Author: Tom Nolle

We continue to have a lot of discussion around the use of open-source technology by network operators in NFV and SDN applications.  Obviously, the majority of the SDN spectrum is already covered by open source (OpenDaylight for example) and there’s no shortage of open source in NFV either, with OpenStack, Linux, and so forth.  Why…

The “Internet of Things” is one of those concepts that starts with at least a grain of truth and gets enveloped in the inevitable wave of hype.  We seem, as an industry, to be incapable of addressing anything that’s not characterized by a hockey stick growth estimate and an ever-expanding-and-less-precise definition.  The problem is that…

We hear this morning that Oracle is going to buy Micros Systems, a primary provider of software to retail/hospitality users.  What should we think?  Well, everyone knows the “Law of Large Numbers”, and most know that the term is applied to so many things it’s fair to say there’s a “large number” of the laws. …

I blogged just yesterday about the possibility that the competitive dynamic in the orchestration space would be changed by Cisco’s Tail-f deal.  Since then we’ve had another announcement in the space, this one from Wind River.  The company’s NFV approach has a lot of good about it, a singular issue I’d like to see them…

The future of networking is being defined literally as we speak, but not by the companies who’d like to define it, or even the ones we’d think would be doing the defining.  We’re seeing a passing of innovation from the traditional network players to the OTT players, and from traditional network vendors to a collection…

Anyone who’s watching the networking market realizes by now that there’s a huge interest in open-source, especially among service providers.  Many attribute this to penny-pinching, but that’s not the case.  Operators know that moving from appliances to hosted elements is going to save less than 20% on their capital budget and have a so-far-unpredictable impact…

There’s a report circulating that Cisco’s long-time, charismatic, and some-say too-long-standing CEO John Chambers may be stepping down this fall.  Financial sources seem generally pleased with the notion, given that Cisco’s stock seems to be “range-bound”, offering little opportunity for either regular “long” investors or short-sellers.  There’s little question that Cisco is mired in something,…

It’s interesting to me that we’re starting to see focus on the key issues of the cloud, SDN, and NFV but not necessarily the kind of focus you’d expect.  To me, and to the enterprises and operators I survey, there is a clear need for some unifying vision because there is simply no appetite for…

Arista Networks had a very successful IPO last week, something that’s sure to raise the hopes of VCs and startups in the networking and SDN space.  Underneath, of course, are all of the usual questions—most significantly whether the strong showing in the stock can survive months of trading and the eventual release of restricted shares. …

Tech has always been a kind of swirling mix of trends (and hype), but any ecosystem necessarily supports symbiotic things best—positive feedback is after all “positive”.  We may be seeing some signs of symbiosis in some of the trends in IT and networking, and so we may be poised for better-than-average rates of change in…