You've probably all heard of Malcolm Gladwell's 10,000 hour rule from his book, Outliers? In it he suggests that roughly 10,000 hours of deliberate practice makes an individual world-class in their field. But is 10,000 hours enough in the field of OSS? I look back to the year 2000, when I first started on OSS projects. Over the following 5 years or so, I averaged an…
Read More »In OSS there are some tasks that require availability (the green button on communicator). The Network Operations Centre (NOC) is one. But does it require on-site presence in the NOC? An earlier post showed how wrong I was about collaboration rooms. It seems that ticket flicking (and perhaps communication tools like slack) is the preferred model. If this is the preferred model, then perhaps there is…
Read More »The left-hand panel of the triptych below shows the current state of interactions with most OSS. There are hundreds of variants inbound via external sources (ie multi-channel) and even internal sources (eg different service types). Similarly, there are dozens of networks (and downstream systems), each with different interface models. Each needs different formatting and integration costs escalate. The intent model of network provisioning standardises the network…
Read More »We all know of the tectonic shifts in the world of telco services, profitability and business models. One common trend is for telcos to offer pipes that are bigger and faster. Seems like a commoditising business model to me, but our OSS still need to support that. How? Through enabling efficiency at scale. Building tools, GUIs, workflows, integrations, sales pipelines, etc that enable telcos march seamlessly…
Read More »Any long-term readers of this blog will have heard me talk about tripods, and how valuable they are to any OSS team. They're the people who know about IT, operations/networks and the business context within which they're working. They're the most valuable people I've worked with in the world of OSS because they're the ones who can connect the many disparate parts that make up an…
Read More »IBM TO ACQUIRE RED HAT, COMPLETELY CHANGING THE CLOUD LANDSCAPE AND BECOMING WORLD’S #1 HYBRID CLOUD PROVIDER. IBM and Red Hat, the world’s leading provider of open source cloud software, announced today that the companies have reached a definitive agreement under which IBM will acquire all of the issued and outstanding common shares of Red Hat for $190.00 per share in cash, representing a total enterprise…
Read More »Here at Passionate About OSS, we're passionate about making OSS happen. We have an extensive network of contacts. We just naturally tend to find ourselves making connections between the many experts in our network. Connecting those who are hoping to find an OSS expert with an OSS expert hoping to be found. We've just introduced a new free-of-charge OSS expert registry to help people find OSS…
Read More »"This is the logic that led Facebook inexorably to the ‘algorithmic feed’, which is really just tech jargon for saying that instead of this random (i.e. 'time-based') sample of what’s been posted, the platform tries to work out which people you would most like to see things from, and what kinds of things you would most like to see. It ought to be able to work…
Read More »A number of years ago I heard about an OSS product that introduced collaborative rooms for network operators to collectively solve challenging network health events. It was in line with some of my own thinking about the use of collaboration techniques to solve cross-domain or complex events. But the concept hasn't caught on in the way that I expected. I was curious why, so I asked…
Read More »Yesterday's post discussed Dave Duggal's concept of 20th century OSS being all about centralizing command and control to gain efficiency through vertical integration and mass standardization, whilst 21st century OSS are about decentralization – gaining efficiency through horizontal integration of partner ecosystems and mass customization. We talked about transitioning from a telco market driven by economies of scale (the 20th century benchmark) to a "market of…
Read More »"While the 20th century was all about centralizing command and control to gain efficiency through vertical integration and mass standardization, 21st century automation is about decentralization – gaining efficiency through horizontal integration of partner ecosystems and mass customization, as in the context-aware cloud where personalized experience across channels is dynamically orchestrated. The operational challenge of our time is to coordinate these moving parts into coherent and…
Read More »OSS Vendor 1. "I have 1 million features." (Dr Evil puts finger in mouth) OSS Vendor 2. "Yeah, well I have 1,000,001 features in my OSS." This is the arms-race that we see in OSS, just like almost any other tech product. I imagine that vendors get into this arms-race because they wish to differentiate. Better to differentiate on functionality than price. If there's a feature…
Read More »""If you asked me how to sell cybersecurity, I wouldn't call it cybersecurity." The raw truth of the statement hit me like a lightning bolt between the eyes. Cybersecurity might loosely describe what we do, and we tell people it's what we're selling, but it's not what people buy. Safety. Assurance. Peace of mind. Confidence. These are the kinds of things that people buy, concepts which…
Read More »Imagine for a moment that you're sitting in front of a pristine chess board, awaiting the opportunity to make your first move. All of the pieces have been exquisitely carved from stone, polished to a sheen. The rules of the game have been established for centuries, so you know exactly which piece is able to move in which sequences. Time to make the opening move. You've…
Read More »In the world of networking, it's common for devices to go EOL (end-of-life). Capital spend and depreciation models are based around refresh cycles of around 5-7 years. Vendors reinforce this refresh cycle by designing obsolescence into maintenance, support and part supplies. Customers tend to simply submit to the risk of having no vendor support by buying the next generation replacements. But how often do you hear…
Read More »Many years ago, I worked on a seriously big OSS transformation for one of the region's biggest telcos. Everything was big on the project, the investment, the resources, the documentation. Everything except the outcomes. There was so much inefficiency that I often spoke about making one day of progress for every ten on site. Meetings, bureaucracy, impossible approval cycles, customer re-organisations, over-analysis, etc all added up…
Read More »Let's start with a basic question. "What does an OSS need to do?" The basic answer is, "make operations easier." The real answer(s) is so much more nuanced than that of course. The term easier can also encapsulate other words such as faster, more accurate, more repeatable, cheaper, etc. Designing, building, operating and maintaining a sizable network is extremely challenging, despite network operators around the world,…
Read More »A post from earlier this week discussed a less risky, dependency-reduced, stepping-stone transformation approach. It contrasted with the big-bang delivery model that's often proposed on OSS projects. Taking the same train of thought, have you noticed how often architects (including myself) come up with an end-state view of what an OSS, or IT, or networks will be? Have you also noticed that they often seek to…
Read More »We've just added a bunch of additional suppliers to our OSS and BSS product / vendor list. There are now over 200 entries in the table. Check it out here: https://passionateaboutoss.com/vendors-products/ Who have we missed??
Read More »Friday's post discussed three analogies about the challenges of performing an OSS pivot. The biggest challenge in initiating the transformation / replacement of any significant OSS is fear. There are many OSS out there whose "owners" want to change and need to change... but fear changing because a significant pivot would mean a "sell the farm" decision. The fear is completely understandable. These are highly complex…
Read More »Image linked from GCaptain.com. As you already know, the word pivot has become common in the world of business, particularly the world of start-ups. It's a euphemism for a significant change in strategic direction. In the context of today's post, I love the word pivot because it implies a rapid change in direction, something that's seemingly impossible for most of our OSS and the customers who…
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