Nutanix (NASDAQ: NTNX), a leader in enterprise cloud computing, today announced findings of a new report analyzing key challenges and opportunities with hybrid cloud adoption. While most see hybrid cloud as the ideal IT model, the report showed that many struggle to adopt it — with 70% of organizations believing that their transformation is taking longer than expected. However, the goal is clear: nearly all respondents (95%) think their organization would benefit from an optimal hybrid implementation providing consistent IT constructs and operations across multiple clouds, eliminating many of the challenges they currently face ranging from operational silos to staffing shortages.

As businesses everywhere struggle to adapt to a new reality, one thing is becoming even clearer: flexibility is crucial to business success. Whether enterprises need to leverage public cloud to deliver remote desktops quickly, consolidate disaster recovery sites, move workloads to a private cloud to stave off public cloud capacity concerns, or take advantage of on-demand capacity bursting, the current global situation has emphasized the need for an adaptable IT infrastructure for many businesses. But flexibility no longer means using both public and private clouds — it means having a consistent experience, tooling and operational practices across multiple clouds to dramatically simplify the ability to move applications and data to the most appropriate cloud environment.

“Today, modern organizations need to lead with flexibility, and a critical aspect of this is decentralizing resources to make them more readily available,” said Aaron White, Regional Sales Director – Middle East at Nutanix. “By using multiple clouds, whether public, private or at the edge, businesses can simply bring their IT infrastructure where it is most needed. But, as we saw in the research, this flexibility is only possible with consistent constructs, operations and tooling across multiple clouds, making a hybrid cloud environment ideal.”

The report, commissioned by Nutanix and created by independent market research firm Vanson Bourne, analyzed key challenges businesses are currently facing when managing both public and private cloud infrastructures. The company surveyed 650 IT decision-makers from multiple industries, business sizes and geographies in the Americas; Europe, the Middle East, Africa (EMEA); and Asia-Pacific and Japan (APJ) regions.

Additional findings include:

• Public Cloud Alone is Not Always the Answer: Public cloud revolutionized the IT industry, offering more agility and operational efficiency. And while it’s ideal for some applications and workloads, it’s not for others, leading businesses to embrace a hybrid infrastructure. According to the research, the majority of respondents have concerns about running business-critical applications, those most vital to their business, on public cloud, specifically around reliability (75%), portability (73%), and cost (72%). Additionally, some are simply unable to move their business-critical applications, due to complexity or cost. For example, the need to re-architect or re-platform applications (75%) and the complexity of the migration (71%) are top concerns preventing respondents from porting applications.
• Hybrid Widens the IT Skills Gap: Although many businesses struggle to find enough qualified IT talent, the issue grows when looking for professionals who can manage both a public and a private cloud infrastructure, as currently the two environments require different skill sets. Most organizations (88%) are facing challenges in ensuring their IT staff has the necessary skills to manage a hybrid IT infrastructure, and over half (53%) see this as a top concern.
• Skill Gaps Create Silos and Inefficiencies: Given the different skills required to manage public and private cloud infrastructures, businesses often need to rely on different teams creating silos, something that nearly all (95%) respondents encountered. Most importantly, they often impact the bottom line, something even more concerning at a time when many businesses are focused on optimizing resources. Nearly half of respondents identified resource sprawl (49%), an increase in costs (45%), and/or a waste of resources (43%) as concerns.
• Portability is a Must and Not Just For Applications: For most businesses (88%) software licensing is a key aspect of a hybrid IT infrastructure, as many have run into difficulties surrounding licensing (58%) or vendor lock-in (58%) when moving to public cloud. Additionally, nearly two thirds (65%) are willing to consider subscription licensing for their IT infrastructure.

Businesses are looking for flexibility. It’s no longer a choice between private and public, or between different public cloud providers. Organizations need a solution providing consistent experience, tooling and operational practices across multiple clouds to address many of the challenges and operational inefficiencies they’re currently facing. An optimal hybrid cloud environment provides the consistency they need to take advantage of the full flexibility of multiple clouds, whether private or public.

By: Jacob Chacko, Regional Business Head – Middle East, Saudi & South Africa at Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company

If you spent any time in your childhood swimming in the sea, there’s a fair chance you remember the feeling of being dumped by a wave. For those brief moments in time, your feet lose the ground and mild panic sets in as you battle to discern up from down. It’s fair to say for many businesses in the financial services industry, that’s exactly how the better part of 2020 has felt.

Most of the major banks in the Middle East – traditionally brick-and-mortar institutions – had their hands full trying to reimagine their security measures overnight and ensure their thousands of employees could continue working seamlessly from home.

But now that the first wave of disruption has passed and we’re finding our way back to the surface again, it’s time for financial institutions to look beyond the initial panic and start focusing on what’s next. According to McKinsey, companies that want to excel in the ‘next norm’ should be paying attention to evolving customer behaviours and how they are likely to impact customer experience in the near term.

With this in mind, Aruba Networks has developed a ‘Banking for the New Normal’ series underpinned by its LAN, WLAN and SD-WAN networking solutions and enhanced with security, automation and analytics, to help banks reinvent their connectivity and the way in which they work.

Upping the ante on innovative service delivery

When it comes to more innovative service, people are increasingly looking for that always-on experience. COVID-19 has rendered time an even more precious commodity and service providers that don’t value their customers’ time do so at their own peril. If a client has travelled to an ATM, for example, they want to know that service will definitely be available to them. By harnessing the power of integrated analytics, banks can make sure that customers don’t end up travelling kilometers to an ATM, only to find it’s out of service. Instead they can proactively let customers know that ATM is not currently functioning and suggest an alternative. In fact, as part of Aruba’s offering, banks can access AI-powered analytics, allowing them to automatically detect and solve any number of different issues before they can impact the business.

Solutions that speak to social distancing

Research shows COVID-19 has normalised physical distancing and people’s need for constant sanitation. In the financial services space, this has translated into customers avoiding bank branches and ATMs where they have to queue with dozens of other people.

But here again real-time analytics can enable banks to provide their customers with insights as to how many other people are on site. Backed by Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Aruba provides edge-line platforms that provide real-time analytics, meaning the bank can notify the customer that there are four ATMs within their vicinity and let them know exactly how many people are currently at each ATM.

And there are numerous other ways in which forward-thinking banking institutions can draw on the latest technology to make it safer for consumers to engage their services.

IoT-based technology, for example, will be an important focus for banks moving forward because of the growing demand for thermal cameras. While IoT often comes with security concerns – and even more so for those in the banking space – solution providers like Aruba can assist with the secure onboarding of IoT devices – which is necessary when it comes to the deployment of thermal cameras, security cameras and the like.

Greater convenience key to success

Convenience has always been king where customers are concerned, but in a world where people are juggling more stresses and concerns than ever before, convenience is even more critical to success. Luckily, there are many ways in which a financial service provider can use technology to make their customers’ lives easier. Think of something as simple as alerting a client to the fact that their credit card will soon expire as they walk past an ATM. Again with the right edge-line platforms in place, the bank can access this real-time information and make it easy for the customer to pop into the branch and get a new card.

An added advantage of banks having this technology at their fingertips is that they can provide the same connectivity and infrastructure services to their business banking customers as well. In fact as trusted entities with access to the latest and most secure technology, banks can create entirely new revenue streams for themselves by evolving from financial service providers into tech service providers. 

With some banks expecting profit declines as dramatic as 85%, the ability to draw on technology to source revenue from alternative business models is of paramount importance. And with companies like Aruba packaging these solutions with flexible financing options, the technology is significantly more accessible in the current economic climate.

Now that the initial panic and uncertainty around COVID-19 has dissipated, it’s time for companies in the financial services industry to refocus their attention on what’s next. The pandemic has accelerated the demand for technological innovation from consumers and businesses alike, and service providers must ensure they can keep pace with the evolving needs of their customers.

Dimension Data, a leading global technology integrator and managed services provider, today announces the expansion of its next-generation Managed Services to help clients streamline operational efficiencies and drive business outcomes across the Middle East.

As the economy rebounds from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, Dimension Data has expanded its Managed Services capability across Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates to support businesses as they recover and reinforce their digital transformation efforts. Dimension Data’s global Managed Services platform offers data-driven insights and real-time reporting, managing over 9,000 IP networks and supporting over 13 million users across the globe. The Managed Services centres in Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates complement Dimension Data’s global Managed Services platform and operate in accordance with local in-country data sovereignty laws.

Mohammed Hejazi, Managing Director for Dimension Data Middle East, said, “the way in which we work has shifted and remote working has brought a new set of challenges. With rapidly changing situations, organisations expect partners to quickly provide new services to enable them to manage, or accelerate, additional requirements.”

“The boost in productivity will increase data traffic as well as the possibility of attacks on customer networks. Reducing security risks is one of the top reasons for considering a managed services provider. The intent in the Middle East is to proactively monitor client networks and support remedial activities through the Security Operations Centre (SOC) and the Network Operating Centre (NOC),” he added.

Dimension Data’s goal is to allow organisations to focus on their main core business while leaving their day to day IT and Security operational tasks to the subject matter experts. Dimension Data has the expertise in understanding clients pain points, thus pushing the organisation to provide tailored solutions through the rich portfolio which includes different flavours of managed services, like 24/7 proactive support, reactive support, on-site interventions, managed client platforms or used Dimension Data platforms in addition to application managed services.

Dimension Data’s approach to managed services builds on its proven track record of managing and integrating multi-vendor solutions by bringing together its cross-technology portfolio of managed services, delivered through a single scalable and secure platform.

“The next-generation Managed Services offering gives you the data you need to enable IT and operations teams to focus on more strategic, value-add tasks and drive business performance,” said Hejazi.

Kodak Alaris is expanding its remote service offerings with three new monitoring as a service tools that deliver cloud-based device management and optimize scanner performance. The new MPS Capture Agent, Scanner Manager and Scanner Finder Tool from Kodak Alaris enable channel partners to deliver added customer value by allowing scanners from Kodak Alaris to be seamlessly integrated into device monitoring solutions for smarter reporting and management. By leveraging these new capabilities, Kodak Alaris partners will be able to optimize customers’ document capture infrastructures as easily as printer fleets, achieve visibility over all imaging costs, reduce the cost to provide service, and expand their business opportunities.

With the MPS Capture Agent, developers can seamlessly add scanners from Kodak Alaris to a fleet of devices a business is monitoring without needing to deploy an additional device management tool. The MPS Capture Agent integrates easily with MPS and PC management solutions, is compliant with industry-standard security requirements and provides MPS providers and end-user customers with visibility of key scanner operational data and status via existing dashboards. MPS dealers can benefit by selling dedicated scanners in addition to MFPs to give customers higher quality scans and faster throughput. Plus, they can charge per scan since scanner usage data will now be easily accessible. Customers also benefit from faster throughput, higher quality scans, greater reliability and access to the Kodak Alaris service team.

The Scanner Manager from Kodak Alaris is a smart device management dashboard designed to optimize scanner operations and manage the lifecycle of devices. This cloud-based solution improves productivity and profitability; a Kodak Alaris partner or an end user’s IT department can directly monitor and collect scanners’ operational data, deliver usage reports (including ‘power on’ hours, scan counts, consumables and firmware or driver versions), and manage multi-variate alerts for customers’ devices. Customers that have mission critical equipment at multiple scanning locations or customers that have 20 or more scanners in a central facility can benefit from the ability to remotely access telemetry data rather than physically going to each location.

“Cloud-based service offerings like the Scanner Manager and MPS Capture Agent are essential for organizations that want to manage and track devices as part of their fleet management strategy,” said Anne Valaitis, Senior Consultant for InfoTrends’ Image Scanning Trends and Professional & Managed Print Services. “It’s important for the IT channel to understand and embrace these tools. Being able to measure and optimize utilization makes you a better partner. There’s only upside and benefit to it.”

Kodak Alaris is offering three Scanner Manager plans in a flexible, subscription-based pricing model.

Customer Access: Administrators use the Scanner Manager tool to access a Health Check Dashboard. The dashboard monitors a fleet of scanners from Kodak Alaris and displays telemetry data. Customers can access and download cloud-based dashboard data anytime, from anywhere, to view real-time status and run reports for monitored scanners. Scanners can be added or removed as required.

Usage Reporting: Kodak Alaris provides one or more recipients with a standard monthly report via email. The report contains the list of monitored scanners and provides insights derived from scanner-specific rules. When triggered, these rules generate alerts that combine information with insight to maximize scanner and system performance.

Alert Management:  Real-time alerts for proactive management of fleets such as multi-feed/jam reports, consumables reporting and more. Data-driven insight identifies potential productivity issues and generates proactive responses to prevent unscheduled downtime and help prevent future issues.

Kodak Alaris has also expanded its Professional Services with the launch of the Scanner Finder Tool. This standalone application can be used as part of the discovery phase of a ‘Capture System Assessment’ engagement with existing and new customers. The Scanner Finder Tool enables automatic discovery of Kodak Alaris and multi-vendor scanners on customer networks and delivers an initial inventory of a customer’s USB scanner base in minutes. It can be delivered as a chargeable Professional Service or as a complimentary service to customers purchasing the Scanner Manager tool.

“Kodak Alaris understands the needs of our partners and customers,” said Gary Chamberlain, Vice President Global Services, Alaris division of Kodak Alaris. “We now have unique tools in the marketplace that maximize efficiency and productivity, leading to a more outcome-based model and helping customers realize the full benefits of ‘as a service’ options. MPS vendors are leaving money on the table by leaving scanners out of their offers. With the MPS Capture Agent, vendors can now include scanners in their offerings and connect them to their MPS solutions.”

For more information, please visit the Kodak Alaris website.

By:  Morten Illum, EMEA Vice President at Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company

Within the next two years, Gartner predicts that over 50% of data will be generated at the edge of networks. As the world recovers from the pandemic, this data will play a big role in helping companies survive and thrive in the new order. We have already seen an unprecedented amount of change over the past couple of months, which has led to many organisations accelerate their digital transformation journey – with data sitting at the heart of their strategies.

However, data is a commodity which is not necessarily valuable in and of itself. In order to evolve, organisations need to be able to process and store data securely, they need to analyse and derive insights from it, and they need to drive business outcomes from those insights.

To successfully unlock the potential of data at the intelligent edge, organisations must have a fortified, resilient and secure network in place. With this in mind, here are three network management components that are integral to digital transformation (and therefore data success) in the post-COVID era.

Automation

The huge increase in the number of devices generating data means that network traffic is busier than ever. Today’s IT teams require closed-loop, end-to-end access control from the moment devices join the network. However, given the enormous variety of devices connecting to the network, manual human intervention is no longer practical. This is where artificial intelligence  (AI) comes in.

Adopted as a ‘sixth-sense’, AI allows teams to develop policies that leverage context, such as the user role, device type, certificate status, location or application to make quick and accurate automated decisions each and every time. When leveraged correctly, AI can even make adjustments before network issues arise. AI-based analytics can ensure that when a device begins to act suspiciously, it is automatically isolated, keeping other traffic separate and secure.

While even the best network engineers can spend hours trying to identify a problem – AI-based platforms do this work automatically with 95% accuracy. What’s more, through automation AI-driven platforms can redeploy time to IT staff, allowing them to focus more on critical thinking, innovation and value-add tasks.

Agility

COVID-19 has also exacerbated the issue of overly complex networks based on disperate architectures as organisations attempt to right size for a given location. To address this issue, organisations should focus on network platforms with a unified infrastructure. This allows the entire network to be managed centrally from a single platform, rather than with separate applications across wired, wireless and SD-WAN. It also relieves the IT team from having to manually replicate changes, from campus to branch, and data centre to remote workers. No longer having to swivel chair manage multiple systems, a central platform allows network managers to operate with greater speed and agility.

The rise in remote working, and the need for network managers to seek better visibility and control over increasingly disparate networks, has also led to a stronger emphasis on cloud management. Cloud-native network management platforms allow organisations greater flexibility, offering a simple and intuitive way to manage the deployment and network assurance for wireless, wired and SD-WAN topologies from a single console.

A cloud-based network solution will become increasingly relevant for companies as they adapt to the ‘new normal’ and must find ways to support remote working, social distancing requirements and Track and Trace solutions. When managed from a central hub, a network management platform can correlate cross-domain events to reduce issue resolution time and manual errors, ultimately improving business agility.

Security

Workforce mobility and work from home scenarios continue to expand the IT perimeter, as employees often access corporate resources on personal devices and from public Wi-Fi networks that are not secure. With more applications moving to the cloud – whether sanctioned by IT or not – protecting an organisation’s data has become even more challenging.

Given this, organisations must consider adopting a security framework based on the concept that all entities – both inside and outside the network perimeter – should and must be handled with care (i.e. Zero Trust). In practicality, this approach should ensure the identity of an endpoint, then enforce the policies applied to those endpoints with an application aware firewall. What’s more, network platforms should be underpinned by a collaborative approach which involves sharing information with other security platforms and dynamically adjusting policies to endpoints on the network.

Conclusion

According to IDC, 55 billion devices will be connecting to networks within the next two years and are expected to generate 79.4ZB of data by 2025. When you combine that with the irreversible shifts to a remote and distributed workforce, you can see that the network and IT need the right tools to keep pace. And automation, unified infrastructure and security are good starting points to consider these tools.

Ooredoo Telecom, the first to introduce innovative digital services in Kuwait, has signed a partnership with Nutanix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NTNX), a leader in enterprise cloud computing, to offer Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)-as-a-Service to businesses in Kuwait. The telecom service provider has implemented Nutanix Enterprise Cloud Platform combined with Citrix Virtual Desktops software in its datacentre with a view to provide a fully supported solution for desktop virtualization to small and medium businesses (SMBs) and enterprise customers.

Aaron White, Regional Sales Director, Middle East, at Nutanix says, “COVID-19 has made Work from Home a necessity over the last couple of months and even post-pandemic, this remote working trend will most likely continue and gain momentum. Most organizations in Kuwait are faced with the challenging task of setting up their employees to work remotely, while still maintaining access to the same tools and applications they require to be productive. Many of these companies are just not fully equipped with the technology, tools and processes to make this a reality.”

“We are pleased to partner with Ooredoo to help organizations speed up their digitization efforts through the VDI-as-a-Service offering. Companies will now be able to spin up and provision desktops in record time without having to provide new hardware to users spread across the country.”

Ooredoo will offer VDI-as-a-Service on a subscription basis out of its state-of-the-art data centre facilities that offer integrated networking, security, service SLAs and a host of other solutions to business in Kuwait.

Physical desktops and laptops are becoming a poor fit for today’s dynamic, digital workplace. Intelligent digital workspaces, delivered by VDI, enable users to access applications and information from anywhere while data remains secure, making them ideal for end-user computing needs. The advantages of VDI-as-a-Service are around flexibility, scalability, security and cost savings with the OPEX model being highly favoured by businesses looking to save on high up-front infrastructure costs.

Speaking about the launch of the new solution, Mr. Bilal Agha, B2B Marketing Director at Ooredoo Kuwait says, “Our company is at the forefront of technology innovation and we are proud to be the first telco service provider in Kuwait to introduce VDI-as-a-Service, in response to the needs of our business customers. We have partnered with two world leading vendors – Nutanix, that delivers a web-scale, hyperconverged solution purpose-built for virtualization and cloud environments and Citrix, a leader in virtual desktop infrastructure. We believe that this solution will find great uptake by both public and private organizations in the country as they realize that technology workers are going to increasingly demand workplace flexibility in future.”

To deliver innovative new digitally-driven shopping experiences that enhance the convenience and safety of travelers, Unifree Duty Free, the operator of the world’s largest duty free zone, has implemented state-of-the-art retail technologies at the New Istanbul Airport. These solutions – which rely on a cutting-edge network infrastructure from Swiss structured cabling specialist R&M – include three-dimensional holograms, enhanced digital signage systems, and touch-free digital shopping technologies.

Offering an example of how its technology innovations strongly position Istanbul Grand Airport to ensure the safety and well-being of the ninety million travelers expected to visit the Duty Free zone annually, Osman Ayhan, Director of Information Technology at Unifree Duty Free said, “Enhanced digital signage systems give customers the opportunity to virtually try on luxury watches, jewelry and suits before they decide whether to buy or not.” This touch-free experience will be especially important to travelers in the post-COVID world.

Global events at the start of 2020, have resulted in a spike in digital payments with the total transaction value in the digital payments segment projected to reach $4.4. trillion this year. As retailers see a surge in digital and contact-less payments, the high-performance network from R&M will enable retailers are the Duty Free zone to offer these options in a reliable and highly secure manner. Other systems that are vital to smooth operations and traveler safety such as office workstations, Voice-over-IP telephones, and security systems are also connected to the R&M cabling network.

Mr. Ayhan explained that the decision to partner with R&M was based on a highly-positive recommendation from the airport’s IT department which has itself utilized 5,400 km of copper cablings and 3,270 km of fiber-optic cabling from R&M for connectivity of critical airport IT systems. “R&M is characterized by its quality, innovation, fast delivery times, expertise, flexibility and modular products. We also see the team spirit at R&M, the back-office support and the special training of installers on-site as a distinct advantage,” he said.

“We are extremely proud to expand R&M’s footprint at the world’s largest airport. Unifree has demonstrated a commitment to pioneering the new digital shopping experiences that will be essential to travelers in the coming months and years. The technologies we have provided serve as a reliable platform on which the company can continue to innovate with confidence in the performance, security and reliability of the underlying systems,” said Nabil Khalil, Executive Vice-President of R&M Middle East, Turkey and Africa.

Located at the heart of the terminal of Istanbul Grand Airport (IGA), the Duty Free zone offers state-of-the-art shopping. The sales area run by Unifree covers 56,000 square meters. Since the airport was opened in 2018, 54 brand, concept and flagship stores have moved in. A further 102 sub-operators, exclusive boutiques and a bazaar with local products rounded out the offer.

By: Hesham Elsherif, Principal System Engineer at A10 Networks

Today’s LTE and 4G networks have been playing an important role in supporting mobile broadband services (e.g., video conferencing, high-definition content streaming, etc.) across millions of smart devices, such as smartphones, laptops, tablets and Internet of Things (IoT) devices. The number of connected devices is on the rise, growing 15 percent or more year-over-year and projected to be 28.5 billion devices by 2022 according to Cisco VNI forecast.

Mobile service providers have been challenged to support such a high growth of connected devices and their corresponding increases in network traffic. Adding networking nodes to scale-out capacity is a relatively easy change. Meanwhile, it’s essential for service providers to keep offering innovative value-added services to differentiate service experience and monetise new services. These services including parental control, URL filtering, content protection and endpoint device protection from malware and ID theft, to name a few.

Service providers, however, are now facing new challenges of operational complexity and extra network latency coming from those services. Such challenges will become even more significant when it comes to 5G, as this will drive even more rapid proliferation of mobile and the IoT devices. It will be critical to minimise latency to ensure there are no interruptions to emerging mission-critical services that are expected to dramatically increase with 5G networks.

Gi-LAN Network Overview

In a mobile network, there are two segments between the radio network and the Internet: the evolved packet core (EPC) and the Gi/SGi-LAN. The EPC is a packet-based mobile core running both voice and data on 4G/ LTE networks. The Gi-LAN is the network where service providers typically provide various homegrown and value-added services using unique capabilities through a combination of IP-based service functions, such as firewall, carrier-grade NAT (CGNAT), deep packet inspection (DPI), policy control, traffic and content optimisation. And these services are generally provided by a wide variety of vendors. Service providers need to steer the traffic and direct it to specific service functions, which may be chained, only when necessary, in order to meet specific policy enforcement and service-level agreements for each subscriber.

The Gi-LAN network is an essential segment that enables enhanced security and value-added service offerings to differentiate and monetise services. Therefore, it’s crucial to have an efficient Gi-LAN architecture to deliver a high-quality service experience.

Challenges in Gi-LAN Segment

In the today’s 4G/ LTE world, a typical mobile service provider has an ADC, a DPI, a CGNAT and a firewall device as part of Gi-LAN service components. They are mainly deployed as independent network functions on dedicated physical devices from a wide range of vendors. This makes Gi-LAN complex and inflexible from operational and management perspective. Thus, this type of architecture, as known as monolithic architecture, is reaching its limits and does not scale to meet the needs of the rising data traffic in 4G and 4G+ architectures. This will continue to be an issue in 5G infrastructure deployments. The two most serious issues are:

1. Increased latency
2. Significantly higher total cost of ownership

Latency is becoming a significant concern since lower latency is required by online gaming and video streaming services even today. With the transition to 5G, ultra-reliable low-latency connectivity targets latencies of less than 1ms for use cases, such as real-time interactive AR/ VR, tactile Internet, industrial automation, mission/life-critical service like remote surgery, self-driving cars and many more. The architecture with individual service functions on different hardware has a major impact on this promise of lower latency. Multiple service functions are usually chained and every hop the data packet traversing between service functions adds additional latency, causing overall service degradation.

The management overhead of each solution independently is also a burden. The network operator must invest in monitoring, management and deployment services for all devices from various vendors individually, resulting in large operational expenses.

Solution – Consolidating Service Functions in Gi-LAN

In order to overcome these issues, there are a few approaches you can take. From architecture perspective, Service-Based Architecture (SBA) or microservices architecture will address operational concerns since leveraging such architecture leads to higher flexibility and automation and significant cost reduction. However, it less likely addresses the network latency concern because each service function, regardless of VNF or microservice, still contributes in the overall latency as far as they are deployed as individual VM or microservice.

So, what if multiple service functions are consolidated into one instance? For example, CGNAT and Gi firewall are fundamental components in the mobile network, and some subscribers may choose to use additional services such as DPI, URL filtering. Such consolidation is feasible only if the product/ solution supports flexible traffic steering and service chaining capabilities along with those service functions. By consolidating Gi-LAN service functions into one instance/ appliance, it helps drastically reduce the extra latency and simplify network design and operation. Such concepts are not new but there aren’t many vendors who can provide consolidated Gi-LAN service functions at scale.

Therefore, when building an efficient Gi-LAN network, service providers need to consider a solution that can offer:

• Multiple network and service functions on a single instance/ appliance
• Flexible service chaining support
• Subscriber awareness and DPI capability supported for granular traffic steering
• Variety of form-factor options – physical (PNF) and virtual (VNF) appliances
• High performance and capacity with scale-out capability
• Easy integration and transition to SDN/NFV deployment