I'd hazard a guess that everyone reading this would admit to being a techie at some level. And being a techie, I'd also imagine that you have blatant tech-love for certain products - gadgets, apps, sites, whatever. But, let me ask you, are there any OSS products on your love-interest list? If yes, leave me a comment of "yes" and name of the product below. If…
Read More »Unfortunately for OSS vendors / integrators, their business models have a dependency (and major risk) on accounts receivable. Investopedia states, "Accounts receivable are amounts of money owed by customers to another entity for goods or services delivered or used on credit but not yet paid for by clients." One of the earliest OSS projects I worked on was worth in excess of $30m for the vendor.…
Read More »We've just added another 150 suppliers to the Passionate About OSS list of OSS / BSS suppliers. There are now well over 350 suppliers listed for your comparison. Let us know if yours isn't listed there yet.
Read More »A recent discussion with a learned and respected OSS colleague reminded me that there had been a major omission from the PAOSS History / Standards page. With the buzz developing around 5G, not to mention some of the advanced features like network slicing and radio infrastructure virtualisation, the oversight was a big one. We'd forgotten to include radio network management standards. We've filled that gap now…
Read More »Gartner's OSS Magic Quadrant report for 2019 can be downloaded courtesy of Ericsson here.
Read More »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.
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