Here’s a simple (seemingly) question. If SASE is all about secure access to services, what services are we securely accessing? Is SASE, or NaaS, about a transformation of services, or a transformation of the on-ramp to existing services? Enterprises and network operators are both struggling with that question, according to my contacts with both groups,…
Amazon’s AWS re:Invent extravaganza is worth exploring for two reasons. First, it offers a look at where the market leader in cloud computing is going to try to take the market overall. Second, it offers an opportunity to see where cloud software features and tools will be heading, and that could have a major impact…
Every year, network operators do a technology planning review in the fall, usually between mid-September and mid-November. The purpose of the review is to identify the technologies that will compete for funds in the yearly budget cycle that usually starts after the first of the year. I’ve tracked these review cycles for decades, and I…
I don’t think there’s any disagreement that network devices need to be “smart”, meaning that their functionality is created through the use of easily modified software rather than rigid, hard-wired, logic. There is a growing question as to just how “smartness” is best achieved. Some of the debate has been created by new technology options,…
The Net Neutrality issue has raised its head again, as reported in this Light Reading piece. This time, EU telecoms are pushing back against the big US-based web companies (not named, but the identities are obvious), who they say are exploiting telco investments in access infrastructure to reach their users and earn significant revenues and…
Those who read my blog know I follow Wall Street’s views carefully, so you’re not likely surprised that I want to reflect on a recent Street-centric analysis of Cisco, run on Seeking Alpha. The title, “Cisco Systems: More of the Same” sets the tone for the piece, and what we need to reflect on is…
The news that Ericsson was buying Vonage took a lot of people by surprise, me included. The general view of media and analysts was negative, and many people took this as a signal that Ericsson was planning to get into the VoIP service business, something Vonage started with and is still known for. I think…
The problem with the notion that competition could spur broadband deployment to the under-served, even with the (modest) stimulus of the infrastructure bill just signed, is that broadband just isn’t all that profitable. The majority of the initiatives we’re seeing are targeting not so much “under-served areas” as “under-served micro-areas”. Even in rural areas, there…
It probably seems to be a silly question, but what is a network, these days? What is a cloud, a service? We’re seeing a series of technology shifts and business changes that are blurring traditional boundaries. At the same time, we seem to be unwilling to look for a new playbook to describe what’s happened,…
OK, there’s no lack of (or loss of) interest in multi-access edge computing (MEC), but there’s also no lack of fuzziness over the right way to think about it. A recent Light Reading article, the first of four promised pieces on the cable industry’s view of MEC, offers some insights on the important question of…