David Byrd
Chief Marketing Officer for ANPI
ProfitBricks: Where InfiniBand Meets Cloud 2.0
In a recent meeting with William Toll and Pete Johnson of ProfitBricks, the pair were ecstatic to explain how their company has...
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Proactive Care Puts Operators One Step Ahead
By Thomas Fuerst, Senior Director, Multimedia Solutions MarketingAlcatel-Lucent
Monitoring and analyzing network data proactively saves operators time, money, and customers.
When a network service fails, it makes headlines, ticks off customers, and costs that network operator money. When a failure is headed off in advance, on the other hand, there might not be praise-laden headlines, but it's newsworthy nonetheless.
The traditional approach to customer care has typically been: a disgruntled customer calls customer service and complains of a service interruption or problem; the rep, learning of it for the first time, sends out a technician the next day, and eventually finds a resolution. Often, customers are left feeling put out, and the operator has spent significant time and money resolving the problem. Even worse is the customer who doesn’t call and just feels this is ‘typical’ of their network experience. That is a customer at risk of leaving.
Proactive care flips this dynamic on its head by using predictive analytics to identify potential outages or errors in the network and stop them before they occur. It consists of three main parts: one, constantly monitoring and measuring data on the network; two, real-time analysis of the data; and three, the most important, acting on that analysis to fix the problem.
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10 Lessons from Volleyball
I've played volleyball for over 25 years. I have traveled around the US to watch the pros live - both indoor...
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Emerging Threats Combats a Million Plus Pieces of New Malware a Week
There are 250,000 plus new pieces of malware being produced each day equating to one piece per person in the US in...
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NFV-Based Software Telcos Need OSS/BSS Interoperability
One of the goals of ETSI NFV is to allow new entrants to provide solutions to carriers based on software instead of...
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SysAid's Lifshitz: The Cloud Will Dominate ITSM Market
Cloud computing has really become a household word with mainstream media outlets running stories on television about the growth in the space...
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Avaya Takes Networking Lead in SPB
At Interop Las Vegas 2013 Avaya was demonstrating their real-world Shortest Path Bridging (SPB) solutions and while interoperating with Spirent, HP and...
Full Story »A Revealing Bite of the Apple
April 22, 2011
Apple faces new scrutiny over the hidden application that stores information about where its phones go every day. Perhaps, I am the only one that gets it but Apple was not trying to track the user, rather some genius in the company wanted to know the whereabouts of the phone, the user was just incidental. The real question is why develop an application that keeps an eye on the iPhone but then doesn’t transfer the information back to, well, that genius. Moreover, while Apple users, politicians, and Apple are paying attention to all of the hoopla now, where was the indignation when this was first reported?
SIP 2.0
April 20, 2011
Understanding SIP is paramount to VARs or IT shops delivering VoIP in any fashion. The point was made very clear to meet a few weeks ago that SIP is the protocol of choice in nearly every implementation or delivery of VoIP. SIP is in the IADs, routers, modems, cable set boxes, SBCs, etc. A business or consumer may not know they are using SIP but it is there.
Welcome to Potatoes, Onions and Oz
April 18, 2011
It was another great weekend for the foodie in me. The new grill and I played well together each day. Friday was grilled Cornish game hen that was marinated in Chinese five-spice, soy and sesame seed oil. Saturday, we enjoyed a rather messy burger called a Jucy Lucy. This burger is popular in Minneapolis at two bars, Matt’s Bar and the 5-8 Club. They have been featured on the Food Network and the Travel Channel.
The Best of the Blog 2010
April 15, 2011
Perhaps you are new to this blog (and I say welcome), or you may have been reading since 2008 when the blog started (in which case I say thanks for reading). However, today is a chance for you to read some of the blogs that address our industry’s most pressing issues (net neutrality, USF, ICC, etc.), or our greatest opportunities (unified communications), or how to position a premise PBX solution versus a managed hosted PBX solution, or just some interesting facts about where IP communications is going, because the SIP and Serve Best of the Blog for 2010 by David Byrd is now available.
2010 was an interesting year with many expected and unexpected changes. Personally, I found the national media’s brief interest in net neutrality a bit of a surprise, although, their lack of reporting on the final rules changes was no surprise.
We Need a Little PR
April 13, 2011
This morning Broadvox and Cypress Communications are taking a major step in continuing to grow our company. We are meeting with our first Public Relations (PR) firm. Previously, we have used industry media, industry events and the Internet to gain visibility and to get our messages out. We will continue to do those things but we are preparing to step onto a larger stage.
Fill and Keep
April 11, 2011
Previously, I mentioned that I had a TEC grill for nearly thirteen years before replacing it two weeks ago. One thing my new grill did not have was an infrared burner capable of 1500oF for searing beef, lamb and other meats. So, I ordered the option and installed it Friday evening. That took away from my food prep time so we had leftovers for dinner.
More on the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking
April 8, 2011
In general, I have been too busy or disinterested to ever read a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM). I can now say, “That was a mistake.” It is well worth the effort to read relevant parts of the NPRM just to understand the way of thinking by the current makeup of the FCC. Now, I am not referring to the five commissioners who I doubt have read the document or even understand the more technical nuanced sections of the document. I am instead thinking of the guys that actually wrote the document.
Holy Massive Bureaucratic Report IP Man!
April 6, 2011
Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking adopted February 8, 2011 and released February 9, 2011 is one gigantic tome. Even the rules regarding commenting require a moment or two of thought, check out the following:
Comment Date on Section XV: [30 days after date of publication in the Federal Register]
Reply Comment Date on Section XV: [45 days after date of publication in the Federal Register]
Comment Date on the Remaining Sections: [45 days after date of publication in the Federal Register]; Comment Date of State Members of the Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service: [59 days after date of publication in the Federal Register]; Reply Comment Date on Remaining Sections: [80 days after date of publication in the Federal Register]
FCC Floundering May Be Over
April 4, 2011
My new grill arrived on Friday. Previously I was cooking on a TEC grill that could reach temperatures of greater than 1500oF. Impressive but after 13 years of pretty heavy usage, it was time to replace it. I bought the new grill on eBay to save big bucks but was a little concerned about putting the grill together.
Business is Gulping SIP
April 1, 2011
According to Infonetics Research, the SIP Trunking market in terms of revenue grew 143% in 2010. Certainly, Broadvox and its partners experienced significant growth last year and we anticipate strong revenues again this year. I am often asked about our sales strategy given that our SIP Trunking business is driven largely by our channel partners and our managed PBX business (with the acquisition of Cypress Communications) uses a direct sales model. Simply put, I do not see a conflict.
