News tagged: analytics

03 August, 2020

Why data-driven decision management is the differentiator for CSPs

Communications service providers (CSP) are surrounded by challenges from all directions, writes Robin Duke-Woolley, the chief executive of Beecham Research. Their central service offering has commoditised, growth is constrained by market saturation and they have no option but to invest billions in capex in the next generation of mobile technology. Against this unappealing background, they have to deliver great experiences or customers will walk. (more…)

19 July, 2019

Volaris acquires MDS Global to add to telecoms software portfolio

BSS provider MDS Global has been acquired by Volaris Group, the operating group of Constellation Software, in a twelfth acquisition by the company in the Communications and Media vertical.

(more…)

18 January, 2019

How to set your business up for networking success in 2019

The past 12 months have been challenging, even turbulent, for a lot of businesses. The continued drive towards digitalisation, the promise of emerging technologies and increasing cyber-threats has left many with lots of plates to spin. While I unfortunately can’t promise IT departments an easy year ahead, 2019 holds a lot of opportunity, too, wrties John Morrison, the vice president for EMEA sales and services at Extreme Networks. It will be a balancing act, but for those who get it right, they will set themselves up for success in 2019 and beyond. With this in mind, what are the top network trends for 2019, and what should businesses be aware of to drive growth but remain secure?

Security and IoT management
On average, there is some form of cyberattack every 39 seconds, and by 2021 the expected cost of cybercrime will be US$6 trillion per year, according to Comparitech. As the number of IoT devices increases, so too does the need for organisations to protect and secure business critical data. This means that companies need to strike the right balance between security and gathering important information and insights.

In 2019, businesses will take steps to protect their IoT investments and safeguard confidential company data through even greater investment in IoT security and management tools. Specifically, IT departments will turn to AI and machine learning to do a lot of the heavy lifting. As a further precaution, there will be a focus on the segmentation of applications, devices and networks to mitigate the impact of any data breach.

Automation, machine learning and analytics

Until fairly recently, network operations had been a manual, time consuming process for IT, with changes to the network configuration to support new apps potentially taking weeks. By tapping into the capabilities of automation, processes are being streamlined, meaning that IT can focus on more strategic projects and tasks.

By 2021, more than 25% of network infrastructure services will include autonomous self-managing packages, according to IDC. With automation, businesses can transform processes and workflows. In fact, a critical component of network-wide automation is network fabrics. Fabrics will continue to see widespread use in 2019, to support automation and simplify network operations across the data centre and campus networks. Machine learning technologies will be applied more widely too, going to the next level to provide more effective analytics, taking the guesswork out of network management.

Better networks and better wireless
From laptops to smartphones, to IoT devices and everything in between, connectivity is king and that crown won’t slip in 2019; more specifically, wireless connectivity. With the explosion in the number of IoT devices deployed creating a need for greater capacity, networks have needed to catch up. Enterprise organisations have responded in turn with many planning a move to 802.11ax, also known as Wi-Fi 6.

Wi-Fi 6 delivers high efficiency, while also offering capabilities for automation and programmability to streamline network operations. While Wi-Fi 6 is still relatively in its infancy, organisations in 2019 will start to deploy Wi-Fi 6 equipment and solutions, not just to meet demand today, but future-proof against even greater volumes of data in the future too.

Cloud and multi-cloud environments
Cloud and multi-cloud environments have significantly impacted the enterprise network, and they will continue to do so in 2019: in fact, the global cloud computing market is set to exceed US$200 billion this year. As organisations keep working towards their digital transformation goals, hybrid cloud deployments will become more common.

In order to support hybrid cloud deployments, it’s important for organisations to select management and visibility solutions that work across a mix of cloud-managed or on-premise deployments, and ideally those solutions would work across multi-vendor environments to ensure the most efficiencies.

Make your 2019 networking resolutions a reality
There will be a myriad of opportunities for businesses this year to further digitalisation. AI, automation and machine learning will help to streamline network operations, empowering IT to focus on more strategic, transformative projects. Wi-Fi 6 will usher in the next generation of connectivity, delivering consistently high performance across a variety of environments. While 2019 will bring significant advancements in digital transformation, businesses will need to keep a security-first mind-set when looking to implement and benefit from IoT devices across the enterprise. We’re excited for what’s in store for 2019, and are looking forward to the opportunities and challenges this year will bring.

19 December, 2018

Increasing numbers of NPMD tools are a problem for SMBs

Over the past few years the network performance monitoring and diagnostics (NPMD) industry has developed more and more specialized tools for specific network functions, writes Joe O’Connor, the senior vice president of Channels and Alliances at LiveAction.

(more…)

27 September, 2018

Use predictive analytics to perfect the customer experience

Staying in business is increasingly a challenge for companies, let alone expanding and attracting new customers. But in today’s competitive landscape, growth and diversification is a necessity. Wisdom tells us that companies that don’t grow eventually shrink. When companies stagnate they don’t improve, while the competition does. To stay on top of their game, companies have to innovate, understand and meet customers’ needs and deliver a superior customer experience. This is where predictive analytics can help, writes Jonathan Wax, the vice president for EMEA of NICE Nexidia.

  (more…)

14 September, 2018

AI is already delivering savings in the fight against fraud

Every business today is facing a host of new threats in the communications world. Telecoms service providers are no different, and the growing challenge that is VoIP and toll fraud is now estimated to cost £25.5bn globally; more than double that of credit card fraud, writes Carl Boraman, the director of strategic alliances and Tollring.

(more…)

20 June, 2018

Why machine learning is helping the move from hindsight to foresight

It’s a pretty safe bet to say that former US President Theodore Roosevelt would have loved machine learning, writes Derek Canfield, the general manager for Business Analytics at TEOCO.  He left behind a treasure trove of quotes, but one of his most famous ones is perhaps even truer today than it was for Teddy.

(more…)

08 June, 2018

TIBCO Software acquires integration Platform-as-a-Service provider Scribe Software

TIBCO Software Inc., a global provider in integration, API management, and analytics, announced the acquisition of Scribe Software, an innovative, cloud-based integration service that helps more than 10,000 businesses efficiently connect Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications and automate data flows using an intuitive browser-based approach. (more…)

01 June, 2018

Digital Twin technology: Double up to meet the challenges of IoT & 5G

There are many complex objects and machines in the world – ships, aircraft engines and petrochemical plants to name three that have always fascinated me. Determining what such an intricate machine or facility is doing at any given moment, or even more importantly, (more…)

30 May, 2018

Make sense of your marketing signals with artificial intelligence

It doesn’t feel like too long since IT and telecoms were very separate entities, writes Carl-Erik Kjaersgaard, the chief executive and co-founder of artificial intelligence and media analytics company, Blackwood Seven.

(more…)