LONDON — While many communications service providers are pressing ahead with plans to virtualize their networks, most admit they are still struggling with how their operations will support NFV and SDN, and there is no one strategy for how those systems evolve — yet.

In a workshop here today, both Heavy Reading ‘s Caroline Chappell and TM Forum ‘s Dave Milham presented research showing CSPs remain uncertain of their operations support system (OSS)/business support system (BSS) strategies going forward, and are divided on how much virtualized networks will rely on legacy operations or require something totally different.

Chappell, who is principle analyst for cloud and NFV, noted that her research shows this uncertainty around operations isn’t holding back movement to adopt network functions virtualization (NFV), however, at least where public pronouncements are concerned. She calls this the “keeping up with AT&T” syndrome, as network operators tell her they have to push virtualization forward to keep up with a variety of competitors, including those with aggressive and public virtualization plans.

Read the rest on Light Reading.com.