According to a study by Dialogic, the Network Fuel company, an overwhelming majority of 80% of service providers plan to leverage NFV in 2014.

The survey says that 81 percent of respondents foresee a diminishing role for the Central Office; but more than half expect purpose built hardware to have longevity. The top benefits of NFV were seen as relating to CAPEX and OPEX, with 70 percent of respondents believing they could be more operationally efficient with NFV and 67 percent indicating it is a better way to invest capital.

Dialogic  announced the results of its first Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) Survey, to cut through market speculation and deliver relevant information on NFV and virtualization and how it will alter the way service providers deploy the networks of tomorrow.
 
“It all comes down to the fact that virtualization of Network Functions is just a matter of when, not if,” according to Thomas Schroer, director of service provider marketing for Dialogic. “Because the timing is right now for virtualizing UC and VoIP applications and 70 percent of survey respondents expect to see gains in operational efficiency right away.”
 
The survey results reveal that an overwhelming majority of respondents see service providers benefitting the most from NFV with Unified Communications the likely starting place for NFV deployments followed by 4G and 3G a distant consideration.
 
It was no surprise that security and scalability are leading challenges for those implementing a virtualization strategy, so the take away here is for companies to look for solutions and partners who can be trusted to address those concerns.

The overall findings make clear that while customers will benefit with NFV, it’s the operators who stand to gain the most.