Microservices in NFV?

Some IT and network architects like the idea of using microservices specifically for NFV for below reasons.

Microservices can be used to build NFV services. The best way to think of microservices is as a way to simplify large, complicated software systems by breaking them into sub-components and distributing them across many computing servers or in the cloud. This allows the applications to be managed and coordinated over a large virtualized infrastructure.

Why Microservices in NFV?

The goals of NFV and microservices are much aligned. Prior to NFV, network applications and services were often deployed using specialized, proprietary hardware and software that could only work in specific installations. This was an inflexible system. NFV allows the software and services to be virtualized, or run in a cloud model, so they can be deployed in any environment with a standardized infrastructure, often referred to as NFV Infrastructure (NFVI). Microservices are also designed for cloud deployment using standard hardware and operating systems, allowing distributed applications to be installed on a cloud infrastructure while maintaining maximum flexibility.

Large telecom operators such as AT&T and Telefónica have expressed a desire to move toward both NFV and microservices at the same time. AT&T has stated that microservices will play a role in the company’s goal to virtualize 75 percent of its network, primarily using NFV technology, by the year 2020.

Technical Solution
The MSA outperforms the traditional cloud architecture because:

• It is highly cohesive, loosely coupled, and has self-governed microservices[1].
• The automated O&M includes deployment, upgrades, scale-in/out, alarms, monitoring,fault locating, and self-healing.
• The stateless services are automatically scaled on demand. They start up fast and gracefully
• degrade.