Telcos are looking to deploy processing power closer to the edge of the network to better support latency-sensitive applications and reduce transport costs. Central offices, basestations and the customer premises will soon see more compute, network and storage resources. While the benefits are clear, the operational impact promises to be significant. Service providers and organizations such as OpenStack are raising the alarm now in an effort to get the industry thinking about how to manage so many more resources in so many more -- sometimes orders of magnitude more -- locations. This session will discuss the challenges that have already been identified and the concerns yet to be addressed.

SD-WAN has taken the industry by storm, and for good reason -- the dynamic, software-based approach to connectivity has proven a perfect fit for the enterprise cloud model, particularly for branch offices. As the market has matured, enterprises now face an array of technology options as well as multiple ways to consume SD-WAN, including full do-it-yourself, via reseller/systems integrators; or contracting with a network operator for managed services. Against this backdrop, network operators face the challenge of proving to enterprise customers that operator-managed services are the best route for consuming SD-WAN, and demonstrating value and differentiation among the many carriers competing in this approach. This panel steps back from the technology discussions to deliver a business-focused assessment of SD-WAN, from the perspective of the network operator.

MANO is management and orchestration. Those of us working in NFV often focus on the orchestration aspect of MANO. Orchestration is important, but so is management. This session will discuss essential high-level requirements for achieving deployability at scale, including simplified management networking, multi-layer security, software management, zero touch provisioning and service chain creation, visibility, monitoring and troubleshooting.