Author: Tom Nolle

Financial analysts have noted that US carrier capex was soft in the first half, a trend that’s somewhat consistent globally, and also that there appears to be a shift of focus toward projects that are perceived as being direct revenue generators.  This information backs up our survey results, which have shown that monetization projects are…

Tech earnings continue to give us some interesting data points, and possible contradictions, in the overall tech space and in the networking space.  We also had some M&A, so let’s get to it. Intel beat Street estimates in both revenue and profit, largely on the strength of business purchases of PCs and servers.  It’s Atom…

A tale of two companies, and possibly an example of unfortunate timing as well.  Cisco yesterday announced it was laying off 6,500 workers, and IBM announced it was raising its guidance after having beat the revenue numbers expected by the Street.  Both companies ended the session yesterday off slightly, but the contrast here is interesting….

Google reported its numbers, and by any measure it had a stellar quarter.  Revenues were up 32% and they beat Street estimates across the board.  While the dark side of success will likely be greater anti-trust scrutiny for Google, it’s better than turning in bad numbers and seeing shares fall.  But for me, two non-financial…

In yet another price change that angers customers, VMware announced a new pricing strategy for its vSphere 5 and the new pricing could create significant increases in license costs for some customers—as much as nearly 4x.  Our model suggests that the typical user will pay less than 20% more, but it’s pretty likely that the…

The EU is a focus of a lot of things these days, and we can now add net neutrality to the list.  The EC hearings on the issue, launched late in June, produced the predictable results—people are alarmed at the risk of loss of innovation and privacy and competitiveness, but they have no practical contributions…

Alcatel-Lucent did its own ballyhoo this week, with the announcement that the company had promised would make the Internet faster.  I’m not big on ballyhoo, and I have to admit that I have mixed feelings on the Alcatel-Lucent announcement.  I want to be fair, and so I want to start with the perspective I bring…

Google looks like it’s facing more anti-trust angst; the FTC is reported to be launching an investigation into Google’s advertising and search business, and former and current CEOs Schmidt and Page have decided they don’t want to appear before a Senate Committee hearing on roughly the same topic.  All of this comes as Google, the…

Verizon is now rumored to be preparing to move to tiered pricing for mobile data in early July, and there’s a growing conviction among operators that everyone will be charging for usage on mobile networks by the end of this year and that everyone will be charging for wireline usage by the end of 2012. …

We have an interesting potpourri of tech events today, and in combination they might be telling us something about the business future of tech in general and the networking space in particular.  Let’s look at Amdocs’ acquisition of Bridgewater, Level 3’s expanded content services, Ciena’s financial trends, and RIM’s disaster. Wasn’t it only this week…