There are layers of the clouds in the sky. Similarly, for a bunch of reasons, there are (or should be) layers in the cloud applications and infrastructure that companies are adopting or planning. Yes, there are some applications and even some businesses that may view both cloud and data center as a single resource, or…
Microsoft has decided to go its own way on service mesh, or at least to try. Given that Istio, a Google development but still open-source, is the de facto standard in service mesh, why would Microsoft make that decision? Would a service mesh battle help the cloud-native space? Is there a carrier cloud dimension to…
How useful would artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) really be in network lifecycle automation? The topic gets a lot of attention, and a lot of vendors have made claims about it, but the real benefits are actually difficult to assess. Part of the reason is that there are many ways AI/ML could be applied,…
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…
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 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…
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…
“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…
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…
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…