If 2014 was a year of excited anticipation and interesting trials for NFV (network functions virtualization), 2015 will be the year when cold hard reality sets in. For operators leading the charge to transform their dedicated appliances into virtual machines running on off-the-shelf servers and routers, the actual software deployment may be the smallest challenge ahead. Vendors from ARM, at the chip level, to Hewlett-Packard are announcing solutions which aim to make NFV deployment faster and simpler, with increasing reliance on pre-packaging. But there will be bigger challenges than smooth deployment, when it comes to managing the new systems alongside their physical forebears. Moving from glossy trials, isolated from the main networks, to commercial implementations will involve running new NFV-based…