Letter from the Editor, May 2013

By: Tim Young

“They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.” —Andy Warhol

Some people say that change is good. That’s nonsense, of course.

What if, instead of sitting at my desk and drinking a cup of coffee while writing this monthly message, I had decided to shout it into a microphone, with a thumping, synthetic techno beat in the background, and embed the audio file for you here? I could also type it in Klingon or, better yet, handwrite thousands of copies before spritzing each one with a bit of lavender perfume and mailing it to every subscriber. Regardless of their quality, any of these approaches would constitute a change, but they’d be innovative only in the sense of upsetting the established model, not because they would improve upon the model.

It can be exciting to run the risk of following a new idea that may prove to be a total waste of time. If every new concept was a winner, what would be the point? Many new ideas fail. However, if they work they streamline old business models, create new markets, drive commerce, and move entire industries forward.

Innovation can be an act of courage or an act of desperation. A savvy play or a death rattle. And it can end in huge gains or total failure. But it is always the product of risk takers looking for a way to not just do something that’s “good enough,” but to do it differently.

In this issue of Pipeline we talk about some of the most innovative companies and business approaches in the COMET market today. We explore the innovation incubators that are helping communications service providers (CSPs) stay on top of their game, and examine apps as they move closer to the network edge. We also inspect new verticals for CSPs, check out Deutsche Telekom’s TeraStream project and look into the future of voice over LTE (VoLTE) as an app. And we hear from Razorsight on the path forward for predictive analytics, and Gigamon on software-defined networking (SDN).

We’ll also bring you all the latest on our upcoming 2013 COMET Innovation Awards.

So let the changes keep on rolling, and we’ll continue to roll with the changes.

Best,

Tim Young
Editor-in-Chief