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Consolidated Communications goes live with Netcracker

Consolidated Communications Simplifies Service Delivery with Enhanced OSS Capabilities from Netcracker. Netcracker Technology announced that Consolidated Communications, a leading business and broadband communications provider, went live with an upgraded Netcracker Service Order and Resource Management solution. The additional functionality includes an access service request integration module, which will help Consolidated Communications automate the assignment of tasks. Consolidated Communications, Inc. (CCI) is a leading business and broadband…

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22/04/2016 No Comments

Bitten by an elephant

"Hands up if you have ever been bitten by an elephant? Now hands up if you have ever been bitten by a mosquito? See, it’s the little things in life that will get you" Joel Weldon paraphrased." Put another way, "the devil is in the details." This mindset has always perplexed me, particularly in the world of OSS. Attention to detail and being fastidious about the…

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21/04/2016 No Comments

Redknee renews with TIM Brazil

Redknee Renews Multi-Year Contract to Enhance the Competitive Positioning of TIM Brazil. Redknee Solutions announced that it has won a multi-year renewal of its software and services contract with TIM Brazil. Redknee will provide an end-to-end solution that includes new software capabilities, managed services, and support services that enable the company to secure its position as a leading mobile operator in Brazil. Redknee’s Cloud and Managed…

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20/04/2016 No Comments

Swipe files and knowledge bases

"A swipe file is a collection of tested and proven advertising and sales letters. Keeping a swipe file (templates) is a common practice used by advertising copywriters and creative directors as a ready reference of ideas for projects. Copywriters are not the only ones who can benefit from having a swipe file." Wikipedia. Do you keep swipe files as a ready reference of ideas for your…

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20/04/2016 No Comments

Failure analyses

Many operators have a dilemma on their hands. To find the lead indicators of network failures requires analysis of events leading up to the failure. But many operators are so snowed under that they are too busy rectifying the network to have time to analyse the causes. Not only that, but many actually rely on lag indicators (ie customer calls, which often don't get raised until…

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19/04/2016 No Comments

Irrelevance

"I have been harping on for years – many years – that the terms BSS and OSS are defunct and should be replaced with something far more generic like MMB: Money Making Bits. You may laugh, but BSS (business support systems) and OSS (operational support systems) are leftovers from a bygone era when communications service providers (known as PTTs or phone companies then) had to clearly…

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18/04/2016 No Comments

Huawei signs OSSii with NETSCOUT

Huawei Signs MOU under OSSii with NETSCOUT. Huawei announced that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with NETSCOUT. The MOU allows NETSCOUT’s TrueCall® geoanalytics platform to access Huawei OSS interfaces under Operations Support Systems interoperability initiative (OSSii). Huawei has previously signed MOUs with several independent service vendors within OSS field. This MOU is based on principles specified by OSSii (Operations Support Systems interoperability initiative).…

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17/04/2016 No Comments

Huawei’s strategic open source play

"The knee-jerk reaction to open source is… well, it’s free. But it’s not that simple. Companies can craft strategic open source projects that complement and enhance and build momentum behind its own products. Huawei has been clear that this is part of its strategy." Scott Raynovich here on SDx Central. Scott's report goes on to highlight, "that the Chinese company is currently the largest contributor to…

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15/04/2016 3 Comments

Huawei’s investment in five IoT solutions

Huawei's Heavy Investment in Five IoT Solutions. At the Huawei Global Analyst Summit (HAS) 2016, Huawei announced the Internet of Things (IoT) as one of its strategic priorities. Drawing on its long-term investment and expertise in ICT, Huawei has made impressive breakthroughs with its five IoT solutions. The company is also committed to building a robust IoT ecosystem and jointly driving industry innovation with its partners.…

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14/04/2016 No Comments

What else is going missing?

Yesterday we discussed how all the abstraction and interpolation done in the layers of your OSS stack can allow many things to slip through the cracks. Dougie Stevenson suggested that this is one of the reasons why Engineers prefer to work from a command line. Evan Linwood suggested that we could apply the principle to the Enterprise network / application stack, "This thought process is relevant for…

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14/04/2016 No Comments

SkyLine deploys Centina Systems

SkyLine Membership Corporation Deploys Centina Systems for Fault, Performance and Network Management. Centina Systems announced that SkyLine Membership Corporation has deployed its NetOmnia™ suite of solutions for fault, performance and network management. Headquartered in West Jefferson, North Carolina, SkyLine Membership Corporation is a full-service provider of telecommunications and network services for business and residential customers. Today, SkyLine is the second-largest of eight telephone cooperatives in North…

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14/04/2016 No Comments

Do you know what you’re missing?

Each subsequent step northbound in the conceptual diagram below does the same thing: It abstracts (vertical) - it only performs a sub-set of the lower layer's functionality It connects (horizontal) - it performs the task of connecting and managing a larger number of network elements than the lower layer So an OSS, will never (almost never?) replace the functionality of the NMS or EMS. But in return it should increase the…

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13/04/2016 No Comments

Test harnesses

"With everything going towards continuous delivery, ironic how you don’t see any unit test apparatus in the products. Even the new stuff. Asking for a Unit test harness is like asking for an Audi engine in a Chevy truck." Douglas Stevenson. Great call-out here from Dougie in a comment about why Network Engineers don't trust software. DevOps / continuous delivery is all about providing a constantly…

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12/04/2016 No Comments

Vivo upgrades Netcracker

Vivo Accelerates Service Delivery Capabilities by Upgrading Netcracker Solution. Netcracker Technology announced that Vivo, the largest telecommunications service provider in Brazil, is upgrading Netcracker’s Activation Manager solution to streamline the process of bringing innovative new services to market. The upgraded solution’s newer features will support Vivo’s long-term business growth strategies and reduce total cost of ownership. Vivo is the leading telecommunications service provider in Brazil, offering…

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08/04/2016 No Comments

Sometimes you just need a new teacher

I was walking along a city street between meetings recently and overheard the tiniest snippet of a conversation between a couple walking in the opposite direction - "sometimes you just need a new teacher." What a great, random insight. One of the great things about being an OSS consultant and assisting many clients and their customers with their OSS is the ever-changing array of teachers to…

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08/04/2016 No Comments

Network Engineers don’t trust software…

A very clever colleague of mine, Keith, recently stated, "The failing of network engineers is that they don't trust software (ie OSS, NMS, etc)." Do you agree with Keith? Do you feel that most network engineers prefer to work from the command line rather than the GUI? If so, why is that? Lack of confidence in tools based on past failures or functionality gaps? Speed /…

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07/04/2016 4 Comments

Augmented Reality meets Decision Support

In yesterday's post we discussed how Virtual Reality (VR) can be utilised in OSS. Today we look at how OSS and Augmented Reality (AR) to be further augmented with decision support systems to help OSS operators. As a starting point for this exercise, we have to think about what OSS situations have a spatial reality so it seems logical to start at genba, the real place.…

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06/04/2016 No Comments

Virtual Reality meets Decision Support

Have you noticed that Augmented Reality / Virtual Reality seem to be the next big thing lately? Whilst the concept has been around for years, it seems to be trending strongly this year, perhaps because applications are starting to make use of recent technology advances. So where do these technologies fit into the future of OSS? Virtual Reality is exactly that - it's all simulated /…

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05/04/2016 No Comments

Statistical Exception Detection System (SEDS)

One of the many features of OSS is that they're great at monitoring network performance and alerting operators of any threshold breaches. Initially these thresholds were static. For example if the CPU utilisation on a router goes above x% then an alert gets raised. But this technique has flaws in that there might be recurring peaks (such as 9am on Monday morning when everyone is synching…

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04/04/2016 No Comments

PLDT invests in MATRIXX

PLDT Capital invests in MATRIXX Software. PLDT through its investment arm, PLDT Capital, has invested US$5 million in California-based MATRIXX Software, provider of real-time, integrated infrastructure for the business of digital service providers. PLDT mobile subsidiary SMART Communications is also deploying MATRIXX Software’s real-time Digital Commerce platform for its mobile business. MATRIXX will enable SMART, the country’s largest mobile network, to deliver an array of lifestyle…

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02/04/2016 No Comments

Are you noticing the shift too?

Are you noticing a slow, but just perceptible shift being driven by the most progressive CSPs towards the slimming down of their OSS? And not just the yo-yo dieting where there's a brief period of reduction followed by increased bloat, but sustained reductionist thinking. Making do without some of the features being offered by vendors on the basis of it adding complexity but not adding value…

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01/04/2016 No Comments