Service providers are actively engaged in technology refreshes as they prepare for pivotal emerging market opportunities that dramatically outstrip their current capabilities.  More specifically, they are determining how to best migrate to the highly agile, highly efficient virtualized/software-defined network architectures they will need to successfully compete in a world of rapid, unpredictable change.

Choosing the right COTS server hardware at this moment is non-trivial.  In fact, the right hardware choice will significantly impact the ability of SPs to maximize operating margins by both better responding to customer desires and reducing total opex.  The wrong hardware, on the other hand, will hurt profits by impeding responsiveness to market opportunities and driving up costs.