Letter from the Editor: December 2012

By: Tim Young - do not use (default)

“An optimist stays up until midnight to see the New Year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves.” —Bill Vaughn

Another year is on the way out, and like any good industry observer I’m taking this time to look back over 2012 and reflect a little on what we’ve seen transpire and what to expect in the year to come. We’ve seen a communications segment continue to consolidate, evolve, shift, and change. Fortunately for communications technology professionals, change can be an opportunity for growth; we’re shepherds of growth in the good times and engines of cost savings in the lean times, and this year has featured both.

In this issue of Pipeline we look back at 2012, examining some of the top trends that have driven the industry, and take a peek at the year to come. We profile some of the trendsetters that are shaking up the industry and shed light on the questions that CSPs are asking about the year ahead. We check out the rise of Big Data over the last 12 months and explore the changes in policy management and bandwidth management that have accompanied shifts in the way subscribers use their devices and, by extension, the network. We examine the relevance of social media and discuss why you should or shouldn’t care about its impact on your business. And we look at the winners and losers that have emerged as trends came and went as well as the overall shift of the old OSS and BSS labels toward the much more holistic world of converged communications technology.

Happy holidays, and unless the Mayans were more insightful about what the future holds than I think they were, we’ll see you back here in 2013 with all of the latest news and opinion impacting the communications technology industry. From all of us at Pipeline, we wish you a prosperous New Year.

Best wishes,

Tim Young
Editor-in-Chief