The race to automate

An autonomous network was once seen as part of a utopian ideal, albeit one far off into the future. It would make up the backbone of everything we did, managing a hyper-connected world in which everything from the minutiae of knowing when the milk in the fridge needed replacing, to the ability of the network to automatically ramp services up or down, without the need for human intervention.

In a recent ACG Research survey of network service providers, internet content providers, cloud service providers and large enterprises, 100 percent of respondents said they felt the need to pursue automation, and 100 percent are optimistic about automation’s future. Additionally, 75 percent of respondents indicated that they’ll have full or significant network automation within the next five years.

To read this article in full, please click here

We live in a world in which we’re regularly streaming Netflix in 4K, using the power of the phones in our pockets to augment our realities with virtual gaming, and even watching basketball from a virtual courtside seat. Our networks have evolved to cater for these technologies, and each evolutionary step has brought with it a technological boom enabled by greater capacity, speed, automation, intelligence and programmability.

The next step has arrived and it’s just in time, because when you thought we were finally content with, well, content, new technologies have emerged that push beyond what we ever thought possible.

At the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Intel Studios unveiled what it’s calling Volumetric Video – and it’s nothing short of stunning. Volumetric Video uses multiple cameras to shoot a 360-degree field of view, but it differs from standard 360-degree or VR video in that it captures footage “from the outside in”. To picture how it works, visualize the action scenes from The Matrix, in which the cameras pan around a frozen-in-mid-air Keanu Reeves. But now imagine being a viewer with the ability to zoom in on any part of that scene or look at any part of the footage from any angle you want, at any point in the action sequence.

To read this article in full, please click here

The holiday season is as good a time as any to take stock of what we witnessed in 2017, and from a technology perspective it was a year unlike any other. We saw the value of crypto currencies skyrocket and the opening of a crypto-futures market. The first shipments of 400G technologies into the wide-area-network with AT&T and Vodafone New Zealand, the continued deployment of Software-Defined Networking, a technology we’ve long championed, an early example of augmented reality go viral with Pokémon Go and Virtual Reality start to reshape the way we interact with the world around us – such as changing how we watch live sports.

To read this article in full, please click here

Whether you are streaming the latest boxing match or watching the most recent Game of Thrones episode, during its first run, the network is going to play a major role in determining your quality of experience like never before. There is unprecedented demand for content, and with the proliferation of smart devices capable of displaying video, every pair of eyeballs on the internet is a potential consumer.

The widespread availability of video combined with streaming technology means our viewing expectations are now much more demanding on the infrastructure. We expect content to be there, wherever and whenever we want it. We want to watch it, pause it, play it in slow motion, watch it again, analyze it, save it for later, share it with friends.  We want to watch it at home, on the train or at work – because there’s always the underlying risk of spoilers, or missing out on the next-day office discussion should we be unable to view it.

To read this article in full, please click here

Almost everywhere I travel these days I hear someone talking about making their city a "smart city." I personally put the most faith in those initiatives that have determined what they want "smart" to accomplish whether it be zero net water consumption, becoming energy neutral for the public infrastructure, reduction in commute times or improving services like refuse collection. Defining and agreeing to measurable goals is a key milestone in a city’s journey to becoming "Smart."

Another key milestone is making sure that the basic connectivity infrastructure, what we usually call "the network" is up to the task.  A useful “smart city” requires that the city services be connected and automated wherever possible via a strong, resilient, secure network. And while progress has certainly been made – one only has to look at what Barcelona has achieved since the “smart city” ideal was first envisioned – it’s clear there’s still a lot of work to do to get this right the first time. There’s a sense of urgency from governments and vendors alike to get smart city solutions up and running, and in that rush those solutions are often proprietary and, with no standards in place, we risk the smart cities of tomorrow being made up of a mish-mash of ecosystems that will only work in silos.

To read this article in full, please click here

It’s best practice that every year we see our primary care doctor for a full physical exam. According to the CDC, regular health check-ups can help find problems before they start and improve the chances of treatment and recovery from illnesses. So, with just an annual exam, we should be in great shape, right? Most Americans, of all ages, are in poorer health when compared to their counterparts in comparable countries. So, where’s the disconnect, and what lessons can those of us in the technology industry take away?

To read this article in full, please click here

Every year around this time we “gaze into our crystal ball” to identify key trends for the coming year. But this year I’ve decided to do something different. So, instead I’ll share some suggestions for New Year’s resolutions that we, as an industry, should work on together in 2017.

What’s the difference, you ask? Trends are defined by the general direction in which something is shifting or changing, whereas the dictionary defines resolution as “a firm decision to do or not do something” or “the action of solving a problem, dispute or contentious matter.” So while the trends of the past few years have prepared us to expect the unexpected when it comes to today’s networks and what users demand, now is the time for us to be bold in our solutions.

To read this article in full, please click here

These days, more than ever before, the terms “game changer” and “disruptive” are thrown around with abandon. Everyone is fighting to be known as the Uber of X.

But whenever a game changes, the need to learn new rules arises. And when something is disruptive, the routines we’ve picked up over the years are thrown off kilter. The need to teach a new way of doing things becomes vital. It’s one thing to go through the implementation of a new system, infrastructure or standard. It’s another thing entirely to get everyone used to a whole new system. It is a case of “adapt or die.”

+ Also on Network World: The IT skills gap is a reality, but doesn’t have to be +

To read this article in full, please click here

Imagine sitting courtside at game seven of the NBA finals without having to pay the reported $99,000 someone spent on two tickets last month. Or imagine watching that same game in the stadium, and live statistics pop up on your connected glasses that show a certain player is approaching a triple-double—without having to take your eyes off the action.

If you think either seem unrealistic, you probably didn’t think you’d be bumping into people chasing virtual Pokémon around the streets, did you?

+ Also on Network World: Amazon CTO says cloud can help crashing Pokemon Go +

To read this article in full, please click here

Creating choice is one of the fundamental drivers of innovation. Choice sparks debate, fosters competition and drives innovation. There’s always someone else in the market looking to offer us a choice from what is already here, and the decision people typically make is to go with the choice that makes life easier.

For example, consider the choices people make when it comes to their mobile device. In the beginning, the majority of us in business had only one choice to access work email and applications—Blackberry. Today, with devices like iPhones and Androids that utilize open APIs, we have more choices than ever. Furthermore, each person’s mobile device can be unique and personalized to their liking.

To read this article in full, please click here

2015 will be remembered in the networking world as the year in which the Internet of Things began its move into the mainstream. While the concept of “IoT” has long been predicted, it became an unavoidable part of tech parlance in the past 12 months with an estimated 4.9 billion “things” worldwide connected to the network in 2015. The increase is not expected to slow anytime soon, with analysts now forecasting that anywhere between 25 billion and 38 billion “things” will connect to the network by 2020.

To read this article in full, please click here

Cast your mind back to the last time you were offline – not just when your connection was down, but a time when you were truly, unequivocally disconnected. That time may have been spent sending letters, physically going into a bank to make a deposit or withdrawal, and actually meeting with people to share information.

Nowadays, we're far more efficient thanks to our reliance on connectivity and the network. During the past 20 years or so, information has evolved in line with the network, and become largely a digital commodity that can be sent and received with the click of a mouse. Electronic communications now cross organizations and oceans with relative ease, in volumes that seemed unfathomable during the days when postal mail was king. But all of this need for connectivity comes with a downside: criminal elements seeking to steal that data – and make no mistake, something as seemingly innocent as a personal email can be as valuable to a criminal as a bank transaction.

To read this article in full, please click here

As women's soccer teams took the field for the final match of FIFA Women's World Cup Canada 2015 this summer, some fans enjoyed the games via 8K video - the most technologically advanced high-definition video technology on the market. Fox Sports and NHK, Japan's national public broadcasting organization, offered invitation-only 8K demos of the Japan vs. Cameroon game, and the U.S. vs. Nigeria match at the Fox Studio lot in Los Angeles. To top it off, FIFA and NHK produced the championship game in ultra-HD 8K and presented in live viewings in Japan, as well. Viewer response was positive, to say the least.

To read this article in full, please click here

We've lost our collective ability to be patient. What used to be a virtue is now anathema because we have become so accustomed to having what we want when we want it, that we've simply forgotten what it's like to "wait it out."

Need proof? We shifted our viewing habits to over-the-top video services quicker than it ever took us to walk to the nearest Blockbuster – yet many have already forgotten the formerly inconvenient task of walking, and now complain that an instance of buffering while streaming video means the service is "too slow." To wit, recent industry-sponsored research found that a poor experience such as buffering or poor-quality video drives almost 75% of viewers to give up in watching within the first four minutes of playback.

To read this article in full, please click here

The constant push to increase productivity and profit has historically led commercial enterprises to drive some of our world's most significant technology advances. It was the enterprise push for further development of desktop computer processing that changed the personal computer from a hobbyist activity to a mission-critical tool. Commercial organizations deployed fiber for dedicated computer networks while the rest of us were just getting used to DSL. And the cellphone? It began its life as tool to keep business sales teams and execs more productive.

But something happened during the smartphone revolution. What made the smartphone the critical invention of the 21st century was the ease of application use. Applications became "apps," and with them came their own marketplace, or "app store."

To read this article in full, please click here

The world has gone web-scale crazy, but what does web-scale mean when we apply the term to networking? Isn't the network how we got the web in the first place? Unfortunately, many of today's networks leave a lot to be desired. For decades now, we've basically designed, built, and operated networks using a provision and monitor paradigm. WAN connections can take days, weeks, even months to correctly provision. If your connectivity needs were complex, timeframes could be even longer, if the desired services were available at all. Contrast this antiquated networking model with the real-time, on-demand environment that we have created for ourselves with applications, content, and businesses that can "go viral."

To read this article in full, please click here

In my first blog post I discussed the gap that exists between what consumers want and what the network can feasibly provide – what I referred to as the "agility gap." In just the four months since that post, we have seen a variety of new examples of the acceleration in technology advances for the consumer and end user, while the network chugs along trying to keep up.

The most intriguing of these was Sony's unveiling of PlayStation Now at CES 2015, a cloud-based gaming subscription service that gives players unlimited streaming access to more than 100 games.

To read this article in full, please click here

Much of 2014 was spent discussing software-defined networking (SDN), network functions virtualization (NFV), and other “new” networking technologies. We also heard debates about the merits of the Internet of Things and what it will do for the world; we wondered whether the Apple Watch would drive an uptick in smart wearables. 2014 was, to an extent, the year of chatter.

We spent a lot of time defining SDN at forums and forming new standards bodies, but it was not uncommon to hear customers, media, and service providers ask for something tangible amid the discussion of its benefits. After all, where were the mass deployments?

In short, 2014 was the year we strategically moved pieces around the board, but never reached the point of calling “checkmate.”

To read this article in full, please click here

All of us involved in networking understand the promised benefits of Network Functions Virtualization (NFV): it reduces the hardware, power, and space requirements to deploy network functions on industry-standard high-volume servers, switches and storage; it reduces provisioning times; it can be used to create smaller fault domains; it makes the applications portable and upgradeable with software; and so on.

NFV represents a bold step toward software-defined services and programmable networks, a step that will impact all aspects of the communications industry for years to come. With the market forecast to reach approximately $5 billion by 2018, according to Doyle Research, it would seem obvious that one cannot – or perhaps should not – ignore the opportunity.

To read this article in full, please click here

If you have ever spent time in London, you’ve probably heard or seen the ubiquitous instruction to “mind the gap” when exiting the tube or train. First introduced in 1969, this utilitarian safety warning urges passengers to take caution and be aware of the large distance between the train and the platform.

As technologists, we now have to “mind the gap” that is beginning to appear on the Internet as content and cloud providers move more data around. Single transactions for individual users can easily consume a significant amount of network resources. What users want and what the network, originally designed to handle just voice traffic and, more recently basic Internet access, can deliver is a challenge. Frankly, today’s networks -- built with a mix of legacy hardware and software advancements -- are not designed to provide what today’s application-centric user needs in real time.

To read this article in full, please click here