Virtualized network function deployment

A computer system comprising:

• a processor and memory storing computer program code for deploying virtualized network functions (VNFs) as virtualized implementations of logical network devices in a virtualized computing environment for providing network services, by:
• determining a VNF deployment plan including a specification, for each point in time over a planning period, of zero or more VNF instances to be released at the point in time and zero or more VNF instances to be deployed at the point in time,
• wherein the deployment plan is determined by an optimization function based on:
• a constraint on a number of VNFs in all states of undeployed, being deployed, deployed, and being released, wherein a VNF in the being deployed state is actively transitioned from the undeployed state to the deployed state;
• constraints based on a demand for VNFs defined by characteristics of the VNFs and the virtualized computing environment;
• and constraints based on a capacity of the virtualized computing environment to accommodate a resource consumption of the VNFs, and
• wherein the optimization function is configured to minimize one or more of:
• a number of VNFs in a deployed state;
• or a resource cost of deploying and releasing VNFs;
• and
• executing the VNF deployment plan to deploy VNFs for the virtualized computing environment.