Service providers are transforming their business using NFV based services and SDN enabled networks. But the pace of transformation has been slow. To find out why, Cisco recently conducted a study to understand the progress and challenges that SPs are facing as they go through SDN and NFV transformation. Even though most operators interviewed were at an early stage of the journey, we identified some of the key success factors:

1. Senior Management must buy inbecause success depends on transforming the business not just evolving the technology
2. Creating a more innovative and agile cultureis needed to truly embrace NFV/SDN
3. Boosting software skillsis critical to managing and running the virtualized network
4. Moving to a DevOps service delivery modelrequires tight linkage between product management, network planning, operations and IT
5. Educating customers on the value propositionof new services enabled by SDN/NFV drives their adoption and success
6. Building the business case makesselling the value of the services easier

Over the next few weeks, we will share with you a lot more details from this study. We will cover the following areas in detail:

• The transformation pathways that these operators took
• The top 10 challenges they faced
• How operators overcame the challenges

Educating customers on the value proposition is critical to success. To highlight the value of SDN/NFV, we'll share the key findings from another study of 350 large, medium and small businesses globally. That study shows that by 2019 the spend in cloud will grow from 5% to 16% of total ICT spend. That will lead to more than$116 B overall opportunity in Virtualized ICT services and over$7.6 B opportunity in SD-WAN services for you. SDN & NFV drive these opportunities because they bring your business customers the flexibility and agility they value, as shown in the responses from every region in the study. To learn more about these opportunities, check out the ITaaS webinar on ICT revenue opportunities. Stay tuned for more.