Bhaskar Gorti, Senior Vice President and general manager, Oracle Communications, commented on the new solutions. “Oracle Communications Unified Communications Suite provides CSPs with a cloud-ready solution that can enable them to expand their brand equity and generate revenue, all by using existing network resources to deliver an integrated set of collaboration and communication tools to enterprises of any size.”

The solution is impressive, but don’t expect a slam dunk. Oracle must win out against other strong competitors, like GENBAND’s KANDY platform, which have a longer history in the market.

AT&T's virtual network picks up speed

AT&T is planning to accelerate its transition to a virtualzed, software-centric network in 2015. In a blog post on December 16, John Donnavan, senior executive vice president, AT&T, wrote, “In fact, I’m putting a line in the sand today: our goal is to virtualize and control over 75 percent of our network using this new architecture by 2020.”

Over the past year, AT&T definitely emerged as a leader in network virtualization. In 2014, AT&T achieved the following:

• Launched a first-of-its-kind capability called Network on Demand. In just 80 seconds, using a self-service app, customers can adjust their network speeds as needed, and dial back down when traffic recedes.

• Launched AT&T NetBond to help businesses connect to their preferred cloud services through our highly-secure, high-performance VPN.

• By leveraging SDN, AT&T’s Advanced Technologies researchers built a streaming cloud environment for our mobility network data centers. This means that the company can deploy new functions into its network almost instantly with a software update. Previously, AT&T had to install new hardware each time it added a new functionality; now it can upgrade in minutes rather than months.

• AT&T has begun to virtualize and put into production critical network functions such as Domain Name Service (DNS), Network Analytics, Intelligent Data Platform, and Virtualized Provider Edge Router, improving cycle time, elasticity, and operational efficiency. 

Is VoLTE here?

Voice over LTE (VoLTE) technology is finally arriving on Tier 1 networks in the U.S. AT&T is bringing VoLTE to a town near you, or at least that's the plan, according to the company. After rolling out VoLTE in a few markets earlier this year, AT&T says it will expand into more markets in 2015 and offer interoperability with Verizon's VoLTE customers.

CenturyLink buys into predictive analytics

CenturyLink is getting into the predictive analytics game with the purchase of Cognilytics in December. The company's solutions help businesses convert "data to decisions" through deep expertise in big data deployment, management, advanced decision sciences, predictive analytics and data visualization. This will make a good addition to CenturyLink's portfolio of network, IT, cloud, managed, and big data services.

"We are excited to expand CenturyLink's IT Services, Big Data and predictive analytics capabilities through the addition of Cognilytics," said Glen F. Post, III, chief executive officer and president. "CenturyLink's network, IT services, cloud, managed and Big Data services, combined with Cognilytics' decision sciences and advanced predictive analytics, SAP HANA expertise and Big Data solutions, will enable businesses to accelerate their Big Data adoption and monetize their data assets."