This past month, I was able to attend the IQPC Next Gen OSS/BSS integration summit. It was a small event, and the attendance, while qualified and capable, was very small, indeed. However, over the course of the two and a half days in Tucson, there was some interesting discussion on next-gen telecom, standards, and the state of the industry.

The lovely part of having a relatively small group of qualified professionals all in one place for a few days is that conversation, both on-topic and off, is in ready supply. That can lead to conversations about absolutely anything, but with attendees from the United States, Canada, Germany, Suriname, Guyana, and other locales all bringing a different set of likes, dislikes, and norms to the table, common ground can always be found in chats about telecommunications. Therein lies the importance of an event like this: it is a venue for presentations, but also for focused, qualified conversation.

The pre-conference programming fostered just that type of discussion. In the session I attended, Nakina Systems Chief Solutions Architect Sergio Pellizzari led a discussion in which OSS vendors, service providers, and systems integrators discussed the difficulty of introducing meaningful standards into the telecom space, especially in a brownfield environment. The frank reality discussed was that while standards may be addressed in committee or on the drawing board, the realities of the market often involve adopting the quickest and easiest solution at the time, consequences be damned. This was naturally accompanied by a bit of ribbing of equipment manufacturers, since there were none in the room.

Frank discussion continued, though there were more than a few overt product pitches, awkward non-statements, and/or beleaguered talking points. That's par for the course at any event. Within the sessions alone there were many bright spots.

Peter Aiken (a talented speaker and a man-of-many-business-cards, representing the Data Management Association, Data Blueprint, and Virginia Commonwealth University) made reference to ATMs (think cash machines, not data link layer protocol) that were wrapping tiny pieces of transaction information consisting of a few bytes with XML wrappers weighing in at around 250 bytes. Aiken pointed out that the result of that much data traveling over the very slow connections in every convenience store and truck stop in the world made for a serious traffic jam.

Johanne Mayer of Alcatel-Lucent (also half-wearing her TMF Board Member hat) gave an interesting presentation on transformation, noting shifts from “smokestack” network management to service-oriented operations. She emphasized