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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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.…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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15/08/2014 No Comments

Vodafone India selects Ericsson

Vodafone India selects Ericsson to transform prepaid charging system for over 75 million subscribers. Ericsson has successfully deployed its Charging System for Vodafone India. The Ericsson Charging System enables a host of new services like flexible refill, community charging and real time balance notifications among several other different voice and data offerings for over 75 million prepaid customers. These customers will now be able to adjust…

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14/08/2014 No Comments

Globe selects NCR Bill Pay

NCR Bill Pay solution allows Globe Telecom to improve in-store customer experience and store operations. NCR Corporation announced that Globe Telecom, a leading telecommunications provider in the Philippines, chose the NCR Bill Pay solution allowing customers to quickly pay their bills in a store without employee assistance. In the retail locations where the NCR Bill Pay solution has been installed, Globe Telecom has seen dramatic customer…

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14/08/2014 No Comments

Mediacom extends with CSG

Mediacom Communications Extends Contract with CSG. CSG International announced that MediacomCommunications Corporation, the nation's eighth largest cable television company, has renewed its strategic partnership with CSG to support the delivery of service differentiation and innovation to Mediacom's 1.3 million customers. CSG and Mediacom enjoy a relationship that spans more than 15 years. Under the terms of the multiyear contract extension, Mediacom will broaden the end-to-end customer…

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14/08/2014 No Comments

Branding your Lexus OSS

"It’s one thing to be a ahead of your time. It’s another to change the future." Lexus. Do telcos need differentiated prestige brands, in much the same way as Lexus is to Toyota? Do they need to differentiate their bit and byte businesses from solution integration and again from apps/content, etc? Telcos tend to be trusted providers of bit and byte and all manner of other…

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14/08/2014 2 Comments

EMEA Group Operator signs Redknee

Leading EMEA Group Operator Signs $17 Million of Orders with Redknee. Redknee Solutions Inc. announced that a leading group operator in EMEA has signed multiple software and services orders totaling more than $17 million with Redknee. These new deals will support the group operator to deliver innovative data services faster to the market and maintain its market leading position across multiple countries. Utilizing Redknee Unified, Redknee’s…

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13/08/2014 No Comments

Land and expand!

"A smart manager will establish a culture of gratitude. Expand the appreciative attitude to suppliers, vendors, delivery people, and of course, customers." Harvey Mackay. Over the years, I've noticed an approach that is used by some OSS solution integrators / vendors but interestingly, not by others. It's what's known as "land and expand." It's when the supplier manages to develop a small OSS foothold and then…

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13/08/2014 No Comments

Telem Group Selects Centina Systems

Telem Group Selects Centina Systems for End-to-End Network Visibility to Improve Operational Efficiencies. Centina Systems announced that Telem Group is set to deploy its NetOmnia™ suite of solutions for real-time end-to-end visibility of the network and improved troubleshooting and problem resolution. Telem Group’s selection of Centina’s NetOmnia™ Fault and Performance Management and Service Vision solutions are to support the company’s entire infrastructure for cellular, DSL, VoIP…

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12/08/2014 No Comments

OSS Skunk-works

"Executive consultant at specialist software development consultancy ThoughtWorks Leslie Barry says the skunk works division becomes a safe place for experimentation. “You do that to attract a different culture that wants to try new things, get stuff done and get it out there faster,” Barry says. “It is about attracting smart, engaged people and giving them a space to work in. And they will almost hack…

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12/08/2014 No Comments

If big data is collected in a forest….

"If big data is collected in a forest and nobody is around to mine it, are any insights found?" Ryan Jeffery. To quote David Prior, "Big Data is Rubbish." Click on the link to find out why. Check out slide 42 in particular. Whether you want to call it BIIIIG DATAAAAA or just data, OSS are great at collecting lots of the stuff. Cool! But now…

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11/08/2014 No Comments