Software-defined networking (SDN) and network functions virtualization (NFV) are designed to automate network provisioning and management for cloud-based Wide Area Networks (WANs). Both are touted as ways to deal with broad-based IT trends, but both approaches have shortcomings in their ability to fully address those trends.
Why emerging cloud-delivered WAN will pave the way for virtualized services— and drive the extension of Intel® x86 architecture from the data center to the edge of the branch-office WAN.
At the macro level, new innovations in wide area networking (WAN) are being triggered by at least four broad-based trends.