The NFVO Product and its Profiles

Insight Research, in its recent report “The VNFO…Ripe for change” has broken down the market by product profile. We consider two profile categories – Direct Open Source and Proprietary.

Let us look closely at the categories.

Insight Research has a very categorical definition for direct open source NFVOs - those that traverse the development journey directly from the open source community to the end-user. Thus open source offering that are internalized by OEMs and offered as proprietary NFVOs are not covered under direct open source.

Open source initiatives have played a pivotal role in the journey of the orchestrator. ONAP, OSM, Nephio and Kubernetes are some of the prominent contributions of the open source community to the VNFO development; and have been therefore profiled at length in the report.

What then is ‘direct’ open source?

Open source initiatives have been utilized by various stakeholders in different ways. While in some cases have been used “as-is”; they have also been internalized into proprietary products in totality or in parts.

‘Direct’ open source refers to situations where the open source output has been used “as-is”.

Proprietary initiatives on the other hand, could have been developed ground up by their respective principals or could have absorbed some of the open-source output along the way. In both cases, the product has been sold as proprietary.

What are your thoughts on this characterization?

Kaustubha Parkhi Principal Analyst, Insight Research

RELATED BLOGS

The RAN’s Fossil-Fuel Problem, and AI’s Bill-Killing Answer

Posted: August 19, 2026

  Let us contextualize. The recent conflict in West Asia sent global crude prices on an uninvited stratospheric flight. The impact on global gas prices has been well documented. Why does this matter for the RAN? Because crude, and its many children, LNG in particular, still account for a substantial portion of the energy basket … Continue reading The RAN’s Fossil-Fuel Problem, and AI’s Bill-Killing Answer

The Cloud Native Pole Vault – The contrasting fates of Rakuten Mobile and Jio

Posted: August 12, 2024

      Oh no, this is not about the incredible exploits of the unbelievable “Mondo” Duplantis at Paris last week! He is on a different planet altogether. If you recall, cloud native networks and network functions has been a longstanding area of focus for Insight Research. How much of it does really translate into … Continue reading The Cloud Native Pole Vault – The contrasting fates of Rakuten Mobile and Jio

Decoding the RAN coding conundrum – with AI!

Posted: March 3, 2024

      How important is coding in the RAN? The answer, “very important” is not going to win you any awards, as it is a no-brainer! Coding is not just about data representation; it’s about optimizing data flow, enhancing error correction, and ensuring robustness in diverse network conditions. Let us look at a very … Continue reading Decoding the RAN coding conundrum – with AI!