Network technologies often seem to overlap, particularly where several somewhat-related ones end up going in the same physical place in the network. This may be a factor in something talked about in a recent SDxCentral piece, which speculates that SD-WAN is just a “Trojan Horse” for SASE, meaning Secure Access Service Edge. I think there…
The battle for Open RAN may be taking its final and most useful form. HPE is entering the space, and with a suite of elements that promises to reduce the integration burden associated with Open RAN and other open-model networking technologies. Since Mavenir announced a partnership with Red Hat in the same general area, it’s…
The biggest operations problem carriers face is more debatable than you might think. The CFOs and most CEOs say it’s high operations cost, but some in the operations and CIO groups think it’s really customer portal problems. Telcos and cable companies alike have been cutting operations costs by cutting headcount, largely by eliminating humans as…
Could better knowledge, better data, create better broadband? That’s a question that the FCC is looking at, according to a story in Light Reading. Conceptually, the idea is an outgrowth of a general FCC look at the role of AI, undertaken by the Technical Advisory Council. The FCC isn’t noted for its speed relative to…
Inside-out or outside-in? That’s the biggest question in network transformation, for operators and for vendors alike. It’s a question that involves assessing a lot of complex factors, ranging from the nature of new network technology ideas, sunk costs and financial depreciation, budgets, mindsets, hopes, and fears. The balance of these forces is constantly shifting, but…
There seem to be a lot of announcements around automated operations these days. Many, perhaps even most, involve artificial intelligence and machine learning. Obviously a part of this is due to the tried-and-true tactic of vendors jumping on hot terms for SEO, but part is also due to the fact that operations issues are increasingly…
There is a profound difference between two things we think of as key in networking. There are “services”, which are the things that users consume, and there’s “traffic”, which is what the network carries. What has happened over the last 40 years is that we’ve gotten focused on the latter, when it’s the former that…
So is Google going vertical? It sure seems like the deal they did with TELUS’ takes that direction. It also seems that Google might be responding to the changes that COVID has created, not the simple WFH issues but the more profound issues of reshaping stakeholder and employee relationships to make them work better under…
If you don’t like something, redefine it. If you’d like something different, redefine things to suit your fancy. OK, that sounds like basic marketing, but it also has a tendency to confuse complex issues, as well as buyers who face them. We’re seeing this in the area that’s absolutely the most important thing in IT…
Is low- or no-code the secret to AI success? IBM thinks it might be, and so is launching another of its Cloud Paks, this one called “Palantir Cloud Pak for Data”, that combines them. Obviously, Palantir, and apparently primarily Palantir Foundry, is a key element in this, but the Cloud Pak still involves IBM products…