"A bear jumps out of a bush and starts chasing two hikers. They both start running for their lives, but then one of them stops to put on his running shoes. His friends says, "What are you doing? You can't out-run a bear!" His friend replies, "I don't have to out-run the bear. I only have to out-run you!"" Let's say the two friends represent competing…
Read More »When we distill it down, what are telcos selling? They're selling connections. Whether it's connecting with information, a group, another person, even a virtual assistant or machine-to-machine, we tend to use communications services to connect. Networks are an important component to establish those connections. OSS go a step further. They help to establish a connection but also help to maintain the ability to connect - via…
Read More »I've been seeing a lot of references to continual development methodologies lately (ie references to agile, DevOps, CI/CD, etc). Quotes like focus on projects rather than the mission statement, focus on products rather than projects, etc. The core principle is in chunking workload down into modular pieces that can be implemented to give flexibility and agility to meet evolving customer demands. These approaches are claimed to…
Read More »It's only a month til TM Forum Live kicks off for 2017. I'm scheduled to give a talk on microservices (amongst other things). Drop me a line if you're going too and would like to catch up in Nice.
Read More »Whether it's at an individual, business unit or organisational level, demonstrated achievement on OSS projects tends to lead to greater opportunities and rewards. There are so many OSS projects underway globally and so much expertise required, but there are a high proportion of projects that don't deliver or are currently stagnating. This means opportunity. However, we generally don't tend to use testimonials as much as we…
Read More »Over the years, I've dealt with (and worked with) many vendors, as I'm sure you have too. Some will bend over backwards to help their customers (or potential customers) out, finding workarounds to their own internal rules to help make something good happen. Others will persuade their customers into signing a contract before bending their customers over backwards, finding internal rules to their own workarounds to…
Read More »"AI startups are becoming cheaper and easier to build, because many of the underlying technologies are now mature enough to apply predictably, and because of the declining cost of cloud computing – including many AI as a service products on AWS and Google Cloud. I liken this development to the time when cloud computing first emerged around ten years ago. Resources that were previously the preserve…
Read More »"In writing or in life, people who are successful focus on the input (putting in). Those who aren't successful focus on the output (taking out)." Paraphrasing Tucker Max during a podcast with James Altucher. In the post that follows, you'll notice that I'm putting a completely different context on Tucker's quote above, which is a new spin on the old adage of, "you get out what…
Read More »Comptel Partners with Capana to Strengthen Intelligent Data Capabilities. Comptel Corporation announced that it has signed a global partnership agreement with Capana Corporation, a provider of revenue management solutions. Capana’s CapSettle product supports operators to cost-effectively deploy fast and accurate traditional interconnect and roaming solutions as well as multi-partner settlements solutions. Comptel will resell CapSettle within its Intelligent Data solution portfolio, introducing a wholesale approach to…
Read More »"It is easier to act yourself into a new way of thinking, than it is to think yourself into a new way of acting." Millard Fuller. The agile, lean documentation delivery models of today have the huge advantage of gaining momentum on OSS projects. No longer do we have the big-bang cutovers, but we start with barely viable solutions and progressively build on them. It starts…
Read More »How ONAP Will Merge Millions of Lines of Code from ECOMP and Open-O. (Repost from SDxCentral). How long does it take to merge eight million lines of code from AT&T’s ECOMP framework with the code from the Open-O project, which is also very large? Now that ECOMP and Open-O have merged into one project under the Linux Foundation — the Open Network Automation Platform (ONAP) —…
Read More »One of the advantages of being a consultant is that you get to assist big corporates without being wrapped up in some of the big corporates' mindsets. Of course this isn't true of all employees at big corporates, but I've found the, "that's somebody else's job," mindset to be more prevalent there. In some ways it makes sense right - having a large group of employees…
Read More »"Many people steeped in the tradition of product promotion naturally feel drawn to prattle on and on about their products and services. But I have news for you. Nobody cares (except you). Yes, you read that right. Get over it. What people do care about is themselves and solving problems. How do you do that?" David Meerman Scott here. David Meerman Scott's quote reflects the same…
Read More »Comptel Has Received a Major Order from an Indian Customer. Comptel has received a major order from an Indian customer. The contract value is approximately 2.3M EUR, and it comprises FlowOne Fulfillment licenses and related services. “This deal will help our customer to operate efficiently and increase agility on the end user service offering. It provides superior time to market on launching new services and a…
Read More »"The truth is that whale-sized companies would love to do business with smaller suppliers. The relationship is more immediate in every way. Small suppliers can deliver goods more quickly than larger ones. It's much easier to get the CEO of a small supplier on the phone for discussion of the transactions. Small suppliers are more flexible. So why are so many small companies unsuccessful in entering…
Read More »Here's a tip for you to try on your next OSS project: Instead of building a behemoth OSS with a million contributors (and a million opinions), stand up something simple (but meaningful) quickly and let word of mouth draw others in. It's a technique I've helped implement in some very "democratic" decision-making environments, environments where I'd previously struggled to get any significant project momentum.
Read More »You're probably aware that our OSS and/or underlying EMS/NMS have been assisting organisations with their governance, regulatory and compliance (GRC) requirements for some time. Our OSS have provided tools that automatically enforce and validate compliance against configuration policies. Naturally, network virtualisation and network as a service (NaaS) offerings are going to place an increased dependence on those policies and tools due to the potentially transient services…
Read More »"It might be the ultimate entrepreneurialc superpower - the ability to shift perspective and understand the viewpoint of another person... whether it’s a client, prospect, or team member. If you can put yourself in someone else’s shoes, it’s the shortest path to influence, collaboration, communication, and connection." Jeff Walker. Can OSS (or at least their data) help you to develop this entrepreneurial superpower? Or for vendors,…
Read More »Canonical combines its OpenStack with Huawei’s SDN Controller. Reposted from SDxCentral. Huawei and Canonical announced the integration of Huawei’s CloudFabric data center network system with Canonical’s Ubuntu OpenStack. They’ll combine Huawei’s Agile Controller for software-defined networking (SDN) with Canonical’s OpenStack distribution, Ubuntu OpenStack, along with Canonical’s application modeling service Juju. “We’ve been doing a number of things with Huawei, but this expansion across telco and enterprise…
Read More »Ericsson’s Turnaround Plan Includes Around $2B in Charges. Reposted from SDxCentral. Swedish equipment vendor Ericsson is facing more challenges. The company announced today that it will have restructuring charges of between $1.8 billion and $2.4 billion this year as it tries to revamp its struggling business amid slowing sales of 4G equipment and increased competition from Chinese vendors like Huawei and ZTE. CEO Borje Ekholm, who…
Read More »The most stunning sunrise inspired my journey into the office on the train this morning. The train was packed with dozens (hundreds?) of people, all with their heads down on looking at their phones, books, tablets, music players, etc. Looking around the carriage, only one other person even seemed to have noticed the stunning panorama playing out alongside the train (and even she had her headphones…
Read More »