OPINION: Syndesis (Cont'd)

The same applies to the residential consumer. Just 10 years ago, users who were brave enough to dabble in the arcane world of "dial-up" BBS and Internet access were faced with utter complexity: modems that had to be purchased and set up to augment their personal computers, numerous network configuration settings and next to impossible trouble-shooting. Today, residential users are benefiting from the move to new generation broadband networks, which offer simple access to a wide range of network-based content and services, such as music downloads from Apple's iTunes, customized streaming Internet radio from Real, and online gaming from Microsoft's Xbox Live service. The detailed communications infrastructure that underlies access to these services is virtually hidden by the now ubiquitous Microsoft Windows operating system, allowing users to focus on content and applications instead of communications complexities. Quite simply, the Service Provider that supplies the best IP pipe (price, speed and reliability) enabling best access to these services will win their business.

An approach to help smooth the potentially rocky transition to converged IP networks, for both sides of the people equation, is automation - comprehensive, holistic automation. Today, back-office "automation" is achieved via OSS. However, many of these OSS are not suitable to the new communications world and will not provide a solution for the "human factors."

The new communications world demands a third generation of Operations Systems (3GOS) that will completely automate the management of new generation networks and the fulfilment of customers' requests. These systems are not about supporting human operators; they are about allowing a drastically reduced set of operators to monitor and control the new self-adapting, converged, intelligent network based on advanced control planes such as IMS. In other words, the term "operations" in a third generation OS environment means telling the network what you want, not what it needs to do.

There's one view of the industry that says the current telcos "are dinosaurs", that they will "cease to exist", and that "the time of national operators is over." This notion simply does not make any sense. Such claims are akin to saying that other national infrastructures - such as energy distribution, rail, road and air transportation - will cease to exist. Yes, there will be mergers, bankruptcies, emergences, and perhaps vertical disintegration. The global communications network is the largest, most sophisticated man-made machine ever built. We are only just getting into third gear, i.e. the evolution to the all-IP network transporting all-digital content. We should welcome change and third generation Operations Systems, which will play a crucial role in enabling this transition for Service Provider employees and their enlightened customers alike.

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