Lightower chooses NetCracker
Lightower Fiber Networks Chooses NetCracker to Help Meet Aggressive Growth Goals and Customer Demand. NetCracker Technology announced that Lightower Fiber Networks will upgrade to NetCracker 9.0 in order to improve its network resource visualization and accelerate network planning for its high-performance networking solutions. Lightower Fiber is among the largest pure fiber network providers in the […]
SDN and NFV’s functional alliance – the OSS game changer?
“ONF is excited about this collaboration with ETSI as we believe this relationship can significantly contribute to the goals of the NFV ISG, which we have pledged to support since it was formed, as well as become a relevant source of requirements and use cases for the SDN community.” Dan Pitt. As described in an […]
Who buys an OSS and why? The buyer’s hat analogy
“There are people who are really good managers, people who can manage a big organization, and then there are people who are very analytic or focused on strategy. Those two types don’t usually tend to be in the same person. I would put myself much more in the latter camp.” Mark Zuckerberg. Who buys an […]
A sensitive subject
“Happiness lies neither in vice nor in virtue; but in the manner we appreciate the one and the other, and the choice we make pursuant to our individual organization.” Marquis de Sade. The gathering of requirements can be a very sensitive phase of an OSS, particularly in large organisations. The decision of who gets the […]
The status quo
“Change is usually accompanied by a heap of uncertainty. We don’t like uncertainty and in the absence of any good structure we will cling to what we know. This, in most cases, happens to be the status quo.” Dr Jason Fox. in his book, “The Game Changer.” As OSS implementers, we are the change agents […]
ONF and ETSI announce SDN / NFV alliance
European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), and the Open Networking Foundation (ONF) announced an agreement to further the development of Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) standards with the help of SDN. The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), and the Open Networking Foundation (ONF) announced that formal agreement was signed on March 18, 2014 at the ETSI General […]
The puppy analogy
“Christmas morning. Jimmy and Susie rush down the stairs in their pj’s and shriek with delight. Santa has finally yielded to their incessant requests: A sweet, wriggling puppy is waiting for them beneath the tree, adorable in his big red bow. It’s love at first sight. The puppy slurps the kids’ faces then curls up […]
Defining an OSS vision
“It’s more fun to be a pirate than to join the navy.” Steve Jobs. I’m currently reading a book by Peter Sander entitled, “What would Steve Jobs Do?” Peter describes the following key take-aways for establishing a vision from his analysis of Steve’s actions: What would I want from a product / experience? What would surprise […]
Managed OSS Services
“in today’s digital services economy no single company can now survive as an independent entity and succeed for a sustained period. It is crucial that organisations focus on core competency, and partner to gain access to the competencies outside of that.” TM Forum’s “Open Digital Ecosystem: Business Partnering Guide, Practical guidelines for Partnering in the […]
Augmented outside plant
“When you think of any aspect of life or work, augmented reality is completely going to change how we do it.” Ori Inbar. Here in Australia, we have a program called Dial Before You Dig, which provides information, usually in the form of plans, about underground assets for a given address. It is used by […]
Creating a world-beater
“If you have always done it that way, it is probably wrong.” Charles Kettering. If you have a goal of creating the world’s best OSS tool, where do you start? Do you try to understand the competition and do it better than they do? How would you prove that it’s better than them in a […]
Data Control Networks (DCN)
“You cannot control what happens to you, but you can control your attitude toward what happens to you, and in that, you will be mastering change rather than allowing it to master you.” Brian Tracy. A Data Control Network (DCN) is the network that carries management traffic between components of your network, OSS, BSS and […]
KISS your alarms
“Refining is inevitable in science when you have made measurements of a phenomenon for a long period of time.” Charles Francis Richter. When setting up your alarm / fault management modules, the KISS principle again applies. Focus first on getting raw alarms flowing and conduct audits to ensure all are reaching your OSS as planned. Only […]
Biarri and NBN Co nomination
Australia’s NBN Co and Biarri Networks: What do they have in common? They are all finalists in the 2014 INFORMS (Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences) Franz Edelman Prize. The Prize is the world’s most prestigious recognition for excellence in applying advanced analytics to benefit business and humanitarian outcomes. So what is NBN […]
Gathering Requirements – Driven by Use Cases
“The most difficult part of requirements gathering is not the act of recording what the user wants, it is the exploratory development activity of helping users figure out what they want.” Steve McConnell. When starting out on a requirement gathering exercise, The Radar Analogy always seems to spring to mind because it carries such a […]
Gathering Requirements – Driven by Data
“You can have data without information, but you cannot have information without data.” Daniel Keys Moran. Data is probably the only reason why you intend to invest so much time and money into your OSS so this must be the key to your requirement gathering phase. The following provide a few hints about the types […]
Inmarsat selects CSG
CSG Selected to Support Inmarsat Global Xpress(R) Offering. Inmarsat, the leading provider of global mobile satellite communications services, and CSG International, Inc. a global provider of interactive transaction-driven solutions and services, have joined forces to support the new Inmarsat Global Xpress service. Global Xpress is the world’s first globally available Ka-band, high-speed, broadband satellite network […]
Infotech buys Softential
Infotech buys US-based Softential in all cash deal. Infotech Enterprises announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Infotech Enterprises America has signed a definitive agreement to acquire IT service management and service company Softential, Inc in an all cash deal. The buyout will allow Infotech to provide better services to its telecom clients and add to its […]
Federating virtualised network controllers
“Integration: An infrastructure for enabling efficient data sharing across incompatible applications that evolve independently in a coordinated manner to serve the needs of the enterprise and its stakeholders.” John G. Schmidt, and David Lyle, in their book “Lean Integration: An Integration Factory Approach to Business Agility.” Another of Tom Nolle’s insightful blogs has helped to […]
Data Integration Types
“Data integration is the process of transferring data between different storage types and locations. This typically includes extraction, cleaning, loading into target data repository and verification.” Anatella.com’s Data Integration page. Whilst cross-referencing some data integration work that I was doing recently, I came across this great web-page with helpful icons and descriptions for the different […]