Jim Machi
Effectively Telling Your Product's Story
One of the most interesting aspects of my career is watching the thousands of companies I have met over the years make...
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Dialogic and Cisco Round Out Day's NFV News
It’s been a busy week regarding NFV and the software telco (R)evolution. First off Dialogic had some solid thoughts on six of...
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The Big Deal about Big Data Analytics
By Greg Owens, Senior Director Customer Experience Solutions Marketing, Alcatel-Lucent
The rise of big data is causing service providers to ask some big questions: How should we store our data? How long should we keep it? What parts of it are relevant to our business? Most importantly, how do we get value from it? To turn big data into a big deal, service providers need to extract insights that can help them make smart business decisions and improve the customer experience.
The value of big data is all in what useful and actionable information it can provide. I find it exciting to see how service providers use big data analytics to gain new insights and solve complex problems. With this post, I’ll look at some new research by industry analysts and three key opportunities that big data analytics presents to service providers.
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WebRTC: The Revolution Won't Occur Without a Media Server
Next Thursday at the WebRTC Conference and Expo, I’ll present a conference keynote that might not be exactly what attendees expect...
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Software Telcos Based on NFV Want Less Equipment Provider M&A
Mergers are nothing new but about a decade ago in the telecom market they reached a fever pitch when SBC purchased AT&T...
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Linux Foundation Embedded Solutions Director's Case for Open Source and Connected Car
The car of 2013 is different from the one I learned to drive, a 1974 Ford Maverick with rear federal bumpers, aluminum...
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Business Video and Queen Lead Guitarist Brian May
"A good video can make all the difference," says Brian May (Ph.D. Astro-Physics and Queen lead guitarist). Such is true for business!Even...
Full Story »Numbed by Analyst Research - What I Did on My Summer Vacation
September 6, 2011I spent the summer engorged in analyst research. It was all over my office. It was in my briefcase. It was on my computer and iPad. It was in my head.
So What's the Deal with User Experience Convergence?
August 30, 2011In my last blog, I talked about the effects that convergence may have on the future. This week, I’d like to address the factors that need to be considered when it comes to user experience convergence. First of all, the delivery network needs to be context-aware. For example, what is the type of end-point being used (since you don’t want to send 720P to a CIF device)?
The Next Wave in Communications Convergence
August 23, 2011Last week, I wrote about the pro and cons of convergence. But what does the future hold because of convergence? Due to the capability of the converged networks, hosted offerings have morphed into cloud computing offerings and we have seen communication-based cloud computing offerings emerge. Cloud computing is about a $100B business, split between SaaS, PaaS and IaaS, with VoIP/UC accounting for $5B.
Challenges and Opportunities Abound When it Comes to Convergence
August 16, 2011In my last blog, I discussed the history of convergence and how it’s affected the telecom industry. Now, I’d like to talk about the pros and cons of convergence.
Let’s start with the cons.
A Little Background on Communications Convergence
August 9, 2011Communications convergence has taken many forms, some of which are still going on today. One key convergence from the 1980’s involved the converging of open-systems based computing with telecommunications. The computer-telephony integration (CTI) industry was born, and from that, Dialogic emerged as a key player. The economics of commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware in the form of servers and communication boards, with the open-systems, open API approach yielded best-of-breed applications and solutions.
Outbound Notification in the IP World
August 2, 2011We’ve all had experience with some kind of outbound notification system – maybe a machine calling to inform you that your childen’s school has been closed due to a snowstorm, or some IT triggered alert about your website, or a very sincere recorded voice calling you right at dinnertime during election season. Generally, there are two types of outbound notification systems – the commercial ones such as above, or an emergency notification, which includes crisis alerts. The crisis alerts form a part of the Public Safety segment, which I recently wrote a blog about.
The Changing Face of Emergency Calling
July 26, 2011The FCC estimates that 70% of 911 calls are placed by wireless callers. Couple that with the increase in VoIP phone services, and you can quickly see that the majority of 911 calls are no longer coming from wired lines that are associated with specific addresses. Additionally, with the increased capability of wireless networks, whether 3G or 4G, and with the capability of VoIP networks, one can also see that data, images, and video can also potentially be transmitted in a 911 “call” to a PSAP (Public Safety Answering Point).
The Internet and FoIP and Fax in the Clouds
July 19, 2011Faxing is alive and well these days. The movement of Fax over IP similar to the movement of Voice over IP is occurring. Fax over IP (FoIP) is a growing trend, expecting to be a $415M business in 2014, according to Davidson Consulting.
It may be amazing to some readers that faxing still occurs.
HD Calling
July 12, 2011Nope, neither the Home Depot nor Harley Davidson is calling you. But it is increasingly likely someone will be calling you using High Definition (HD) Voice. For you Clash fans, possibly even London may be calling since HD Voice is now available in the UK. In fact, according to a June report from the GSA, HD Voice is now available on 20 mobile networks in 18 countries.
Skype + Microsoft = Good for Microsoft
July 5, 2011The Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference is next week in Los Angeles. I’m sure there will be extreme interest in the Skype deal and whether Microsoft will have something more to say about it, especially given the recent announcement that the FTC has approved it.
I see people writing that the main deal driver is to improve Microsoft’s position in the mobile arena, given Skype can work on iPhones and iPads (I’ve seen people in airports holding an iPad to their ears because of Skype!) and Android devices.
