Could we frame out a true cloud native 5G Core? What would happen if we set aside as many of the implementation presumptions as we could, and focused on trying to come up with the best technology approach? It’s an interesting question, and it might turn out to be a highly relevant one now that…
The best place for open networking is where it was never closed. Any network initiative that requires a write-down of existing technology, retraining of staff, and acceptance of new risks, faces considerable executive skepticism. That’s why we may be seeing the dawn of real open networking in two different developments, one relating to O-RAN and…
Do you believe that within a year, a quarter of enterprises will have moved entirely to the cloud? Do you believe that almost one in five are already there? I don’t, not for a minute, and because I’m going to dispute these numbers, I’m not going to cite the source. I think it’s important to…
Could the future of metro networks lie somewhere other than the interconnection of central offices or 4G/5G infrastructure? Could shared hosting facilities play a role in the future of the cloud, as shared towers have in mobile networking? All this is possible, if there’s going to be a lot of edge data centers in our…
If operators want open-model networking, it’s inescapable that they need an open model. We know from past experience that simply insisting on white boxes and open-source software doesn’t secure the benefits operators expect; there’s too much cutting and fitting required in building a cooperative system. That raises two questions; what exactly is in an “open…
Do network operators have to earn a profit on their networks? That seems a simple question, but if we consider that operators have reported a decade of decline in profit per bit consumed, we also have to consider whether at some point they’ll be unwilling or unable to continue to expand network reach and capacity. …
You can’t build a network with a single element, or at least not a useful one. As soon as you have multiple elements, though, you have the problem of getting them all to work together. If those multiple elements are themselves made up of a set of layered software components, then is the problem of…
IBM just had a major cloud outage, and it certainly won’t help the company’s efforts to become the “cloud provider to the corporate giants” or maximize the value of its Red Hat acquisition. It also raises questions about whether there are complexity issues in cloud-building, and in cloud networking, that we may have glossed over….
What exactly is a PaaS in function hosting? I mentioned the term and concept in my Thursday blog (https://blog.cimicorp.com/?p=4162) and I got some questions from my contacts and clients. What I’d like to do here is summarize the notion of PaaS (Platform-as-a-Service) in function hosting, in part to prepare for what I hope will be…
Could the cable industry be trying to do function virtualization the right way? Light Reading reports some insight on that issue HERE, and references an Altran open-source project in support of the industry’s efforts. One thing that strikes me immediately on reviewing some of the detail is that CableLabs is apparently starting off with something…