Do we need to “rebuild the Internet”? There have been many suggestions on how to go about that, but so far none have really changed anything fundamental. Does that mean that we’ve had bad, even dumb, notions, or is there something more fundamental in play? Perhaps what we really need is a reason why a…
VMware is finally going to become independent of Dell. The deal is complex and still needs an IRS ruling on the tax impact to be delivered before it’s final, but it would resolve some long-standing questions about whether being largely owned by a computer vendor would compromise VMware’s credibility where Dell isn’t the primary supplier…
Fusions of networking and cloud aren’t new, but it’s at least novel for such a fusion to be proposed by a network equipment vendor rather than a cloud software vendor. Similarly, it’s not news that the metro portion of the networking is the key to the network overall, but it’s at least novel to combine…
We have tiny operators endorsing O-RAN, and some giant operators saying they’ll be deploying it (at least in some areas) in 2022. We have giant vendors dissing it, while another giant vendor opens a lab that seems aimed at encouraging it, and a third seems to be promoting it actively. Two vendors have gotten together…
Is there something going on with speech recognition, beyond the obvious? Microsoft’s deal for Nuance and its Dragon voice recognition could be seen as a speech-to-text enhancement to Office, but it could also be seen as a way of bringing speech recognition into a higher plane of productivity and personal activity support. Or both. Speech…
What is the right model for the software that’s used to create network services? Sure, we can say that it’s “virtualized” or “containerized” or even “cloud-native” but are those terms really enough to define the properties of the stuff we hope will play a big role in network services? I don’t think so, but I…
How would experts on both the buyer and vendor/seller side see edge computing evolution? I had an opportunity to ask a half-dozen in each of these two groups what they believed would, could, and should happen. The results were very interesting. The first question, obviously, is “What is edge computing”, and all my experts had…
Verizon seems to be recognizing that the path to 5G success isn’t fantasy services, but the symbiosis between 5G, mobile services, and home broadband. It’s hard to overstate the importance of that, not only for Verizon but also for 5G and the networking industry. Of course, that fact that even a giant Tier One can…
The US may get funding from a proposed infrastructure package to “close the digital divide”. While this could be a boon for areas that lack good broadband services, these sorts of initiatives have been tried before, and some technologies have failed. Others may improve broadband based on current definitions of “good” quality, but have little…
Open-source technology is making headway in networking despite some very visible failures. In many respects, that’s good news, but the way the success is evolving may point to some challenges for the industry down the line. The biggest challenge it faces is its relationship with traditional network standards and industry group activity, and the second-biggest…