By Tim Young

As you read this article, we are officially one month deep into 2009. If the Space Age film industry was at all prophetic, we'd all be living in underwater colonies or on the moon, eating our meals in pill form. No dice on those promises, but we have made some pretty substantial advances in communications. With that in mind, here are some trends to watch out for as we head even deeper into a future that's a far cry from Star Trek, but, thankfully, still quite a few steps away from Planet of the Apes.

Unrealized OSS/BSS Potential

There are a great many OSS/BSS technologies out there that could, theoretically, simplify and optimize business for the CSP set. Some have been welcomed with open arms. Others have been, essentially, ignored. What are some OSS/BSS requirements that could simplify business for CSPs, but most CSPs have yet to embrace?

• Common Framework Services: “All applications must use common framework services,” said Wedge Greene, an independent communications analyst and consultant. “These services should reside on the network (or if you must, in the cloud) in a distributed and locally accessible grid.” In addition, according to Greene, “the grid should accept multiple communications/protocol/API to expose the same parallel framework service.” This idea stems from early TM Forum NGOSS framework exploration, and is perfectly logical, from a business standpoint.
• Data alignment: “It’s like cleaning the garage,” said Nancee Ruzicka of Stratecast, a division of Frost & Sullivan. “Everybody knows it needs to be done, but you put it off as long as you can.” Indeed, Data Alignment is a strategically advantageous project,

• scattered everywhere and before they can realize the business case for the new initiative they have to get the data aligned.” It's an unpleasant job at first, but it can be a project with serious and substantial rewards. “If it’s well thought out and well managed, getting the data in shape should be a one-time transformation and then, like the garage, it has to be consistently maintained,” said Ruzicka. “But the result is that you’ve set the stage for the transformation roadmap and any subsequent OSS/BSS project."
• Consolidation: While not exactly an innovation, consolidation within the industry can and will drive simplification of OSS/BSS for CSPs. “The cost to deal with multiple suppliers is just too high for today's OSS staff,” said Elisabeth Rainge of IDC Research. “Economic