Network Functions Virtualisation is not about hardware, it's about a fundamental change to the operating model of the carrier. So says Dor Skuler, VP and General Manager of Alcatel-Lucent's Cloudband Business Unit. Dor says NFV is about introducing the cloud into the carrier network. He points out that the IT/data centre space typically requires one engineer for 10,000 commodity servers while the carrier space currently requires one engineer for 10 servers or appliances. Even if carriers don't get to the 1000x improvement that these numbers imply, NFV's impact on OPEX will be profound.