Services delivered in a software-defined model — from firewalls to UC to SD-WAN — represent significant opportunity for channel partners. In this Report, we provide a primer on network functions virtualization (NFV) and related technologies, tips on how to sell customers on the concept and recommendations for moving your business into the virtual era.

About the Author

Kurt Marko is an IT industry analyst, consultant and regular contributor to a number of technology publications, pursuing his passion for communications after a varied career that has spanned virtually the entire high-tech food chain from chips to systems. Upon graduating from Stanford University with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering, Marko spent several years as a semiconductor device physicist, doing process design, modeling and testing. He then joined AT&T Bell Laboratories as a memory chip designer and CAD and simulation developer. Moving to Hewlett-Packard, he started in the laser printer R&D lab doing electrophotography development, for which he earned a patent, but his love of computers eventually led him to join HP’s nascent technical IT group. Marko spent 15 years as an IT engineer and was a lead architect for several enterprisewide infrastructure projects at HP, including the Windows domain infrastructure, remote access service, Exchange email infrastructure and managed web services.