Which provisioning concept involves deploying network functions as software on commodity hardware to enable flexible networking?

Which provisioning concept involves deploying network functions as software on commodity hardware to enable flexible networking?

• A. SDN
• B. SD-WAN
• C. Network Functions Virtualization
• D. Embedded Systems

Answer: (C)

Virtualizing network functions on commodity hardware enables flexible provisioning by decoupling what the network does from the hardware it runs on. Network Functions Virtualization packages network services as software (VNFs) that can run on standard servers, scale on demand, and be orchestrated across data centers. This approach lets you deploy, update, and reconfigure services without sourcing specialized appliances, driving agility and cost efficiency in modern networks. Other concepts describe different ideas: some focus on centralizing control and management (the separation of control and data planes), some focus on how to route WAN traffic across multiple transport options, and others rely on dedicated hardware with fixed firmware. The key distinction here is the software-defined virtualization of functions on general-purpose hardware, which is the hallmark of Network Functions Virtualization.

Virtualizing network functions on commodity hardware enables flexible provisioning by decoupling what the network does from the hardware it runs on. Network Functions Virtualization packages network services as software (VNFs) that can run on standard servers, scale on demand, and be orchestrated across data centers. This approach lets you deploy, update, and reconfigure services without sourcing specialized appliances, driving agility and cost efficiency in modern networks.

Other concepts describe different ideas: some focus on centralizing control and management (the separation of control and data planes), some focus on how to route WAN traffic across multiple transport options, and others rely on dedicated hardware with fixed firmware. The key distinction here is the software-defined virtualization of functions on general-purpose hardware, which is the hallmark of Network Functions Virtualization.