Author: Tom Nolle

You’ve probably noticed by now my enthusiasm for the metro space.  I think that enthusiasm is vindicated by the recent Street speculation on Verizon’s next-gen metro program, which the Street analysts say will go primarily to Ciena with a nod toward Cisco.  The thing is, there are other fundamental numbers in play that have been…

My blog recently on NFV performance has generated a long thread of comments (for which I thank everyone who’s participated), and from the thread I see a point emerging that’s really important to NFV.  The point is one I’ll call scope of benefits. Operators build networks to sell services from.  If you presume that the…

We’re not there yet, not in the age of online video where TV networks are dinosaurs and Netflix reigns supreme.  Even though (not surprisingy) Netflix’s CEO thinks that TV as we know it will be extinct in five years or so.  But we are clearly in a period of change, driven by a bunch of…

With all the ink net neutrality is getting, I feel like I just have to say something about it.  Regulatory policy, after all, is perhaps the largest single factor in setting business policies for network operators and so one of the largest factors in setting capex policies too.  Since I’ve blogged before on the broad…

One of the ongoing themes in both SDN and NFV is that operators need these technologies to compete with the OTT players.  We also hear that operators need a cultural transformation to do that, or that they need to form subsidiaries or buy somebody.  We could almost claim to have a cottage industry here, people…

Cloud computing is probably the most important concept of our time, but also likely the most misunderstood.  It will never do what proponents say it will—displace private IT.  In fact, it’s not likely it will displace more than about a quarter of today’s IT spending.  However, it will generate new spending and in the end…

There are a lot of illusions in life, and thus not surprisingly in networking.  One of the illusions is that there is great opportunity to be had by generating on-demand high-capacity services.  Another, possibly related to the first, is that there’s a high value to vertically integrating the operation of networks from the service layer…

You generally find revolutionaries in coffee shops, not gourmet dining rooms or private clubs.  In the race for the right to shape the network of the future, the equivalent of a coffee shop is “second-tier” status.  You can see the candy through the window (to mix a metaphor) but can’t quite get at it—unless you…

“The times they are a’changing”, as the song goes.  The pace and direction of the changes could be influenced by vendors agile and determined enough to get out there and take some bold steps.  We’ve looked at the IT giants who have the most to gain from a transition to a software-server vision of networking. …

Over the past several months, I’ve talked about the evolution in networking (some say “revolution” but industries with 10-year capital cycles don’t have those).  Along the way I’ve mentioned vendors who are favored or disadvantaged for various reasons, and opened issues that could help or hurt various players.  Now, I propose to use the last…