Why my customer LOVES our Enterprise NFV solution

Much was written about Cisco's Enterprise NFV solution since it was launched at Cisco Live Berlin in February. E-NFV was something I was particularly excited about because of the core promised benefits:

1.      Save time rolling out new network services and/or new locations.

2.      Investment protection and license portability.

3.      Increase uptime by shortening maintenance windows and provide faster response time.

But promises don’t make your network better. Real results do. That’s why, several months later, I'm thrilled to give you insight into a real-life implementation from one of my favorite enterprise customers who are deploying our Enterprise NFV solution in over 240 branches across the country.

If this is still something you’re considering, contact your favorite Cisco partner and check out the pricing of the new Enterprise Network Compute System (ENCS 5400) – it may surprise you.

Flexible performance licensing.

Most routing platforms are able to handle certain performance numbers based on their hardware. With Cisco ISR4K family's performance licensing, there is some room for on-demand growth; an ISR4331 starts with a basic 100Mbps throughput and can be upgraded to 300Mbps throughput later. But what happens at 400Mbps? My customer has several branches with 50Mbps lines that can reach only 20Mbps because their existing routers are not able to handle the capacity.

ENCS 5400 running ISRv can span from a 50Mbps license all the way up to a 1Gbps license. For my customer that is true investment protection. As bandwidth demand increases and bandwidth cost declines, they can scale without replacing any hardware.

Smart licensing simplifies my customer's operation. They are purchasing the same appliance for all branches, then using the smart licensing portal to apply the appropriate performance license to each branch and change it whenever they decide to upgrade the SP connection.

Zero-Touch Provisioning.

During the POC we were able to demonstrate true zero-touch provisioning. Using ESA, Prime Infrastructure and APIC-EM we created a standard template of a branch based on my customer's requirements and compliance. When a new ENCS unit reaches a remote location, it automatically registers with the orchestration system, imports the relevant versions and configurations and boots up. We were able to reach full deployment in less than 30 minutes!

For my customer, ZTP means they do not need to pre-configure every single unit at their HQ and then ship it to the branch. They can spread units across different regions to be sent directly to the branches, significantly lowering response time.

Moreover, by automating the provisioning process my customer minimizes human error, ensuring all units' configurations comply with established policy.

Shorten troubleshooting (using Wireshark).

Complicated network problem-solving require running a sniffer every once in awhile. The engineers I was working with had to drive every now and then to a remote location and run a sniffer for several hours when a complex issue was detected.

Needless to say, an experienced network engineer's time can be better used than staring at a sniffer screen at a remote location. E-NFV allowed us to spin up a Wireshark sniffer remotely, providing the same ability without wasting time at the remote site. Overall, this led to a further reduced time to resolution.

Appliance consolidation.

My customer has several Windows based PCs at their branches. These PCs have a tendency to freeze occasionally, requiring a technician to reboot them. E-NFV allows running these machines as VNFs on ENCS – enabling full remote control, including the occasional reboot of the VNF's operating system.

Not only does E-NFV allow consolidation of existing appliances – it future proofs my customer from adding other physical appliances. Deploying the next WAN acceleration or replacing their NG-FW vendor with another becomes a matter of hours (or days) instead of months. When no physical intervention is required – engineers do not have to travel to the remote sites — wiring mistakes can be avoided, and maintenance windows can be dramatically shortened.

good luck getting that new firewall connected...

Hardware matters.

Initially, my customer believed NFV will allow them to lower their hardware cost by using whitebox appliances while running the intelligent software as a VNF on top. That may be economical for service providers and enterprises with massive scale, but most enterprises consider availability and reliability to be more important. Hardware quality has its cost. Period.

Support should be considered too. There will come a time when *something* will not work as expected — maybe it will be a performance issue or maybe some packet loss. Either way it will require troubleshooting both hardware and software. You absolutely DO NOT want to start going back and forth between two vendors (software / hardware) during an outage.

To Summarize,

These are some of the primary benefits my customer found in the E-NFV solution. Other customers may appreciate the open APIs for customized automation, or the partner certification program that allows 3rd party vendors to certify their solutions. While this solution may not be best for every situation, my recommendation would be to at least understand the concepts and benefits of E-NFV. The next time you are planning a WAN refresh, or an incursion of a new appliance – consider a new paradigm.

And of course, I’m here to help. Reach out to me in the comments below, or with a direct message if you have any follow-up questions!