NFV Makes a Comeback

Washburn recently wrote about how the global chip shortage might lead to more enterprises using NFV. He said that although no single vendor is facing disastrous shortages, he said multiple vendors have disclosed lengthy equipment backlogs.

The solution to this unpredictability could be NFV.

“If Lanner doesn’t have a box in time because it’s not able to source all the right chipsets, then Dell’s got something, and if Dell doesn’t have something then someone else is going to have something, and as long as you can get a white box and load some software on it, then you can find a replacement for the ISR that you’re having trouble finding,” Washburn said.

That doesn’t mean NFV will flood the market.

“[NFV] is a Swiss Army Knife, and it’s like suddenly finding another extension of the Swiss Army Knife,” he said.