Are we making our OSS lives easier?

As an implementer of OSS, what’s the single factor that makes it challenging for us to deliver on any of the three constraints of project delivery? Complexity. Or put another way, variants. The more variants, the less chance we have of delivering on time, cost or functionality.

So let me ask you, is our next evolution simpler? No, actually. At least, it doesn’t seem so to me.

For all their many benefits, are virtualised networks simpler? We can apply abstractions to give a simpler view to higher layers in the stack, but we’ve actually only introduced more layers. Virtualisation will also bring an even higher volume of devices, transactions, etc to monitor, so we’re going to have to develop complex ways of managing these factors in cohorts.

We’re big on automations to simplify the roles of operators. But automations don’t make the task simpler for OSS implementers. Once we build a whole bunch of complex automations it might give the appearance of being simpler. But under the hood, it’s not. There are actually more moving parts.

Are we making it simpler through repetition across the industry? Nope, with the proliferation of options we’re getting more diverse. For example, back in the day, we only had a small number of database options to store our OSS data in (I won’t mention the names, I’m sure you know them!). But what about today? We have relational databases of course, but also have so many more options. What about virtualisation options? Mediation / messaging options? Programming languages? Presentation / reporting options? The list goes on. Each different OSS uses a different suite of tools, meaning less standardisation.

Our OSS lives seem to be getting harder by the day!

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