Cisco’s annual event kicked off, and while all these events aren’t necessarily a window into the strategic future of Cisco, this one might well be. Cisco came out more strongly in favor of the notion of strategy and architecture than I’d ever heard them. It’s too early to say that this change is going to…
There may be nothing that so starkly presents the two very different visions of the future of networking than the “two i’s”. By this I refer to the contrast between Apple’s i-software-focused WWDC and the investment discussions of two key network vendors—Alcatel-Lucent and Juniper. Apple’s WWDC was a disappointment if you believe that every one…
It’s potpourri Monday, folks, and I’ve saved some items that didn’t make the topical cut last week for treatment. Don’t look for too much of a theme today, other than that I’m looking for “news” that’s not being treated comprehensively. If you think you’ve heard everything try this one out; the UN’s ITU is proposing…
The Oracle vision of the cloud is late, for sure. Ellison waffled on the value of the cloud for sure, even though he doesn’t want to admit it. Despite this all, though, the Oracle Public Cloud is important for the cloud market, for three basic reasons. Reason number one is that it demonstrates yet again…
Big Switch, one of the most active and interesting of the OpenFlow players, has announced a number of new things that may help the market better understand the value of OpenFlow. In particular, they help understand how OpenFlow might be used in conjunction with “normal” network protocols. To start with, it’s important to understand that…
Every day we seem to get more signals that the complex market we call “the Internet” is getting more complex. All markets are ecosystems, all ecosystems are symbiotic relationships among elements, and what’s happening is that the number of elements in the ecosystem of the Internet is exploding. Not every organism survives a sudden broadening…
Google’s augmented reality glasses have captivated people, but there are other aspects of blending of potentially live material with gaming and other experiences that may be realized faster. There are other changes in the consumer space that appear to have some potential to create broad impact, and that’s what I propose to talk about today….
Guess what? Optical companies are hot again. Ciena reported better-than-expected earnings, Alcatel-Lucent says that people are pushing it for delivery of its new 400G stuff…it seems like the days of fiber transport slumps are gone. They may be, and for two kind-of-orthogonal reasons. If you think about the comments I got from EU network operators,…
I’ve just returned from a European trip, one that gave me a chance to dig a bit more into service provider visions and even economic views. I think that there are changes, perhaps even massive ones, on the horizon in both areas. On the service provider side, I’ve found a dramatic shift in the way…
Cisco reported their results for the quarter, and while the current numbers were good (beating estimates and up year over year) the guidance was tepid. As a result, Cisco’s stock took a major hit post-market that is off its lows this morning but still down about 7%. Network equipment competitors also fell, and this is…