Passionate About OSS Blog | Passionate About OSS and BSS

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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 /…

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.…

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 /…

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…

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…

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…

01/04/2016 No Comments

Telefonica Germany adds more with Netcracker BSS

Telefónica Germany Delivers More Sophisticated Enterprise Services with Netcracker BSS. Netcracker Technology announced that Telefónica Germany has upgraded and extended its use of Netcracker’s Revenue Management solution. The new version of the solution and increased support will enable Telefónica Germany to simplify and accelerate its rating and billing processes for its B2B operations. With more than 48 million customer accesses, Telefónica Germany is one of the…

31/03/2016 No Comments

IT vs OT tensions

I'm currently working on an assignment where many of the client's customers seem to have real power struggle going on between the IT (Information Technology) and OT (Operational Technologies). Nothing unusual there. IP networks are already shifting the balance of power further towards IT. Network virtualisation is likely to tip the scales even further in the favour of IT. That means that OT is looking for…

31/03/2016 No Comments

Room for creatives

"Lately being a creative/analytical hybrid can be tough in a world filled with mathematics everywhere. Math makes order out of chaos, but it rarely is correct if you still can't measure everything meant to be measured. I think there was a quote from Albert Einstein about this topic. It went something like this, "Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can…

30/03/2016 1 Comment

Doing things that don’t scale

We're in tech right? Not just any tech, but O...S...S! Nah we're in the people business. No matter where we sit in the org chart, we need to understand people to build solutions Paul Graham talks about doing the things that don't scale. Does he have some great ideas or what? What doesn't scale: Understanding customers rather than assuming. Building relationships. So many of us fail…

29/03/2016 No Comments

Bhutan Telecom selects Ericsson BSS

Bhutan Telecom selects Ericsson for BSS overhaul. Bhutan Telecom has contracted Ericsson to transform its billing systems into a single environment supporting mobile, fixed line and broadband services. The operator has signed a BSS transformation contract with Ericsson covering the provision of a convergent platform for all billing needs. Ericsson will be responsible for design, deployment and systems integration of the platform, which the companies aim…

25/03/2016 No Comments

Prescriptive vs declarative OSS

"TOSCA models are 'declarative' in that they describe WHAT it is you’re trying to provision (as opposed to 'prescriptive' models that describe HOW you’re going to get there). ONF uses the term 'intent' to describe the same concept, and yet others refer to these types of models as 'desired-state' models. While there are subtle nuances between these terms, they all effectively describe the same idea. As…

25/03/2016 No Comments

SmarTone Upgrades Netcracker

SmarTone Upgrades Netcracker Revenue Management Solution to Simplify Billing Operations. Netcracker Technology announced that it has been selected to upgrade and extend its relationship with SmarTone. As part of the agreement, Netcracker will upgrade its leading-edge Revenue Management solution and extend its Systems Integration and Professional Services arrangement with SmarTone. SmarTone is a leading telecommunications company operating out of Hong Kong and Macau. It provides voice,…

24/03/2016 No Comments

Cisco completes acquisition of Jasper

Cisco Completes Acquisition of Jasper to Accelerate Enterprise IoT. Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO) has completed its $1.4B acquisition of Jasper, a privately held company based in Santa Clara, Calif. Jasper’s industry-leading cloud-based Internet of Things (IoT) service platform enables companies of all sizes to rapidly and cost-effectively launch, manage and monetize IoT services on a global scale. Our Vision Together With the acquisition, Jasper forms the new IoT…

24/03/2016 No Comments

Looking to OSS’s flying cars

Earlier this week we discussed how Peter Thiel's statement, "We wanted flying cars, instead we got 140 characters," and how it related to the world of OSS. One of Peter's ventures is the Founders Fund, a venture capital firm investing in smart people solving the world's difficult problems. The Founders Fund Manifesto is an inspirational call-to-arms for anyone in the technology space, one that I'd highly recommend…

23/03/2016 No Comments

Customer-facing roles

Last Friday I posted an article on "OSS resilience" that mentioned the need for resilience on OSS projects and how to measure it in your new hires. It highlighted the need for resilience in "customer-facing roles" in particular but I immediately realised the misrepresentation within this statement. I'm sitting here wracking my brain but can't think of any role that isn't customer facing... it just depends…

22/03/2016 No Comments

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