OSS can be cumbersome at times. Making change can be difficult. We tend to build layers of protections around them and the networks we manage. I get that. Change can be risky (although the protections are often implemented because the OSS and/or network platforms might not be as robust as they could be). Contrast this with the OSS we want to create. We want to create…
Read More »A friend of mine has a great saying, "only do what only you can do." Do you think that this holds true for the companies undergoing digital transformation? Banks are now IT companies. Insurers are IT companies. Car manufacturers are now IT companies. Telcos are, well, some are IT companies. We've spoken before about the skill transformations that need to happen within telcos if they're to…
Read More »https://passionateaboutoss.com/solarwinds-acquires-samanage-for-350m/SolarWinds Sets Its Sights on the ITSM Market through Acquisition of Samanage and Introduction of a SolarWinds Service Desk Product. SolarWinds announced that it has signed an agreement to acquire Samanage, an IT service desk solution company based in Cary, NC. Over the past 7 years, Samanage has built a strong, well-respected product guided by a customer-centricity that aligns well with SolarWinds’ mission and commitment to…
Read More »Is your OSS a single pane of glass, or a single glass of pain? You can tell I'm being a little flippant here. People often (perhaps idealistically) talk about OSS as being the single pane of glass (SPOG) to manage a network. I say "idealistically" for a couple of reasons: There are usually many personas who interact with an OSS, each with vastly different user interface…
Read More »I like to compare OSS projects with chaos theory. A single butterfly flapping it's wings (eg a conversation with the client) can have unintended consequences that cause a tornado (eg the client's users refusing to use a new OSS). The day-to-day operation of a network and its management tools can be similarly sensitive to seemingly minor inputs. We can never predict or test for every combination…
Read More »It's been nearly two decades since I designed my first root-cause analysis (RCA) rule. It was completely reliant on network topology - more specifically, it relied on a network hierarchy to determine which alarms could be suppressed. I had a really interesting discussion today with some colleagues who are using much more modern RCA techniques. I was somewhat surprised, but not surprised at all in hindsight,…
Read More »"There’s a fable of a man stuck in a flood. Convinced that God is going to save him, he says no to a passing canoe, boat, and helicopter that offer to help. He dies, and in heaven asks God why He didn’t save him. God says, “I sent you a canoe, a boat, and a helicopter!” We all have vivid imaginations. We get a goal in…
Read More »"Life can be improved by adding, or by subtracting. The world pushes us to add, because that benefits them. But the secret is to focus on subtracting... No amount of adding will get me where I want to be. The adding mindset is deeply ingrained. It’s easy to think I need something else. It’s hard to look instead at what to remove. The least successful people…
Read More »"Years ago, I was so confident, and so naive. I was so sure that I was right and everyone else was wrong. Unfortunately I was lucky and got successful, so that kept me ignorant of my shortcomings. I sold my company, felt ready to do something new, and started to learn. But the more I learned, the more I realized how little I knew, and how…
Read More »I became a problematic bottleneck on my first OSS project. It didn't start that way, but it definitely ended that way. And I've been thinking ever since about how I could've managed that better. I started out as a network subject matter expert but wasn't a bottleneck in that role. However, the next two functions I absorbed were the source of the problem. The first additional…
Read More »Progress To Acquire Ipswitch, makers of WhatsUp Gold Network Monitoring. Progress, the provider of application development and digital experience technologies, announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire privately held Ipswitch, Inc., a producer of secure data file transfer and network management software, for $225 million in cash. Progress will fund the transaction with existing cash on hand and funds secured under a…
Read More »The last few days have been all about organisational structuring to support OSS and digital transformations. Today we take a different tack - a more technical diversion - onto how drones might be relevant to the field of OSS. A friend recently asked for help to look into the use of drones in his archaeological business. This got me to thinking about how they might apply…
Read More »So far this week we've been focusing on ways to improve the OSS transformation process. Monday provided 7 models for achieving startup-like efficiency for larger OSS transformations. Tuesday provided suggestions for speeding up the transition from OSS PoC to getting the solution into production, specifically strategies for absorbing an OSS PoC into production. Both of these posts talk about the speed of getting things done outside…
Read More »In yesterday's article, we discussed 7 models for achieving startup-like efficiency on large OSS transformations. One popular approach is to build a proof-of-concept or sandpit quickly on cloud hosting or in lab environments. It's fast for a number of reasons including reduced number of approvals, faster activation of infrastructure, reduced safety checks (eg security, privacy, etc), minimised integration with legacy systems and many other reasons. The…
Read More »Do you work in a large organisation? Have you also worked in smaller organisations? Where have you felt more efficient? I've been lucky enough to work on some massive OSS transformations for large T1 telcos. But I've always noticed the inefficiency of working on these projects when embedded inside the bureaucracy of the beast. With all of the documentation, sign-offs, meetings, politics, gaining consensus, budget allocations,…
Read More »Just a quick heads-up that our OSS competition closes tomorrow. Get in quickly to be in with a chance of winning 1 of 5 physical copies of my book, Mastering Your OSS. Are you up for it? Are you ready to answer just five one-line questions to help the next generation of OSS experts and potentially win a prize? Click here now to enter the competition.
Read More »In the last two posts, we've discussed repeatability within the field of OSS implementation - paint-by-numbers vs artisans and then resilience vs precision in delivery practices. Now I'd like you to have a think about how those posts overlay onto this quote by Karl Popper: “Non-reproducible single occurrences are of no significance to science.” Every OSS implementation is different. That means that every one is a…
Read More »"Resilience is what happens when we’re able to move forward even when things don’t fit together the way we expect.[OSS project anyone???] And tolerances are an engineer’s measurement of how well the parts meet spec. One way to ensure that things work out the way you hope is to spend the time and money to ensure that every part, every form, every worker meets spec. Tighten…
Read More »All OSS rely on workflows to make key outcomes happen. Outcomes like activating a customer order, resolving a fault, billing customers, etc. These workflows often touch multiple OSS/BSS products and/or functional capabilities. There's not always a single-best-way to achieve an outcome. If you're responsible for your organisation's workflows do you want to build a paint-by-numbers approach where each process is repeatable? Or do you want the…
Read More »"Organizations that seek transformations frequently bring in an army of outside consultants [or implementers in the case of OSS] who tend to apply one-size-fits-all solutions in the name of “best practices.” Our approach to transforming our respective organizations is to rely instead on insiders — staff who have intimate knowledge about what works and what doesn’t in their daily operations." Behnam Tabrizi, Ed Lam, Kirk Gerard…
Read More »By now I'm sure you've heard about graph databases. You may've even read my earlier article about the benefits graph databases offer when modelling network inventory when compared with relational databases. But have you heard the Graphene Database Analogy? It can help conceptualise the migrating, cross-linking and fixing of data sets. I equate OSS data migration and data quality improvement with graphene, which is made up…
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