Month: April 2014

Huawei Global Analyst Summit: Day One – What “PIPE” Means to Huawei

by , posted in Vendor Transformation
Peter Jarich
Peter Jarich

Day One of Huawei’s Global Analyst Summit almost always follows a similar trajectory. Most of the analysts are jet-lagged. Most of the presentations are very general in nature – going over company performance and speaking to the diverse background of the analysts in attendance. Most e-mail inboxes are bursting at their seams following an Internet-free day of travel to get to Shenzhen.

It’s a recipe for less than laser focus.

That’s a shame. While most analysts come to meet with Huawei in order to understand product strategies, understand product roadmaps and get their fill of steamed chicken feet, there’s value to be found in the company’s Day One presentations. The sprawling presentation (followed by Q&A) of its rotating CEO, Erik Xu, in particular was critical for understanding the company’s strategy beyond specific product portfolios. Key to that strategy is what Xu outlined as its “PIPE” strategy. Continue reading “Huawei Global Analyst Summit: Day One – What “PIPE” Means to Huawei” →

Huawei Global Analyst Summit: Day One – Services in Support of Operators, Verticals and Revenues

by , posted in Vendor Transformation
Peter Jarich
Peter Jarich

When rotating CEO Erik Xu took time on the opening day of Huawei’s Global Analyst Summit to share his vision of where the vendor was going, a few messages were very clear. The “PIPE Strategy” would deliver the focus needed to keep Huawei from suffering under unproductive R&D sprawl. Being close to customers (consumer, enterprise, carrier) has been core to Huawei’s success and it will remain so going forward. Financial stability and success help set up Huawei to be the long-term partner operators are seeking.

Less straightforward was the message around services Huawei offers to its carrier customers and how its services portfolio fits into supporting new customer targets. To be sure, Huawei spent plenty of time talking about services and new market opportunities. Piecing these messages together, however, tells a bigger story. Continue reading “Huawei Global Analyst Summit: Day One – Services in Support of Operators, Verticals and Revenues” →

Huawei Asks: How Much Should You Care About the Way Your Vendors are Managed?

by , posted in Vendor Transformation
Peter Jarich
Peter Jarich

Once a year, Huawei holds a conference for the telecom and enterprise industry analysts that follow it; this year, it takes place from April 23rd through April 25th. Nearly every analyst invited shows up in Shenzhen to attend. As a very large – yet not public – company, getting face time with the vendor is one of the surest ways of figuring out what Huawei is up to.

Well, sort of. Continue reading “Huawei Asks: How Much Should You Care About the Way Your Vendors are Managed?” →

Oh Carrier Man, Where You Gonna Run To? (For Your MANO)

by , posted in Net Transformation, OSS/BSS/CEM, SDN/NFV
David Snow
David Snow

When it comes to the management and network orchestration (MANO) of emerging NFV-based telco architectures, the choice of a vendor is certainly not a “no-brainer.” Of course, no self-respecting carrier should ever make vendor selection a “no-brainer,” but when it comes to MANO, the number of potential candidate companies is increasing all the time.

To make the point, let’s start from perhaps one of the simplest network vendor selection processes: RAN. It’s simple (note: I didn’t say easy) because all mobile carriers know who could supply their RAN and the candidate list is fairly short. RAN is definitely in the “network” space and only a few, high-profile network suppliers have RAN portfolios on offer. See? Simple.

Now let’s think about managing a network using OSS: the supplier list starts to lengthen because OSS is an “IT” system managing the “network.” So, you also have to add in the IT guys. Some of the network guys are IT guys too, but you also have to include the IT guys who are not network guys (h/t Donald Rumsfeld). Carriers know about the network and IT players get involved in the network all the time, although sometimes this leads to CTO/CIO conflicts. So far, so good, right? Continue reading “Oh Carrier Man, Where You Gonna Run To? (For Your MANO)” →

NFV and How You Will Evaluate the Packet Core

by , posted in Net Transformation, Ultra Broadband, Vendor Transformation
Peter Jarich
Peter Jarich

We spend a lot of time helping vendors with their messaging. You’d think, with years of practice behind them, they wouldn’t need much help. The reality is, particularly with new technologies, the messaging can be tricky. How, for instance, can you talk about technology roadmaps and product improvements without implicitly admitting that current products and solutions are still in need of some work?

Yep, it’s a fine line.

This came up recently on a briefing around network functions virtualization (NFV) where a vendor spent some time touting a partnership with Intel. The vendor claimed that work with Intel’s Data Plane Development Kit (DPDK) was going to support the data plane optimization critical for NFV applications such as EPC when moving to server-based platforms – you know, applications where the packet processing performance is a major concern. Continue reading “NFV and How You Will Evaluate the Packet Core” →

Comarch Bets Operators Will View SDN Through OSS Lens

by , posted in OSS/BSS/CEM, SDN/NFV
Ron Westfall
Ron Westfall

Summary Bullets:

  • Comarch introduced support of SDN throughout its OSS/BSS portfolio.
  •  Comarch must show it can deliver on BDA, NFV and OpenDaylight portfolio and developer support to enhance its SDN proposition.

Last quarter, Comarch unveiled support of software-defined networking (SDN) for its OSS portfolio suite. Comarch is betting that OSS/BSS platforms can play the pivotal role in driving operator adoption of SDN. This presents a significant opportunity for Comarch to influence operator selection of the SDN controller technology needed to centralize network control function and thus accrue the benefits of programming the network according to service and app requirements while also avoiding expensive hardware investments. Continue reading “Comarch Bets Operators Will View SDN Through OSS Lens” →

The Latest Hurdle in Huawei’s Efforts to Penetrate the U.S.

by Ed Gubbins, posted in Ultra Broadband, Vendor Transformation
Ed Gubbins
Ed Gubbins

If I told you Huawei Technologies’ attempts to penetrate the U.S. telecom infrastructure market just got a bit harder, would you be confused? If you haven’t been paying close attention, you can be forgiven for thinking that Huawei gave up on the U.S. mobile infrastructure market last year. Company executives have made statements to the press that certainly cast that impression.

However, Huawei insists it did no such thing. Although political barriers still make it hard for Huawei to land a significant network deployment with a major U.S. operator, the vendor continues to target smaller rural carriers in a variety of infrastructure areas, including the radio access network (RAN). Continue reading “The Latest Hurdle in Huawei’s Efforts to Penetrate the U.S.” →

Huawei 2013 Annual Report: Does the Company’s Growth Engine Need Some GAS?

by , posted in Het Nets, SDN/NFV, Ultra Broadband, Vendor Transformation
Jason Marcheck
Jason Marcheck

Every year, Huawei releases its annual report in the run up to its Global Analyst Summit (colloquially called “GAS” – by Huawei, that is) and then generally spends the first day of its conference reviewing the results. This year, as we all get our visa applications in order and start travel planning, Huawei’s annual report offers a glimpse of what we should be hearing from the vendor at its annual gathering.

My bet: While I’m sure there will be some management consulting-style marketing spin applied, the key takeaway for most of us will be that Huawei has officially settled into the reality of a mature market player. To be sure, it will point to impressive growth percentages from its enterprise and consumer businesses (32.4% and 17.8% YoY, respectively). However, the fact is that Huawei’s fastest growing business still barely represents one-twentieth of the vendor’s yearly bookings. Continue reading “Huawei 2013 Annual Report: Does the Company’s Growth Engine Need Some GAS?” →