At this year’s MWC, for the first time, I began seeing tangible examples of properly designed NFV orchestration. They were tangible in the sense that real NFV suppliers were solving real customer (CSP) needs. They were further tangible in that the hand-waiving component was significantly reduced. They were “properly designed” in the sense that they met most of Appledore Research’s best practices for orchestration and automation available here. Appledore Research have been advocating for higher levels of automation, especially proper closed-loop NF and Service lifecycle automation, for almost two years now. The economics, as documented in our 2016 research are clear: automation is not only essential for close reduction, it is also essential to achieve an improved customer experience, and to meet the practical realities of maintaining a dynamic, cloud-based network. Humans are simply too few and too slow. This is a business imperative first, a technical one second. Let’s begin with one of the most fundamental issues, and why. NFV and service orchestration cannot be “TOSCA loaded workflows”. Many orchestration products essentially put NFV models in from of existing fulfillment workflow engines. Furthermore, many defined specific VNF configurations – in some cases explicit images, rather than a true map […]