Seen & Heard: Less Is More for CenturyLink

CenturyLink is taking a novel approach to the third iteration of its software-defined network (SDN) and network function virtualization (NFV) blueprint, which includes reducing complexity.

Light Reading Editor-at-Large Carol Wilson wrote about CenturyLink's new plan for speeding up new services and infrastructure as a means for faster deployments. Wilson interviewed the service provider's Adam Dunstan, vice president of SDN/NFV engineering, who previously held the positions of CEO and President at Active Broadband Networks prior to CenturyLink's acquisition of the company last year. (See CenturyLink: Kill Complexity to Speed NFV and CenturyLink Buys Assets of Active Broadband.)

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In most cases, service providers' migration to virtualization have led to the addition of more components and functions that attempt to bridge the legacy networks with new virtualized elements and applications. By bringing a software developer's mindset to his job, Dunstan has taken a subtractive approach instead of an additive approach to CenturyLink's third-generation NFV/SDN employment, which he said would increase CenturyLink's velocity.

Wilson wrote that Dunstan's NFV/SDN engineering team was leveraging Agile IT software development principles that were also used at Active Broadband. Instead of relying on vendors and system integrators, Dunstan's team is taking an internal approach to its next NFV/SDN phase by writing its own software.

— Mike Robuck, Editor, Telco Transformation