Ciena says its Distributed NFV (D-NFV) offering accelerates the move to virtualized services by introducing a purpose-built product that includes the required software, hardware and professional services for a complete solution, while also being open to giving customers the choice to select the best options for their network if they prefer.

The D-NFV solution offers a provider the opportunity to define new services, adding value above and beyond connectivity like performance management functions, OA&M functions, security functions and others that make the service more valuable and "sticky" in a competitive environment. The D-NFV solution is completely based on open source software components, which Ciena says make it unique and highly differentiated from competitive OpenStack offerings that Ciena describes as essentially centralized solutions being force-fit into distributed environments.