How will NFV/SDN Transform Service Provider Opex

SDN and NFV are widely deemed to be critical pillars of the future of the Service Provider Network. The expectation of significant operations saving is frequently mentioned as a primary benefit of NFV/SDN and the flexibility and simplification that NFV/SDN provides intuitively lead us to the conclusion OpEx with decrease. This paper will discuss the effects of NFV/SDN on the various OpEx elements of the Service Providers business equation to understand the drivers of OpEx change, the directionality of that change, and the categories of OpEx most affected.