intel Select Solutions are workload-optimized infrastructure solutions that simplify and accelerate a CSP’s selection and deployment of the hardware and software needed to support 5G and IoT. This solution is optimized specifically for packet processing, encryption, and compression-based NFV workloads.