5G specifications have addressed the growing interest in “alternative technologies” in networking, embracing things like NFV and (some say) SDN. What is less clear is how effective the initiatives will be in the real world. A lot will depend on how vendors interpret the specifications, and in particular how far we take the concept of…
I mentioned in yesterday’s blog that there was a profound difference between open-model network software based on the transactional or RESTful model, and software designed to be event-driven. I also said that the difference was critical in selecting the platform software tools to be used to support applications, particularly at the edge. What is the…
I promised recently that I’d post something on how operator planners viewed my “service plane” concept, as soon as I could get data. Over last week, I did some data gathering, and today I think I can keep my promise—sort of. The reason for the qualification is that what I’m calling the “service plane”, in…
Today’s market isn’t an easy one for network equipment vendors, especially those focused on service providers. Nokia may have a strategy to navigate this critical space, and if so every vendor needs to consider it. In its current quarter, Nokia beat on all the key financial metrics, and held to its guidance, which is pretty…
Juniper is an interesting bellwether of networking trends. They’re a major player in the data center and WAN markets for enterprises, operators, and cloud providers, and because they’re second to Cisco in the space, they are under more pressure to be aggressive and innovative. Juniper’s quarterly call on Wednesday showed a beat on all the…
How do we create portable code in hosted-function services for the network of the future? There are a lot of things involved in making virtual-function code portable, and I’m going to use the term “code” in this blog to indicate any software that’s designed to create network features and that isn’t a part of a…
In my blog of April 22, 2021, I postulated there would be three “planes” in a 5G network, the top plane of which being the “service plane”. I mentioned it a bit but didn’t get too far into it, despite the fact that if there’s a broad opportunity for new telco revenue to be had,…
It looks like IBM has finally settled on a strategy that could lead it to financial success; become Red Hat. The quarter just ended was IBM’s first revenue gain in four quarters, and while there’s little doubt that the marketing theme of “hybrid cloud” helped IBM overall, the only significant sales upside (15%) came from…
Most operators I talk with agree that some sort of network transformation is essential to both managing costs and creating new revenue-generating services. The challenge for them is figuring out how to go about it, not only in terms of technology options but in terms of making a business case for changes. Promised savings in…
How do you prevent vendor lock-in in telecom infrastructure? There have been a lot of ideas in this space, because the problem is one that operators have complained about for decades. The latest notion is for governments to mandate vendor diversity or openness in some way. This isn’t the first time the issue has come…