Apr 29 2008 6:02PM GMT
Posted by: Tom Nolle
cloud computing,
IBM,
Cisco
Cloud computing may be heading for a major role in the marketing plans of major vendors like Sun, HP, IBM, and Microsoft. Since the Internet is really an information network, it is really as much or more about storage and software as about network routers and other bit-moving gear, and IBM’s recent announcement of cloud computing support shows that the big IT players want to formalize their participation in and control of the server side. We believe that cloud computing activity will also push out into enterprise computing, and that it is a major part of IBM’s strategy to wrestle control of networking away from Cisco and its competitors.
Apr 4 2008 4:55PM GMT
Posted by: Tom Nolle
Open source,
Networking,
Telecom
We have launched an open source project to develop service logic execution environments (SLEEs) and service management execution environments (SMEEs) for NGN services. The initiative is called “ExperiaSphere,” and we are now actively seeking contributors and partners in the process. We’ve established a website wiki (www.experiasphere.wikispaces.com) for this new venture, and we invite our clients and those who read this blog to review the material there from time to time as the concept develops. Some coding is already started for this activity, and we expect to be making media announcements in May.
Apr 3 2008 12:54PM GMT
Posted by: Tom Nolle
Comcast,
Broadband,
Cable
Comcast will be rolling out a DOCSIS 3.0 trial in Minnesota, with the top download speed 50 Mbps (5 Mbps upload). The service will be the first deployment of the faster cable modem standard, and the interest level will be high since DOCSIS 3.0 is the only architecture that can rival FTTH in performance. However, it’s interesting that Comcast is deploying in Qwest’s territory; the operator has only DSL in contrast to its eastern rival Verizon, whose FiOS can also offer 50 Mbps in some areas. We note that DOCSIS 3.0 is still a shared-media technology with less capacity available per user than FTTH can support, and the upload speed for cable is much lower than for FiOS (which now offers 20/20 symmetrical and 30/20 asymmetrical in some areas).
Mar 26 2008 12:18PM GMT
Posted by: Tom Nolle
Juniper,
Routers,
Switches
David Yen, a kingpin in Sun’s revitalized microprocessor program, is leaving Sun for Juniper, where he will be an executive VP of Emerging Technologies, a move that certainly means that Juniper will be doing more original work with microprocessors and/or network processors. There has been a lot of new energy at Juniper in recent months, suggesting that the company is about to make some aggressive moves in the market to sustain its growth and take advantage of loss of market momentum by its mobile-exposed competitors.
Mar 18 2008 1:09PM GMT
Posted by: Tom Nolle
Metro Area Networks,
MPLS,
Carrier Ethernet
ECI is entering the Carrier Ethernet market, leveraging in part the MPLS tools that the company obtained from Laurel Networks when it acquired that company. This space is a critical one because it is the focus of some fundamental debates—is Ethernet a service framework or a metro architecture, and can it displace some or all of MPLS. We believe that Carrier Ethernet can be a service and metro architecture and can displace an important chunk of the MPLS opportunity, but only if providers understand how to build metro infrastructure from Ethernet and not just offer Ethernet services. ECI seems to be moving in the correct direction, but the details of its products are still too sparse to be sure.
Mar 13 2008 3:04PM GMT
Posted by: Tom Nolle
AT&T,
GPON,
Alcatel-Lucent
AT&T is working through its bidding process for GPON-based FTTH for new developments, a move that takes the company further down the path Verizon has already taken. It is not known how much of the Verizon architecture AT&T will mimic, and in particular if it will use the same linear RF broadcast TV delivery program over its own channel-slot Microsoft TV approach. How this plays out will be of enormous importance to equipment vendors because the decision to use FTTH and PON in any form bends the budget decisively toward the access network and empowers players like Alcatel-Lucent who can bid there. The fact that GPON empowers Alcatel-Lucent has been the seed of the internal battle between the GPON group and the router group, who don’t want broadcast over fiber at all.
Mar 10 2008 2:39PM GMT
Posted by: Tom Nolle
Juniper,
Routers,
Carrier Ethernet
Juniper held its analyst day on Thursday (March 6, 2008), and the company was more polished and articulate than on previous occasions. The message that the “online revolution” has created a demand for a new vision of network/computer coupling is strong and was supported strongly by a T-Systems speaker, but not seized as effectively by Juniper as we’d have liked. Juniper also failed to leverage clear references by T-Systems to IPsphere and TMF standards work, and in the former Juniper has credibility. However, the message was there, and it’s clear that Juniper gets it, but the company needs to articulate it more clearly. In the area of the new Ethernet EX products, Juniper articulated a strong channel program that has credibility as the go-to-market strategy for the EX, lifting our fear that it believed its software partners, IBM, Microsoft and Oracle, were going to sell it. All in all, it was a positive step for Juniper.
Feb 29 2008 2:19PM GMT
Posted by: Tom Nolle
Broadband,
Cable,
Verizon,
Video
Cablevision reported better numbers, best of the major cable TV providers, and a sharp reduction in capex. Capex as a percent of revenues has dropped from over 16% (about what the US RBOCs spend) through 13% to slightly more than 11%. All of this suggests that the firm is taking a price-war model stance in competition with FiOS versus a feature stance, which is what competitor Comcast is taking. Cablevision had little to say about advances like DOCSIS 3.0, which would let cable spans increase their broadband speed to FiOS levels. Note that cable broadband is more “shared” than DSL or FiOS and thus raw speed numbers are not necessarily indicative of relative observed performance. We think the capex ratio shift here is the important element; a “successful” cable competitor is one that lowers capex-to-sales below RBOC levels, which means that the RBOCs can outspend the cable companies in capital improvements. Thus, ironically, innovation in access networking must come from the “conservative” carriers.
Feb 28 2008 2:10PM GMT
Posted by: Tom Nolle
Nortel,
Switches,
Carrier Ethernet
Nortel, whose performance in the last quarter was significantly below expectations, is pinning a lot of its hopes on grabbing a major share of the Carrier Ethernet market. A major barrier to Nortel’s goals is a lack of company perception on just what that market is, arising out of the same kind of product-group parochialism that we have cited for Alcatel-Lucent. Metro infrastructure is a single strategy, not a combination of three or four technology- and customer-specific approaches, and without that understanding you cannot hope to succeed. With its advanced PBT position, Nortel is well positioned to address this “real” metro market, but as a company its strategies have fallen behind its technologies.
