TITLE:
Micro-Economic Benefits of Peer-Producing Containerized Network Functions
AUTHORS:
Dewang Gedia, Levi Perigo, Rahil Gandotra
KEYWORDS:
Container, Interdisciplinary, Modularity, Motivations, Peer Production
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Business and Management,
Vol.8 No.5,
September
24,
2020
ABSTRACT: Discrete,
non-virtualized network elements are characterized by large costs, limited
functions, vendor lock-in, and limited orchestration. Virtualization
technologies like virtual machines (VM) and containers have expanded the scope
of virtual resource utilization through consolidation of workloads that were
previously running on multiple servers by running them on a single server. With
the advent of Network Functions Virtualization (NFV), industries are able to
reduce the micro-economic factors associated with vendor proprietary model such
as transaction costs and (physical and human) asset specificity to deal with
vendor vulnerabilities in contractual relationships because Virtual Network
Functions (VNFs) can virtualize dedicated networking functions that were traditionally
performed by vendor appliances such as routers, switches, firewalls, and load
balancers. Even though virtualization technologies (VMs and containers) and NFV
have demonstrated their benefits in the market, little attention has been
devoted to the development and adoption of containers to build VNFs. This
research paper identifies micro-economic factors, such as transaction costs,
associated with searching, buying, provisioning, and maintenance of vendor
proprietary appliances and compares them with the coordination costs associated
with the adoption of containerized VNFs. This comparative analysis could be
used to identify the type of network operators that could serve as key
organizers (the network operator who can benefit largely by adopting containerized
VNFs) of an open source peer production model as well as other firms that could
serve as individual contributors. Furthermore, to identify various rewards and
incentives that a managerial firm can leverage to motivate its employees to
participate in such an effort, a quantitative survey was conducted (with Tier
1, Tier 2 and Tier 3 Service Providers) to identify the managerial incentives
such as bonuses, rewards, peer recognition, and promotion targeting varied
network operator firms to accurately capture and analyze employee
interests/motivation. Finally, the paper shows a measuring framework to
evaluate individual contributors based on the project modularity and indicates
the viability of this model.