Network innovation and business transformation are both necessary for telecom operators to adapt to new situations, but operators face challenges in terms of network bearer complexity, business centralization, and IT/CT integration. Network function virtualization (NFV) may inspire new development ideas, but many doubts still exist within industry, especially about how to introduce NFV into an operator’s network. This article describes the latest progress in NFV standardization, NFV requirements and hot technology issues, and typical NFV applications in an operator networks.