Passionate About OSS Blog | Passionate About OSS and BSS

Spark New Zealand selects Xstream

Spark New Zealand selects Xstream's Cloud-based OTT/TV Platform. Spark New Zealand (formerly Telecom NZ) has selected Xstream MediaMaker™, a cloud-based OTT/TV video management platform for its new OTT video service, Lightbox. Lightbox is a cross platform New Zealand-made subscription video on demand service (SVOD) that can be used across multiple devices, including laptop, desktop, iPad and Airplay on Apple TV. Xstream MediaMaker's in built device management…

01/09/2014 No Comments

Complex management of virtualised networks

"...the SDN idea is to separate out the control functions of the network into a cloud-like management layer leaving network elements in a data-forwarding layer. This means the smart component of networks can be made more efficient and less expensive by making use of the concepts of abstraction, modularity and virtualization that are already common in the IT world. At the same time the basic network…

01/09/2014 No Comments

MTBF for virtualised networks

"Under certain engineering assumptions ... the failure rate for a complex system is simply the sum of the individual failure rates of its components, as long as the units are consistent, e.g. failures per million hours. This permits testing of individual components or subsystems, whose failure rates are then added to obtain the total system failure rate" Wikipedia. When writing a recent blog about Data Centre…

31/08/2014 2 Comments

Value chain

"A value fabric is a mesh of interwoven, cooperating organizations and individuals collectively called parties. The value fabric shows the interaction among collaborating parties." Back in the first week of August 2014, we covered a series of blogs that discussed how OSS can provide supply chain differentiation and competitive advantages. Following this series, Evan Linwood suggested to have a closer look at the work of John…

30/08/2014 No Comments

DCIM Opportunities No. 3

"A hen is only an egg's way of making another egg." Samuel Butler. Three days ago, we discussed the similarities and differences between DCIM (Data Centre Infrastructure Management) and OSS. In it, we indicated that Data Centres (DCs) tend to have a higher proportion of virtualised assets than traditional CSPs. This isn't so much an opportunity, but a clear direction for the future of communications assets…

29/08/2014 No Comments

Cable South Media III extends with NetCracker

Cable South Media III Agrees to Multi-Year Hosted Managed Services Extension with NetCracker. NetCracker Technology announced that Cable South Media III has agreed to a multi-year extension of its hosted managed services agreement for NetCracker’s fully hosted order-to-cash solution. This solution supports ordering, provisioning and billing for all of Cable South Media III’s services. Cable South Media III is a U.S.-based cable operator delivering triple-play services,…

28/08/2014 No Comments

DCIM Opportunities No. 2

"GIS is a form of digital mapping technology. Kind of like Google Earth, but better." Arnold Schwarzenegger. Two days ago, we discussed the similarities and differences between DCIM (Data Centre Infrastructure Management) and OSS. In it, we indicated that Data Centres (DCs) tend to have less outside plant or inter-site connectivity (ie most power and network links tend to reside within the Data Centres), but cable management…

28/08/2014 No Comments

DCIM Opportunities

"The growth rate of DCIM far outstrips that for the datacenter equipment industries and for the enterprise IT segment as a whole; however, the actual numbers are still small compared with other categories of enterprise software (such as IT service management, ERP, databases or security). Nevertheless, the DCIM market is proving attractive to some big equipment suppliers." Rhonda Ascierto in a 451 Research Report. In yesterday's…

27/08/2014 No Comments

TM Forum Local Chapter Launches in Melbourne and Sydney

I have some great news to share. TM Forum is launching a new program called TM Forum Local and Australia is the first location in the world to form a local chapter. I’d like to invite you to be part of the kick-off in Australia. TM Forum Local lets you connect and network with like-minded people local to your area. At our Local events, you can meet,…

26/08/2014 No Comments

DCIM – Data Centre Infrastructure Management

"It is very important to get both IT and facilities groups together before even jotting down the requirement for a DCIM solution. One needs to look at holistic solutions and not treat IT and facilities management as two different silos." Vivek Vikram Singh. Data Centre Infrastructure Management (DCIM) shares much of its DNA with OSS, but also has a number of unique differences. Similarities: IT and…

26/08/2014 No Comments

The CAPEX dichotomy

"I am into selling ones and zeros and transporting them better than anybody else." Randall L. Stephenson (CEO of AT&T) The table below (as researched on 17 July 2015) is a tale of two ages in the world of communications. The first set of five are carriers, organisations born in the industrial age that are asset-heavy and rely on those assets to derive a bulk of their income. The…

25/08/2014 No Comments

Revenue from apps

"As you can see from the chart only 3% of mobile app developers are making more than $100k per month/$1.2m per year. Assuming the same power law applies as monthly revenues scale further it’s a fair guess that only 3% of that 3%, i.e. 0.1%, are making $1m+ per month or $12m+ per year. That’s one in a thousand making enough to be interesting as a…

22/08/2014 1 Comment

Cisco & Zenoss expand alliance

Cisco & Zenoss expand alliance. Zenoss announces an expanded alliance with Cisco Systems. Building on their previous Cloud Service Assurance product, Zenoss is developing Cisco UCS Performance Manager. UCS Performance Manager will be sold exclusively by Cisco, directly and through worldwide partners. Based the Zenoss platform and enriched with Cisco expertise, the new product helps customers make the most of their UCS infrastructure. UCS Performance Manager…

22/08/2014 No Comments

Pieces of the provisioning puzzle

"The art of simplicity is a puzzle of complexity." Douglas Horton. Consolidated service orchestration requires you to solve the puzzle of complexity and deliver a wonderfully simple, repeatable engine for your operations team. It looks simple and it sounds simple, but the following list provides just a handful of the pre-requisite tasks you'll need to complete before even considering building a consolidated service orchestration capability: Naming…

21/08/2014 No Comments

Internet of Things is exploding

"The internet already connects everyone and it’s about to connect everything. The ubiquity of always-on connectivity, the declining price and increasing versatility of sensors, and the benefits of remote information and control is prompting a new generation of devices ranging from doorknobs to thermostats to refridgerators to lightbulbs. From the largest technology and manufacturing companies to a cavalcade of startups, the Internet of Things is exploding." Appinions.…

20/08/2014 No Comments

NetworkMining releases new probes

NetworkMining announces the latest release of Probes. NetworkMining, today announces the latest extension of its probe portfolio. NetworkMining’s probes are pre-integrated adapters towards vendor specific network management systems and devices. The collected data is further processed, normalized and stored in NetworkMining’s configuration management database. NetworkMining introduces today MTNM probes for systems supplied by ECI and Huawei. These probes discover network resources via TMF-814 compliant, CORBA based…

19/08/2014 No Comments

The two most common OSS tools

"John D. Rockefeller wanted to dominate oil, but Microsoft wants it all, you name it: cable, media, banking, car dealerships." Ralph Nader. As a friend of mine often says, "the two most commonly used OSS tools are Microsoft Excel 2007 and 2010." Whether it's design packs, address management, joint/splice schedules, asset lists, etc, etc, etc, spreadsheet tools are used within OSS workflows in almost every company…

19/08/2014 No Comments

A user interface is like a joke…

"A user interface is like a joke. If you have to explain it, it's not that good." StartupVitamins. Very funny! I've seen lots of OSS interfaces that are like a joke. Some funny. Some not so funny. In general, OSS interfaces need more explaining than they should. In part that comes from interfacing with complex subject matter, but I still feel we can do a lot…

18/08/2014 No Comments

Vendor selection using Gartner magic quadrant

"A lawsuit filed Tuesday (ed. 5 Aug 2014) in Connecticut Superior Court accuses tech analyst firm Gartner Research of demanding kickbacks in exchange for favorable placement in the company’s famous Magic Quadrant report. NetScout, a Massachusetts-based manufacturer of network performance management products, says in court documents that companies that pay for Gartner’s consulting services are ranked above those that do not, and that this is the…

17/08/2014 1 Comment

International mergers

"The world’s telecommunications market with its national fiefdoms, loose market deregulation, over-bearing government regulation and occasional fierce competition lends itself to M&A as a means of growing, and sometimes sustaining revenues, by accessing new markets. Whilst telcos still have cash they are better positioned to buy in foreign markets as their own markets may see M&A as anti-competition." Tony Poulos on BillingViews. Interesting article by Tony…

16/08/2014 2 Comments

A lot of moving parts

"A job with a lot of moving parts benefits from a brain that has a lot of moving parts." Nolan Bushnell. The quote above comes from Nolan's book entitled, "Finding the Next Steve Jobs," which I'm currently reading. It covers Nolan's personal experiences with Steve (he was Steve's boss at Atari and friend thereafter), but the book is more about innovation and creativity than Steve. The…

15/08/2014 No Comments

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