We've heard of OSS being an acronym for operational support systems, operations support systems, even open source software. I have a new one for you today - Optimisation Support Systems - that exists for no purpose other than to drive a mindset shift. "I think we have to transition from “expectations” in a hype sense to “expectations” in a goal sense. NFV is like any technology;…
Read More »I often talk about OSS being an afterthought for network teams. I find that they'll often design the network before thinking about how they'll operationalise it with an OSS solution. That's both in terms of network products (eg developing a new device and only thinking about building the EMS later), or building networks themselves. It can be a bit frustrating because we feel we can give…
Read More »We all know that revenue per bit (of data transferred across comms networks) is trending lower. How could we not? It's posited as one of the reasons for declining profitability of the industry. The challenge for telcos is how to engineer an environment of low revenue per bit but still be cost viable. I'm sure there are differentiated comms products out there in the global market.…
Read More »Let me ask you a question - when you've expanded your bag of tricks that help you to manage your OSS, where have they typically originated? By reading? By doing? By asking? Through mentoring? Via training courses? Relating to technical? People? Process? Product? Operations? Network? Hardware? Software? Design? Procure? Implement / delivery? Test? Deploy? By retrospective thinking? Creative thinking? Refinement thinking? Other? If you were to…
Read More »One of the biggest challenges of big bang OSS project implementations is that all of the business value (ie the OSS and its data, workflows, integrations, etc) gets delivered at once, normally at the end of a lengthy exercise. Ok, ok, so the delivery of value is not a challenge, it's the implications of a big delivery of value that's the challenge - implications that include:…
Read More »I'm looking forward to dropping in on a "OSS & Networks for the Future architecture" seminar being hosted by Telstra tomorrow. Hope to see you there. The agenda is as follows: 8:30 Welcome & registration | Johanne Mayer - Moderator (Global evangelist NaaS 2020, Telstra) 9:00 Introduction | Gary Traver (Director Media Product Engineering, Telstra) 9:15 TMF Open Digital Architecture Update |Ken Dilbeck (VP, Collaborative R&D,…
Read More »Zero touch network & Service Management (ZSM) is a next-gen network management approach using closed-loop principles hosted by ETSI. An ETSI blog has just demonstrated the first ZSM Proof of Concept (PoC). The slide deck describing the PoC, supplied by EnterpriseWeb, can be found here. The diagram below shows a conceptual closed-loop assurance architecture used within the PoC . It contains some similar concepts to a closed-loop…
Read More »Celcom Partners with Huawei to Apply a Cloud-Based Platform for Digitized Network Operations. Celcom Axiata Berhad inked an agreement with Huawei Technologies (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd. to apply the Cloud-based Digitized Operation Platform, Software as a Service (SaaS) solution. Celcom will be the first in the country to adopt a full suite cloud-based Operation Support Service (OSS) system to accelerate agility in their automation and the intelligence…
Read More »VMware to Acquire Dell EMC Service Assurance Suite. VMware, Inc. announced a definitive agreement to acquire the technology and team of Dell EMC Service Assurance Suite - software spanning network health, performance monitoring and root cause analysis for communications service providers (CSPs) and their customers - from Dell EMC. The addition of the Dell EMC Service Assurance Suite technology to the VMware Telco NFV portfolio equips…
Read More »It's interesting how we tend to go in cycles. Back in the early days of OSS, the network operators tended to build their OSS from the ground up. Then we went through a phase of using Commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) OSS software developed by third-party vendors. We now seem to be cycling back towards in-house development, but with collaboration that includes vendors and external assistance through open-source…
Read More »There's a concept in sales called "risk reversal" that takes all of the customers' likely issues with a product and provides answers to alleviate customer concerns. I believe we can apply the same concept to OSS, not just to sell them, but to design them. To borrow from a risk register page here on PAOSS, the major categories of risk that appear on almost all OSS projects…
Read More »Last week we discussed a sell-side co-op business model. Today we'll look at buy-side co-op models. In other industries, we hear of buying groups getting great deals through aggregated buying volumes. This is a little harder to achieve with products that are as uniquely customised as OSS. It's possible that OSS buy-side aggregation could occur for operators that are similar in nature but don't compete (eg…
Read More »Many years ago, I made a data migration blunder that slowed a production OSS down to a crawl. Actually, less than a crawl. It almost became unusable. I was tasked with creating a production database of a carrier's entire network inventory, including data migration for a bunch of Nortel Passport ATM switches (yes, it was that long ago). There were around 70 of these devices in…
Read More »"One business customer, for example, may require ultra-reliable services, whereas other business customers may need ultra-high-bandwidth communication or extremely low latency. The 5G network needs to be designed to be able to offer a different mix of capabilities to meet all these diverse requirements at the same time. From a functional point of view, the most logical approach is to build a set of dedicated networks…
Read More »Pentagon Creates ‘Do Not Buy’ List of Russian, Chinese Software. The Pentagon is working on a software “do not buy” list to block vendors who use software code originating from Russia and China, a top Defense Department acquisitions official said on Friday. Apparently The The Pentagon started compiling the list about six months ago. Suspicious companies are put on a list that is circulated to the…
Read More »"A co-operative is a member-owned business structure with at least five members, all of whom have equal voting rights regardless of their level of involvement or investment. All members are expected to help run the cooperative." Small Business WA. The co-op business model has fascinated me since doing some tech projects in the dairy industry in the deep distant past. The dairy co-ops empower collaboration of…
Read More »A recent blog from Seth Godin brought back some memories from a past project. "Two ways to solve a problem and provide a service. With drama. Make sure the customer knows just how hard you’re working, what extent you’re going to in order to serve. Make a big deal out of the special order, the additional cost, the sweat and the tears. Without drama. Make it…
Read More »A recent post discussed the challenge of getting a timeslice of operations people to help build the OSS. That post surmised, "as the old saying goes, you get back what you put in. In the case of OSS I’ve seen it time and again that operations need to contribute significantly to the implementation to ensure they get a solution that fits their needs." I have a…
Read More »The following is the result of a survey question posed by TM Forum: I'm not sure how the numbers tally, but conceptually the graph above paints an interesting perspective of why orchestration is important. The graph indicates the why. But in this case, for me, the why is the by-product of the how. The main attraction of orchestration models is in how we can achieve modularity.…
Read More »Many years ago, I was lucky enough to lead a team responsible for designing a complex inside and outside plant network in a massive oil and gas precinct. It had over 120 buildings and more than 30 networked systems. We were tasked with using CAD (Computer Aided Design) and Office tools to design the comms and security solution for the precinct. And when I say security,…
Read More »In 1998 Berkshire Hathaway acquired a reinsurance company called General Re. "The only significant staff change that followed the merger was the elimination of General Re's investment unit. Some 150 people had been in charge of deciding where to invest the company's funds; they were replaced with just one individual - Warren Buffett." Robert G. Hagstrom in, "The Warren Buffett Way." Buffett was able to replace…
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