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22 February, 2019
It’s a challenging time for telcos, as the expectations of their subscribers rocket, and they attempt to mitigate a huge transition under the auspices of new networking and communications standards, writes Nathan Rader the director of NFV strategy at Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu.
18 January, 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.
25 October, 2018
Mobile carriers in emerging and developed markets might operate in very different market conditions but the challenges they face are remarkably similar: stagnating subscriber growth, squeezed profit margins and a commoditization of services, writes Albrecht von der Recke, the founder and COO of fonYou.
18 October, 2018
Having recently won a significant contract with Filipino operator Globe, David Sharpley, the chief executive of Incognito Software, talks to VanillaPlus managing editor George Malim about the deployment and how he sees operators’ needs changing as their digital transformations progress and devices proliferate in the Internet of Things (IoT) mainstream.
15 October, 2018
In the second part of their article, Chris Gilmour, the technical practice lead, and Mark Holder, an account director, at Axians UK, outline a five-step approach to next generation network success.
11 October, 2018
Now is not an easy time to be a communications service provider (CSP). On one side there’s pressure to expand infrastructure to deal with growing customer demands for data and on the other, an increasing level of competition and constant pressure to provide customers with new, innovative services, write Chris Gilmour, the technical practice lead, and Mark Holder, an account director, at Axians UK.
This combination of factors is generating networks that are significantly more complex than was the case even five years ago. Future-gazers are constantly predicting the next big thing in tech, with many seeing automation and artificial intelligence (AI) as the keys to differentiation that can increase profit margins and solve network complexity problems that hold business back.
But infrastructure changes are not restricted to software and bots. It’s entirely possible that the fundamentals of tomorrow’s networks are already in place, just waiting for the innovation that will bring them to life. Modern platforms, that is to say those built within the last three to five years, frequently hold vast amounts of functionality and programmability that are simply not being used at the moment.
Putty in your hands
Throughout history, innovators have worked with limited resources to create something ground-breaking, and networks work on very similar principles now. For any given business there can be hundreds of opportunities to tweak existing network configuration to make it work better, more efficiently or more distinctively to add value to the enterprise. There may even be scope for a whole new product or product line: just as Play-Doh started life as wallpaper cleaner but became a market-leading toy for children, so a network can be programmed and changed to make better, more wide-ranging or simply new products.
The network is the key enabler of any CSP’s business, and while it is complex it is also the place where costs can be contained and services managed and generated. Customers rely on it, so providers are understandably keen to maintain a steady state, and it unquestionably consumes a great deal of resource as staff work hard to provide the services that customers increasingly rely on for their day-to-day needs. But the fact remains that any modern platform is likely to contain a substantial amount of unused capability that the CSP could be exploiting to reduce costs, reduce customer churn and increase revenue – but they’re not. Why?
Very often, the issue is one of resource. Communications service providers are so busy, with their heads down doing the day job, that it can be hard to look up and survey the possibilities. It’s hard enough launching new products, let alone reconfiguring the very core of the business. But CSPs also know that they simply can’t afford to neglect their infrastructure and pin their hopes on the next big thing. Network efficiency, meeting customer demand and creating new services are the key to their continued success; they must be able to respond to current challenges and future-proof the business.
The situation facing CSPs today has parallels in some of the best-known innovations in history. Alexander Bell’s invention of the telephone was not a stand-alone event, it catalysed further progress. It led to Emil Berliner’s development of new sound recording processes, which in turn gave birth to the music industry. That industry generated new customer needs, and goods and services to meet those needs. Just as network capability does today.
The good news is that there is often more help and expertise to be had, closer to home and more easily, than CSPs realise.
22 August, 2018
As 5G prepares for commercial launch, more work is necessary on the use cases that will justify the steep investment required. George Malim, the managing editor of VanillaPlus, interviews Patrick López, a board member of 5TONIC, an open lab initiated by Telefónica and IMDEA Networks Institute with a vision to create an open research and innovation ecosystem laboratory in which industry and academia come together to boost 5G technology and business innovation, to find out where the most fertile areas for development exist.
George Malim: What is 5TONIC, why has it been established and what are its goals?
Patrick López: 5TONIC is a lab, an open lab, for research and innovation and the idea behind it came about because our industry hasn’t been especially good at developing the technology for specific use cases and segments of the population. For instance, 3G [development] was about push-to-talk because at the time, in the US, the mobile operator Nextel had amazing revenue per user from push-to-talk over wireless. That’s how we ended up with push-to-talk but everyone missed that Nextel’s revenues weren’t because of push-to-talk, they were because of its demographic. Its overwhelming customer base was SMEs, with many in the construction industry, who were using push-to-talk. Other demographics were not so interested in push-to-talk.
Similarly, with 4G, the technology was pushed by the industry in order to enable voice over LTE (VoLTE) but users don’t care if voice is IP or circuit-switched – voice is voice. We missed that 4G would be mostly about video and it took years to get that to work properly.
Therefore, with 5G we’re looking at what users want. We’re looking to understand from a 5G perspective what needs to be done to satisfy specific needs. In that sense, very purposefully, the group here has been trying to identify specific industries with needs that are not satisfied today that can be satisfied by 5G.
It’s about finding the cases that will justify 5G on one hand but also about understanding if there are any gaps that need to be filled to meet requirements. We have assembled a consortium of multi-disciplinary companies composed of universities, research organisations, telecoms operators and vendors from the whole spectrum of telecoms. Capabilities run from chipsets to radio to integration and we feel we have, at a high level, all the actors that can create a new 5G experience. We then prototype and try to learn what can be done technically and what is the value of the use cases economically to organisations.
GM: You’ve recently been awarded key roles in the €50m, European Union 5G programme. What is your involvement?
PL: This group started as a collaborative effort and funding a lab to develop pre-5G technology in order to be able to solve some of the problems of different industries. In the process of that, 5tonic has become recognised as one of the leading open labs in the EU and been involved in a number of 5G projects. We’re involved in several parts of the EU Horizon 2020 programme including: 5G EVE (European Validation platform for Extensive trials) which aims to create the foundations for the roll-out of end-to-end 5G neworks in Europe, 5G-VINNI (5G Verticals INNovation Infrastructure) which looks to accelerate the uptake of 5G in Europe by providing an end-to-end (E2E) facility that validates the performance of new 5G technologies by operating trials of advanced vertical sector services, and 5GGENESIS (5th Generation End-to-end Network, Experimentation, System Integration, and Showcasing) which will create an integrated end-to-end 5G facility where 5G network key performance indicators (KPIs) for various 5G use cases can be validated and brought together with a view towards their integration in one united full-stack, end-to-end 5G platform.
GM: You already have a cross-section of companies from the 5G community as members. Will you be seeking new participants in 5tonic?
PL: It’s an open lab so, although we’re not actively seeking new members and there’s no recruitment process, we’re very happy to welcome any company in the 5G ecosystem that wants to come in and collaborate – provided they meet the criteria set out in our charter. Manageability, in terms of the number of companies involved, hasn’t been an issue for us yet.
GM: What are the motivations of the members for engaging and collaborating in 5tonic?
PL: I think that, to be open, it’s about profitability. 5G isn’t going to be successful if we collectively, massively invest without understanding where the money is going to come from. There’s an inkling that the bulk of the revenue isn’t going to come from consumers. Customers are broadly happy with the services they get now so enterprises and industries are key to make 5G a reality.
We’re looking at two main areas: large industrial segments that are most likely to benefit from 5G including Industry 4.0, automation and robotics and with segments that are relevant in local markets. For example, in Spain tourism is more relevant to the country’s GDP so it’s logical that we work to investigate how 5G can better tourism clients’ experiences.
05 June, 2018
Automation is fast coming to a range of industries, bringing greater efficiencies, lower operating costs and more flexible service delivery. But will the telecoms industry be in the front line when the negative effects of automation kick in, asks Peter Dykes? (more…)
01 June, 2018
Artificial intelligence (AI) is rarely far from the headlines these days. While the technology isn’t new, the hype that surrounds it has reached fever pitch – we’re constantly hearing about the latest AI-based innovation transforming its industry. Little wonder then that organisations of all stripes are rushing to implement their own AI solutions, keen to realise the benefits it promises, writes Ravi Palepu, the global head of telco solutions at Virtusa.
16 May, 2018
At this year’s Digital Transformation World, the re-named TM Forum Live! event held in Nice, France, this week, much of the conversation has been about just how far operators’ digital transformations will go, writes VanillaPlus managing editor, George Malim.
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