Industry Commentary
S. D. Hubbard · IEEE Communications Standards Magazine · 2017
The industry is in the midst of a multi-year paradigm shift to agile, assured, and orchestrated services that are optimized for the digital economy and the hyper-connected world. These new “Third Network” services are game-changing in their ability to provide an on-demand experience with user-directed control over service capabilities. They are made possible by the automation, virtualization, and interconnection of networks that build upon a CE 2.0 foundation and are powered by LSO (Lifecycle Service Orchestration), SDN and NFV. Dozens of service providers currently are offering on-demand connectivity services and NFV-based virtual services or are planning to do so in 2017-2019, according to joint MEF and Vertical Systems Group research. Ninety percent of respondents in our global survey indicated that they expect these new services will notably impact the $50+ billion Carrier Ethernet services market in the 2018+ time period. While much attention has been focused on individual innovative service providers, the most exciting development right now is the tremendous collaborative work taking place to build out a worldwide ecosystem of connected networks that will support orchestration of dynamic services across multiple provider networks.