Is “dominance” the same as “monopolistic”? That’s a question that many regulators are wrestling with, and sometimes they’re also wrestling with lobbying and nationalism. In the UK, Ofcom (the UK regulator) has been looking at public cloud services, and recently referred Amazon and Microsoft to the investigatory body in the UK (the US equivalent of…
OK, I guess it’s time to ask (and of course, try to answer) the question “How many metaverses are there, anyway?” It’s clear when you read about the metaverse concept, and also watch a growing number of metaverse-related commercials, that the answer is greater than one. How much greater, and what’s creating both the diversity…
The relationship between buyers and sellers isn’t usually hostile or adversarial, but it’s naturally wary, particularly on the buyer side. Sellers make money by making buyers spend money, and while that spending can often be offset by benefits, there are times when it isn’t. One such time is when changes in pricing policies set by…
I’m happy to say that we’ve had 44 end users of technology products join in our program to allow tech users to email us with comments and questions, under a promise of anonymity unless they release us to use a comment. These users are spread over 15 vertical markets and three continents. All but 5…
What’s the right model for AI-based operations, or AIOps? There are obviously a lot of different “operations” AI could be used in, so does the optimum model depend on the specific mission? Or, just maybe, is there at least a set of guidelines that would cut across all the missions? That would enable us to…
Are there states in the US that present a special opportunity for network and cloud services? That’s a question I’m getting more often as vendors and service providers look for attractive targets for new revenue. In fact, to me at least, the big question is why this particular question hasn’t been asked and answered long…
Are there states in the US that present a special opportunity for network and cloud services? That’s a question I’m getting more often as vendors and service providers look for attractive targets for new revenue. In fact, to me at least, the big question is why this particular question hasn’t been asked and answered long…
Discussions about the threat of AI have been popular for decades. “Hal” in the movie “2001: A Space Odyssey” is a classic example of AI run amok, and the recent explosion of interest in large language models and chatbots has reignited the whole discussion. Generally, the threats can be classified into two groups. First, there’s…
It’s a business adage that any investment has to be justified by a return, but that’s a bit of an oversimplification. Some spending, whether capital or expenses, is “recurring” in that it represents ongoing spending committed by past projects. “New” spending is what has to be justified, and that includes increases in spending to expand…
It should be clear to everyone by now that the EU is going to provide some mechanism to subsidize telcos for carrying OTT traffic, at least the major players. It is less clear (but should be) that this is going to have a seismic impact on the industry. Perhaps the lack of clarity can be…