Amazon’s cloud computing growth in the latest quarter dropped to 29%. Microsoft’s cloud revenue growth also slowed, but it still grew 47%. Google’s cloud revenue growth increased, posting a 43% gain. Are we seeing some important shifts in the public cloud space? I think so, but most of them have their roots in a broader…
More Carrier Cloud Action, with No Outsourcing
The latest in the carrier-cloud 5G story could be big, but not for the mainstream network infrastructure vendors. Dish announced it had picked VMware’s Telco Cloud solution for its 5G network, a platform that will be hosting the Mavenir open RAN software and almost certainly their 5G Core elements as well. VMware will serve as…
Why is Google Credible as a Telco Cloud Partner?
Why does Google seem to have momentum in carrier edge computing relationships? This piece in Light Reading highlights a general if low-key set of successes Google has enjoyed in the network operator space. If anything, their momentum in the space seems to be building. Why are they doing so well, so suddenly? First-off, there’s nothing…
Service Automation: OSS/BSS or ZSM?
Are we seeing a hidden battle between operations automation alternatives? On the one hand, there are clearly many developments in the OSS/BSS space, driven by vendors like Amdocs who want to reduce operations costs and improve operations practices, by enhancing traditional operations applications. On the other hand, some operators are still looking for near-revolutionary changes…
Why Function Integration Needs to Pick an Approach
“What are we supposed to integrate?” That’s a question a senior planner at a big telco posed to me, in response to a blog where I’d commented that virtualization increased the need for integration services. The point caught me by surprise, because I realized she was right. Integration is daunting at best, but one of…
An Assessment of Four Key ETSI Standards Initiatives in Transformation
The topic of telco transformation is important, perhaps even critical, so it’s good it’s getting more attention. The obvious question is whether “attention” is the same as “activity”, and whether “movement” is equivalent to “progress”. One recent piece, posted on LinkedIn, is a standards update from ETSI created by the chairs of particular groups involved…
A Possible Way to Avoid Direct Subsidies for Rural Broadband
Is it possible to estimate broadband coverage potential for new technologies? I’ve blogged many times about the effect of “demand density” (roughly, a measure of how many opportunity dollars a mile of infrastructure would pass) on the economics of broadband. Where demand density is high, it’s possible to deliver broadband using things like FTTH because…
Reading Cloud Patterns from IBM’s Quarter
One of the expected impacts of COVID is pressure on long-term capital projects. These pressures would tend to favor a shift toward various expense-based strategies to achieve the same overall goals, and in application hosting that would mean a shift from data center commitments to public cloud. As it happens, 2020 was already destined to…
Why Does Google Want to Retain Development Control of those Three Projects?
A piece in Protocol on Google’s desire to control some of its open-source projects’ directions made me wonder why Google was willing to release Kubernetes to the CNCF and wants to hold back control of the direction of Istio, Angular, and Gerrit. What do a service mesh, an application platform and a code review tool…
Can “Government Broadband” be Made to Work?
Are all government broadband initiatives doomed? After I commented a bit on Australia’s NBN as an example of why you can’t count on a form of nationalization to save broadband, I got additional material on Australia, as well as commentary from people involved in various government-linked broadband initiatives here in the US. I think the…