By: Nancee Ruzicka
Think about this. More than half of the service providers surveyed at the recent SDN and MPLS International Conference in Washington, D.C., have implemented production software-defined networks
(SDN), yet 70 percent of those same service providers don’t think their network teams are ready to make it work and nearly all (94 percent) believe that SDN requires new management tools and that
existing systems won’t cut it. How then does SDN become mainstream? While data center, network function virtualization (NFV) applications, and technology trials continue worldwide, there are still
big questions about the software part of software-defined networking…
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By: Jesse Cryderman
Think back to those dark ages known as the pre-cloud era. But don't rewind the clock too far, Amazon introduced the Elastic Compute Cloud just nine years ago. Cloud quickly became one of the
hottest trends in information technology, and the landscape was initially quite messy as standards had to be ironed out, partnerships established, and interconnectivity advanced. Today many cloud
providers have established interconnect agreements, standards are fairly fleshed out, security protocols have improved dramatically, and everything from complex OSS programs and infrastructure
platforms to popular software like Adobe Photoshop to Microsoft Office are available in cloud variations…
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By: Robert Barrows
Enterprises and digital service providers are facing unprecedented revenue growth opportunities in 2015 and beyond, driven in large part by the explosion of services addressing the needs of
today’s hyper-connected user. Customer preferences are quickly shifting from an explicit set of product offerings to an infinite array of “on-demand” services, “always open” store fronts, and
“accessible anywhere” delivery channels. An obvious example of this shift is in the connected industries, where virtual goods and virtually procured goods are no longer viewed as simply
boxed products purchased as a one-time sale, but rather a personalized service that can be acquired on a subscription basis or combination of sale types…
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By: Jesse Cryderman
Everyone who has even a basic understanding of computing is familiar with the concept of virtualization thanks to hard drive partitioning and multi-threading. Hard drive partitioning separates
a physical hard disk into multiple logical partitions, which can appear and function as distinct hard drives. Similarly, multi-threading enables a central processing unit (CPU) to appear to the
BIOS as numerous logical cores which can process workloads independently. This basic concept was extrapolated and applied to the data center with virtual machines and servers, creating extreme
improvements in asset utilization and significant cost reductions…
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By: Grant F. Lenahan
Operators and enterprises are looking to the cloud to deliver advanced and flexible services more efficiently. At the same time, demand for managed quality, especially by enterprises for
mission critical applications, is driving users toward more stringent service-level agreements and proactive management. Finally, operators understand that neither “one size” nor “one quality
level” fits all their customers and applications. This demands a menu of capacity, availability and other qualities — each matched to various needs and willingness to pay…
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By: Jesse Cryderman
The global market economy is nothing short of amazing. It has brought fresh produce to Canada in the middle of winter, Levi’s jeans to Russia, Jamaican coffee to Chicago, and distributed the
best planes, trains, and automobiles to the furthest reaches of the globe. Communications service providers (CSPs) have greatly benefited from the global economy. They are the custodians of the
modern digital lifestyle. CSPs shuttle communications between nations at light speed, store data around the globe, deliver content to myriad mobile and terrestrial devices, process transactions,
enable financial markets, and support multinational enterprise…
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By: Scott St. John, Pipeline
"You can't think and hit at the same time." — Yogi Berra 2015 is here and I wanted to take this opportunity to wish you all a happy New Year! What I found interesting about this New Year –
unlike many of the years past – was that it was as much about celebrating the beginning of something new as it was about saying goodbye to the past year. More specifically, as I watched the
ball drop over Time Square, I was overcome with a feeling of relief as the trial and tribulations of the past years seems to evaporate almost instantly…
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By: Jesse Cryderman
The cable landscape in the UK is about to change. Save Virgin Media, leading cable providers in the UK don’t have quad play offerings like they do in the U.S. After many spins of the rumor
mill, BT confirmed it was in talks with Deutsche Telekom and Orange to purchase EE, a mobile operator founded by the two companies. The deal is valued at $19.7 billion. According to a radio
interview with Gervais Pellissier, Executive Director, Orange, leaders anticipate the transaction will be complete by early 2016…
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