Network equipment

SaaS could be 2009 capex avoidance plan

Many are expecting that companies will turn to cloud computing to avoid capex in 2009, and there are certainly indicators that would suggest that at least some are doing just that. Past history and buyer research. however, shows that companies often stand pat on older strategies during a downturn and change only when things get a bit better again.

In past declines, companies have not switched technologies as fast as in good times, even to apply cost savings. The reason is that they’re afraid of disrupting operations when they need all the sales and profit they can get. We expect that cloud computing might do extremely well in 2009 relative to current levels, but not explode as some expect.

In 2010, we could see a considerable ramp in cloud computing use. Software as a service (SaaS), on the other hand, appears likely to have a noticeable surge in sales in 2009 as companies turn to the model to avoid short-term application investments and expansions in IT due to new software needs.

China to invest $40 billion in 3G network

China will likely invest at least $40 billion in a faster 3G network based on China’s own TD-SCDMA, which differs from the international standards. The investment is expected to benefit primarily Chinese manufacturers. This may be an indicator that some major economies will spend to support their own industry rather than simply erect trade barriers or take other overt steps.

The U.S. decision to aid the auto industry would be regarded by some as a subsidy, again showing that countries will tread carefully to avoid poisoning the free trade atmosphere but at the same time support their own manufacturing sector as a necessary part of economic recovery.

Questions on whether Huawei has ties to the Chinese government and the military (particularly the PLA) have swirled for some time and have now been raised again in financial circles, which suggest that the Chinese giant may plan an IPO.

Cisco and blade server plans

Cisco has not been shy in pushing the envelope of what a networking company does, and one extension that’s been rumored for quite a while has now appeared in public—though still as a rumor. Cisco is said to be working on a blade server product family, something that would extend the company’s reach into the service layer of the network. The move would, in our view, help Cisco with service providers whose focus increasingly is on servers and service delivery platforms (SDPs) and higher-layer features.

 It would also help in the enterprise to support hosted applications that are tightly coupled with the network, including unified communications (UC). One impact of this step would be to formalize Cisco’s entry into the IT space, something that’s been inevitable anyway as Cisco works to rise up the value chain.

 In all, we believe this rumor is absolutely true and a good thing for Cisco. It will put considerable pressure on Cisco’s competitors, especially Alcatel-Lucent and Juniper, to flesh out their own strategies. Alcatel-Lucent has already announced a strategic shift to the “online ecosystem” that links developers and telcos, but Juniper has not articulated a strategy here yet, though the company has spoken at conferences on the topic of open networks.

Good season for start-up acquisition

Tellabs is indicating it may be willing to use its strong balance sheet for some down-market M&A, something that we think might be a very good idea for a lot of the larger players in the current market.

The industry is filled with small startups, some of which have good technology and strong roles in the network of the future, but little mindshare or account control. As investor fears mount, the price of these smaller players is dropping, making them a decent buy.

We believe that the deals will have to be made before the end of 1Q09, however, because it’s likely the new administration will be able to move forward enough that a recovery (not a full one, mind you) will be visible in the second half.

Cisco’s four-day holiday: Signaling stability?

Cisco plans an unprecedented shutdown for four days during the holiday period, part of a plan to achieve over a billion dollars in cost savings to help counter the impact of the downturn in IT and networking spending.

We believe the step is a kiss blown at Wall Street, something Cisco knows is likely not to be the right answer but that may be necessary to support the stock price in the near term. Even in that light, we believe the move to be unwise because it tars Cisco with the brush of a firm experiencing problems in the downturn, something competitors might play on directly but that will indirectly challenge the most basic value proposition Cisco presents to buyers—stability.

Ericsson develops packet-optical gear for metro surge

Ericsson is fielding a line of packet optical gear designed to address the expected surge in metro networking. The new products will support a T-MPLS control plane, but Ericsson plans to upgrade to the more modern MPLS-TP and is also considering PBT (PBB-TE).

Metro capacity may be driven by a host of factors in 2009 and 2010 and the operators may be more interested than usual in the optical layer. This has implications on the Carrier Ethernet and IP MPLS wars since optical spending tends to encourage operators to deploy some control plane architecture, and that could then pull through either switches or routers.

Alcatel-Lucent CEO and chairman say goodbye after more losses

Alcatel-Lucent’s Russo and Tchuruk, the CEO and Chairman respectively, are resigning after the company posted yet another loss in the quarterly earnings announcement. The move was applauded by many (most) financial analysts, who believe the team has not been able to sustain the momentum of the companies individually, taking essentially the worst of both.

There is no question that the merger was among the worst in the market’s history in terms of the strategic loss of momentum. However, it is far from clear what will happen now. First, there is no indication who will take over from Russo; no credible candidates have been leaked. Second, the cultural problems of the two companies remain to be addressed. Third, the layers of middle management that were as much the problem as the senior management remain in place, creating a confused muddle of reporting depth that has made it difficult to make bold decisions.

There is a lot to fix, and yet there is also no question that ALU has the best strategic talent and the strongest position in a technical sense in the market today.

Report on IP traffic growth greatly exaggerated?

UBS has released a sector report on telecom that suggests that the slowing IP traffic growth will threaten router vendors. While the firm has long taken a rather bearish stance on the industry, this seems more alarming and less justified than most positions.

We know of no credible reports of slowing IP traffic growth; in fact, the increased deployment of high-speed broadband seems to promise the opposite. However, beneath its questionable main thesis is an essential truth, which is that while IP traffic growth may not be slowing, the IP revenue ramp is definitely slowing. Service providers, like everyone else, invest for profits, and revenue per bit has been declining.

We have seen pitch after pitch from the service providers talking about their strategies for transformation, but we have also heard these same providers tell us that their barrier today is equipment vendors that have not followed up on operators’ published strategies. The trend toward usage pricing and caps, and traffic metering, are all related to the need to curtail costs to match revenue potential. If equipment vendors want to continue to sell gear, they need to step up in the NGN revenue game, not just push boxes.

Telecoms focus in on business model transformation

An IBM study of telecommunications predicts that operators will be less focused on simple revenue growth or cost reduction and more on business model transformation in the coming five years. This harmonizes with our own survey, if one considers that “business model transformation” means redirecting business focus on different activities. One import of the shift that IBM focuses on is that this almost certainly involves more IT focus than pure network equipment focus, which we believe strongly to be true. This is likely another datapoint validating Cisco’s software shift, and it shows other vendors the direction to take. It also raises the question of whether IBM might either acquire or partner more strongly with a network vendor for service provider networking.