Author: Jason Marcheck

Jason is Research Director for the Current Analysis Service Provider Infrastructure service. Jason and his analyst team monitor and evaluate activities in the markets for Digital Media, Fixed Access, IP Services, Mobile Access, and Transport and Routing Infrastructure, Telecom Vendor Services, and the Service Enablement Ecosystem.

AT&T, SXSW, and How Virtualization Can Make a Great Time Even Better

by Jason Marcheck, posted in Net Transformation, SDN/NFV, Ultra Broadband
Jason Marcheck
Jason Marcheck

Summary Bullets:

  • For years, network equipment vendors have provided support services to help improve network capacity and user experience at large events.
  • AT&T routinely rolls out specially designed mobile base stations to large events to help handle excess demand.
  • NFV solutions related to vEPC and vIMS, and perhaps even virtualized BSS, can theoretically help complete the experience by supplementing the core as these excess demands become increasingly sophisticated.

When people ask me what I do at Current Analysis, I generally respond that I’m the “vendor services guy.” You know, network optimizations, consulting, managed network ops… those are the topics that make up my “beat.” As part of this coverage, I look at engagements that are commonly referred to as “special event services.” In a nutshell, this is where vendors such as Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Huawei, and Nokia help their customers prepare for large festivals and other gatherings by adding extra base station capacity, as well as some network optimization to cope with the additional demand that a flood of users in a concentrated space can place on a mobile network. Continue reading “AT&T, SXSW, and How Virtualization Can Make a Great Time Even Better” →

Nokia’s Security Center, Scare Tactics, and Why Operators Need to Get Serious About Security

by Jason Marcheck, posted in Net Transformation, Ultra Broadband
Jason Marcheck
Jason Marcheck

The following is an excerpt of a Current Analysis Advisory Report, which the full text can be accessed by subscribers by clicking here.

For many of us, either with significant others or without, Valentine’s Day can be exciting, frightening or depressing – and sometimes any combination of the three. With that specter looming, Nokia’s Security Center Analyst Day, held on February 12 in Berlin, was very much in keeping with the uncertainty that a “holiday” like Valentine’s Day brings: One part scare tactics, and for those lucky enough to take the right precautions, followed by reassurance and validation. Continue reading “Nokia’s Security Center, Scare Tactics, and Why Operators Need to Get Serious About Security” →

What’s So Hard About Building an Internet of Things, Anyway?

by Jason Marcheck, posted in Ultra Broadband
Jason Marcheck
Jason Marcheck

Summary Bullets:

  • IoT in the media often focuses on end-user devices or rote connectivity such as RFID, ZigBee, WiFi or Bluetooth; only in less-heralded places, like tech blogs, do the “blood and guts” such as mobile connectivity, and the OSS/BSS software and/or professional services needed to stitch it together, get discussed.
  • This focus on “things” fails to capture just how much work needs to be done on the Internet.

First things first… shameless pitch time. Last week, I sat down with RCR Wireless for the inaugural episode of its weekly IoT show, Connect This. Take a look; I’ll wait right here.

Good show? Please feel free to share it with your friends.

But, as fun as it was to do the show, and despite the fact that it was about trends in a hot high-tech market, I still found myself feeling like a bit of a fish out of water. The show was about devices and what will drive adoption. All important stuff, but I had to fight the urge to dive headlong into the real blood and guts, not of what will drive IoT adoption, but what will enable it… you know, the Network Matter. Continue reading “What’s So Hard About Building an Internet of Things, Anyway?” →

Nokia Analyst Conference – Automation Saved Managed Services, but Will That Work as Nokia Looks to Become a Leading SI?

by Jason Marcheck, posted in Net Transformation, OSS/BSS/CEM, SDN/NFV
Jason Marcheck
Jason Marcheck

Summary Bullets:

  • Nokia’s annual analyst conference featured a heavy dose of Services-oriented messaging throughout the proceedings
  • Nokia aims to deliver up to 80% of its managed and/or professional services via remote delivery by 2020
  • While getting remote delivery right helped Nokia turn around the profitability of its Services business, it could be questionable how effective that model can be as the company moves more aggressively on SI-based services

At Nokia’s recently concluded industry analyst conference – held annually in Boston – I got to see a few things that I rarely see. First, I saw snow falling from the sky for the first time since, well, the last Nokia conference (Personal note: I live in Texas). Second, all in attendance got to see a clearly energized and animated panel of senior leadership from Nokia regarding the company’s short and long-term future. Now, this is not to say that Nokia is a boring company. After all, didn’t it practically invent the concept of Sauna? However, over the past few years, Nokia’s “body language” skewed towards being reserved in light of the painstaking company transformation it was trying to execute in order to save the company. Continue reading “Nokia Analyst Conference – Automation Saved Managed Services, but Will That Work as Nokia Looks to Become a Leading SI?” →

Alcatel-Lucent Technology Symposium: Motive Is Becoming a Bigger Part of Alcatel-Lucent’s Future, but Telling a Cohesive Story Needs to Be Part of the Plan

by Jason Marcheck, posted in OSS/BSS/CEM, SDN/NFV, Vendor Transformation
Jason Marcheck
Jason Marcheck

Summary Bullets:

  • Alcatel-Lucent’s Motive product line encompasses a slew of important capabilities, including analytics, CEM, IoT and OSS.
  • To date, the vendor’s marketing in support of Motive has been sparse and, arguably, scattershot.
  • A clearly defined and articulated marketing story is a key tenet of any strategy aimed at taking market share from incumbents.

At Alcatel-Lucent’s recently concluded Technology Symposium, held in New Jersey on November 11-13, the company devoted some of the program to talking about what it is doing with its Motive line of products. Google defines motive as “a reason for doing something, especially one that is hidden or not obvious.” That kind of sums up the marketing in support of the Motive product line. “Certainly not hidden, but not obvious” would be fair. Continue reading “Alcatel-Lucent Technology Symposium: Motive Is Becoming a Bigger Part of Alcatel-Lucent’s Future, but Telling a Cohesive Story Needs to Be Part of the Plan” →

Alcatel-Lucent Technology Symposium: Revenue Diversification Not a Shift Plan Pillar, but a Fourth Leg of the Stool?

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

Summary Bullets:

  • Alcatel-Lucent, like most network equipment suppliers, realizes that it needs to look beyond telecom network operators for long-term growth and viability.
  • Alcatel-Lucent’s work with partners such as Accenture helps the vendor overcome a lack of name recognition outside telecom.
  • The obvious downside of a partnership strategy is that partners can be, and often are, promiscuous.

“We want to be promiscuous.” (The name of the speaker, along with their company affiliation, has been removed to protect their reputation.)

That’s a quote from Alcatel-Lucent’s recently concluded Technology Symposium, held in New Jersey on November 11-13. Aside from giving the artist drawing a storyboard summary of the session (seen below) an awkward moment when pondering how to fit that into the picture, it gave the audience a clear view of how big companies view partnerships: there are many possibilities out there, and many of them want to get in bed with each other, metaphorically speaking.

Continue reading “Alcatel-Lucent Technology Symposium: Revenue Diversification Not a Shift Plan Pillar, but a Fourth Leg of the Stool?” →

AT&T Analyst Conference – The Three Networking Things Vendors and Carriers Need to Know

by Jason Marcheck, posted in Net Transformation, SDN/NFV
Jason Marcheck
Jason Marcheck

Summary Bullets:

  • AT&T’s Consumer Industry Analyst Conference was held in Atlanta on November 2 and 3, offering network analysts a peek into the strategies of one of telecom’s most influential market makers.
  • AT&T, rightly in our opinion, views virtualization as the key to maintaining cost parity with OTTs and other, more nimble SPs.

I had two personal epiphanies at AT&T’s 2014 Consumer Industry Analyst Conference (CIAC) earlier this week in Atlanta. First, Atlanta is a great city for a quick business trip. It has a temperate late fall climate. Getting to/from the city is fairly easy. It has a preponderance of cheap, nice hotels and features a deep-rooted mastery at frying up extremely tasty southern cuisine. Second, carrier conferences are an infrastructure analysts’ equivalent of finding money in the pocket of one’s jeans. Continue reading “AT&T Analyst Conference – The Three Networking Things Vendors and Carriers Need to Know” →

SDN and NFV Product Assessments – How to Boil the Ocean Using Small Pots?

by Jason Marcheck, posted in SDN/NFV
Jason Marcheck
Jason Marcheck

Summary Bullets:

  • Current Analysis is known for side-by-side product comparisons; this can be problematic when comparisons need to be made between broadly varying solutions.
  • The first step in making meaningful comparisons is framing broad, yet meaningful dimensions for comparative analysis.

In the large and complex realm of telecom networking, seemingly overwhelming tasks are often related in daunting and, sometimes, gross metaphors. Case in point, “boiling the ocean” seems like a hard, but perhaps not completely distasteful task (especially if armed with some coconut oil, a large-brimmed hat and, ideally, a frozen drink). On the other hand, making the analogy to “how to eat an elephant” just seems nasty. Even hungry lions tend to shy away from that job. Nevertheless, however it gets epitomized, the concept of dealing with a monumental task is common in the telecom world. What’s more, it’s something the telecom world is faced with as we enter the home stretch of 2014. Continue reading “SDN and NFV Product Assessments – How to Boil the Ocean Using Small Pots?” →

OSS/BSS Vendor Satisfaction – Are “Product Companies” Missing the Boat on Delivery?

by Jason Marcheck, posted in Net Transformation, OSS/BSS/CEM
Jason Marcheck
Jason Marcheck

Summary Bullets:

  • Current Analysis collected responses on OSS/BSS purchase drivers and vendor satisfaction from large operators around the globe representing approximately half of the global telecom CapEx spend.
  • The companies that topped the list in questions related to vendor satisfaction seem to be better known as large SI players than as OSS/BSS specialists.

The funny thing about surveys is that while nearly everyone is interested in the results, most also view them with a “take with a grain of salt” attitude. So, as one of the main people at Current Analysis responsible for designing, conducting and reporting on the primary research surveys that we do aimed at telecom networks, I have grown somewhat used to folks being selective about which results resonate vs. which ones get dismissed. Accordingly, I have also grown more comfortable in reading the tea leaves as I see them and retaining my sense of professional self-worth when folks take my analysis with the aforementioned bits of sodium chloride. Continue reading “OSS/BSS Vendor Satisfaction – Are “Product Companies” Missing the Boat on Delivery?” →

AT&T Adds Alcatel-Lucent and FNC to the Domain 2.0 Roster, Taking It Upon Itself to Build an SDN/NFV Ecosystem

by Jason Marcheck, posted in Net Transformation, SDN/NFV
Jason Marcheck
Jason Marcheck

Summary Bullets:

  • AT&T’s Domain 2.0 vendor roster now stands at eight publicly announced participants; the operator has essentially created its own de facto ecosystem.
  • How AT&T plans to use each vendor has not been announced. Regardless, substantial coordination among the participants will be required.

AT&T spent 25 billion dollars on CapEx last year. Just to put that in perspective, if AT&T was a country, its CapEx alone would be in the top 100 of global GDP. There were several countries smaller than this in the recently concluded World Cup tournament. Continue reading “AT&T Adds Alcatel-Lucent and FNC to the Domain 2.0 Roster, Taking It Upon Itself to Build an SDN/NFV Ecosystem” →