Demystifying the fast emerging Carrier Cloud
“Becoming and staying relevant in today’s cloud environment is not only driven by offering more services faster, but also by understanding the emergence of new tectonic plates such as the fast shifting Carrier Cloud. This is a game changing paradigm, one which entails the underlying infrastructure and platform behind NFV, Network Functions Virtualization coupled with SDN, Software Defined Networking, at scale.”
“Moreover, the rationale behind engineering next generation SDPs, Service Delivery Platforms, and OSS, Operations Support Systems, in the digital communications industry has to do with delivering a pool of shared and fully automated network resources that developers addressing multimedia services (voice, video, data) with QoS, Quality of Service, do not need to replicate and can, therefore, take advantage of with the right SLA, Service Level Agreements, in place.”
“This redefines mutually beneficial “coopetition” where rich communication services are set to outdo or even make over-the-top ones better. A perfect match for Carrier Clouds purposely built to deliver a pool of shared cloud and network infrastructure: a programmable carrier grade fabric enabling the ecosystem to operate with unprecedented agility, unparalleled scalability and, equally important, at cost efficient levels. But what will it take to get there?
IIT Real Time Communications Conference & Expo – Program Schedule, Tuesday October 15 at 10:00am.
Tomorrow Tuesday I will be speaking at IIT Real Time Communications conference. I am scheduled to contribute to two sessions. The first one is a panel discussion that takes place at 9:00 am (see below). Thereafter, I will be presenting on “demystifying the fast emerging carrier cloud.”
My role in the panel is to cover the WAN, Wide Area Network, side of the story, which relates to how cloud technologies are impacting the more conventional network operator environment. Then, in my talk, I will further develop what the new carrier cloud entails and will position NFV, Network Functions Virtualization, and SDN, Software Defined Networking, as key developments in that space.
By the way, the above picture was taken at last year’s event where I also joined a panel. Back then, the topic I was engaged in had to do with a business ecosystem. Telcos and OTT, Over the Top, players did not yet see eye to eye for the most part. My belief was that we were already entering a new ecosystem where coopetition would become a fact of life for all of us. That should permeate through the value chain and, hence, happen in everyone’s best interest.
A year later, I do think that we are actually turning a corner for the better. The growing integration of IT and Carrier technologies is fostering one another’s awareness and understanding on what each brings to the table. That alone is changing behaviors on both sides by blending technologies and practices where it makes sense. We are now innovating at the intersection as well. Frankly speaking, many of us do not think that unnecessarily prolonging a debate in terms of seemingly irreconcilable bell-heads vs. net-heads is the way to go in what’s now the cloud age. So, I highly recommend attending Sarah Reedy’s panel discussion on Tuesday at 3:00 pm, which will involve T-Mobile’s Ahmad Armand, AT&T’s Mike Paradise and Comcast’s Ken Greene.
See you at IIT Real Time Communications Conference 2013.
“Panel participants will provide a set of defined perspectives that will allow participants to put each of the presentations of the Cloud Track into the context of the Cloud Service Consumer, Cloud Service Provider, and Cloud Service Creator. The Security, Resiliency, Performance and Governance of the Cloud will be woven into the discussion as examples are presented.”
IIT Real Time Communications Conference & Expo – Program Schedule, Tuesday October 15 at 09:00am.