[c-nsp] Virtual CPE / NFV

[CiscoNSP List]

Hi Everyone - Slightly off topic, but am hoping some of the brains trust on the list can provide some feedback/experience in the vCPE/NFV area.

We predominantly provide L3VPNs to customers, supply the CE (TYpically over spec'd to allow for future growth), and as this model "works", it is quite resource intensive (Provisioning CE, deploying), and makes the value add proposition a little more challenging (i.e. providing cloud-based services, firewall, IPS etc)....vCPE (theoretically, anyway!), looks like a much "better" model...i.e. CE lives on our "core" infrastructure, allowing for more dynamic(Simple/Fast/flexible), deployment of value add services(i.e. Its done all on the Core), and it also provides better scale to customer tails (L2 to customer(Instead of L3, scale/bandwidth growth is "easier"?))

Ive spent a little time reading up on Cisco's offerrings in this area, and who in the market place is using this type of model (successfully), but would appreciate any feedback from anyone who is currently using this type of a model, or is considering moving in this direction...and also any feedback from anyone who thinks its not a mature enough model (yet) to be considering...It seems a logical path forward from our current way of doing things, but devils always in the detail, and I imagine there are a number of complexities/challenges to overcome to deploy successfully.

Thanks in advance for all replies :)