BEST OF THE WEB

Picking a virtual session border controller

In the increasing world of software-defined everything, CIOs are taking a look at network functions virtualization (NFV), which brings network functions to virtual environments.

According to analyst Zeus Kerravala of ZK Research in a piece for NetworkWorld U.S., NFV is one of the big themes at this week’s Interop New York.

While much of the focus of NFV has been on virtualizing traditional network services, he writes, there’s increasing interest in communications infrastructure, most notably Session Border Controllers (SBCs) for terminating SIP trunks. SBCs have been only available as hardware appliances, but as interest in the technology has broadened outside of service providers and very large enterprises, the demand for a virtual version has grown.

In this piece he advises what to look for in a virtual SBC. For me, two points stand out:

  • Consistency of features across platforms. Not all vendors offer all features across all products, he notes. Sometimes vendors have certain features that are dependent on specific hardware.  From a buyer’s standpoint, it’s important to have all features available across all the products. For SBCs this is critical to ensure that there’s a common set of UC services available across all branch locations.
  • Easy migration from currently installed products. Virtualized SBCs are still in their infancy, and its likely customers are going to need to migrate from an older, hardware appliance to a virtual version., he writes There’s also the possibility that customers may want to migrate from a virtual appliance back to a hardware appliance down the road. Whatever the migration path, this should be something that’s easy for the vendor to do. If it requires custom scripts, lengthy upgrades or a team of engineers to do so, it’s probably best to go in a different direction.

“NFV is a powerful technology that can deliver on-demand services for almost any network service,” he says. “It brings a level of agility to the network that’s never been seen before. The SBC is ideally suited to be virtualized and run as an “NFV” workload, and I believe we’ll see more innovation in this area over the next year or so. However, I do believe there will always be demand for dedicated hardware appliances for those that require the dedicated, consistent performance.

Howard Solomon
Howard Solomon
Currently a freelance writer, I'm the former editor of ITWorldCanada.com and Computing Canada. An IT journalist since 1997, I've written for several of ITWC's sister publications including ITBusiness.ca and Computer Dealer News. Before that I was a staff reporter at the Calgary Herald and the Brampton (Ont.) Daily Times. I can be reached at hsolomon [@] soloreporter.com

Would you recommend this article?

Share

Thanks for taking the time to let us know what you think of this article!
We'd love to hear your opinion about this or any other story you read in our publication.


Jim Love, Chief Content Officer, IT World Canada

Featured Download

ITW in your inbox

Our experienced team of journalists and bloggers bring you engaging in-depth interviews, videos and content targeted to IT professionals and line-of-business executives.

More Best of The Web