Software is the building block of the future. In much the same way kids of today build a world unto their own on Minecraft, developers are shaping the future of the network, enterprise, communications and more on the wings of creativity, the cloud and software-defined solutions.
This week, SD-WAN firm FatPipe announced the arrival of a multi-function Virtual Network Function (VNF) to its suite of SD-WAN solutions. With the FatPipe VNF in place, businesses benefit from WAN optimization, QoS, DPI, security, firewall, routing and DNS management, to empower the NFV transformation.
Already deployed on a number of NFV hypervisors – OpenStack, AWS, Azure, VMware and Wind River (News - Alert) – the FatPipe solution allows firms to add and deploy functions without the need for multi-vendor interactions.
"The FatPipe VNF could help enterprises more easily deploy NFV, which has been previously constrained due to the difficulties involved with multiple-vendor components required for a successful NFV implementation, including OpenStack," said 451 Research (News - Alert)'s Senior Analyst Networking, Jim Duffy.
Let’s look at exactly what licensable features are available with the FatPipe VNF: SD-WAN; Bandwidth (News - Alert) Spectrum Ranging from 1Mbps to 10Gbps; Internet Application Path Control; FIPS (Federal Information Processing Standards) 140-2 Certified VPN Encryption; IPS (Intrusion (News - Alert) Prevention System) / IDS (Intrusion Detection System); DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) Mitigation; DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) Server; Inbound DNS (Domain Name System) Management; Web Filtering; WAN Optimization / Bandwidth Reduction; Granular and Holistic Network Visibility; OpenStack-based host platform for hosting third-party VNFs.
FatPipe’s expanding VNF partner ecosystem as well as any OpenStack-compatible provider serve as libraries of Virtual Network Functions – All capable of being integrated, licensable features.
"OpenStack is becoming the standard for virtualization of network functions," said FatPipe's CTO Sanch Datta. "By building an integrated VNF/SD-WAN that's branded-to-deployment of OpenStack, we can reduce the complexities and barriers to entry for enterprise NFV deployments. We expect this to have a similar benefit to NFV adoption as commercially branded Linux software had for enterprise adoption."
Don’t be fooled, software-defined solutions are no passing fad. This is not your father’s network anymore; the cloud era is at hand.
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Edited by Mandi Nowitz