The TMF has done some very insightful things in the last decade. One of the places where I split from the TMF is the boundary point between operations support systems (OSS) and network technology. My view has been that OSS/BSS should be dealing with functional entities, high-level service-related intent models, and never dig into the…
One of the early points of interest for NFV was “virtual CPE”, meaning the use of cloud hosting of features that would normally be included in a device at the customer edge of services. I’ve blogged a number of times on the question of whether this was a sensible approach, concluding that it isn’t. The…
Smart cities are an idea that generates lots of excitement, perhaps in part because everyone has their own view of what the term means. I’ve been surprised to find that many of the technologists I’ve talked with see a smart city as one where practically everything is measured or viewed by a sensor open on…
Most buzzwords are probably hype these days, and all buzzwords probably contain a measure of hype. The saddest part of this is that often the hype covers legitimate value points, and that’s what may be happening in the carrier cloud and edge computing world. We hear a lot about “hyperconvergence” and “composable infrastructure”, but we’ve…
Should carrier cloud look like a cloud or like a carrier? In past blogs I’ve pointed out many places where the two aren’t converging and probably should be. Another such area is virtual networking. In cloud computing, including public cloud services, hybrid cloud, multi-cloud, and even in data center computing, there’s increased attention being paid…
One of the fundamental principles of NFV, deeply engrained but little recognized, is that NFV is about replacing devices with virtual devices. This was done largely to fit NFV into the scope of prevailing network and service management practices, which of course limits the impact that NFV would have on broader operations and management systems. …
The old Ben Franklin quote about the difficulties in getting 13 clocks to chime at the same time wasn’t just about colonial politics. Synchronizing autonomous systems to behave cooperatively has been a networking challenge for decades. For a variety of reasons, including business practices, technology, and regulations, networks have been divided into separate “administrations”, and…
Live TV was for years the Golden Goose of wireline services, but we all know what happened to the Golden Goose of fable. The same thing may be happening to live TV according to a Light Reading piece. I don’t agree with everything in the article, but I do agree that the forces of the…
Oracle didn’t offer great guidance in its earnings report, but it didn’t have a bad quarter. The best thing about it was its as-a-service business. That raises the question of whether SaaS is a new channel for cloud service success. It also raises the question of whether, as an AT&T executive suggested, there’s fragmentation in…
IBM and Vodafone want to partner in the future of enterprise cloud, as the deal announced at MWC shows. Given how much enterprise hybrid cloud is a focus for cloud providers, and given IBM’s need to catch up, it’s not a surprise. Vodafone would also gain if a new enterprise vision for cloud applications promoted…