These are words of wisdom from the great mind of Albert Einstein and they can certainly be applied in today’s world of telecom and ICT. There are great innovations happening all around us and those that are embracing change are very successful.
Carriers and service providers are shifting their focus to bring applications and services to their networks to increase network usage. Some carriers are even developing their own applications internally in order to better utilize their networks. Faced with fierce competition, the rapid rise of OTT players, the ever-increasing demands of customers and enterprises, as well as the shifting marketing dynamics and rapidly changing landscapes, carriers/service providers find themselves in need of smarter solutions and networks that will support the necessary intelligence needed to span multiple technology and compatibility gaps at the core, edges, and the application layers of the networks. Innovation, new end user experiences, changing business models and the rapid introduction of new services have become essential factors for the survival of service providers.
This issue has an interesting interview with Angel Ruiz, the Head of Ericsson’s North America Region. He has taken Ericsson to new heights in many areas, notably in the mobile arena. Ericsson is heavily involved in LTE deployments handing everything from building networks to managing networks. Their expertise in the LTE arena along with their deep commitment to R&D is certainly apparent.
Network providers are continuing to expand and interconnect multiple new cloud centers. Software defined networking for these cloud centers is taking the industry to new levels of efficiency and capability. The capability to use SDN in the data center, and within the network outside of the data center, is now reality. Network Functions Virtualization is a concept that is being embraced by many in order to make the network more software driven, as opposed to being hardware drive. You will also be hearing more about this initiative.
WebRTC is another area that is helping make it easier for carriers to bring more clients onto their networks more quickly and easily, with new and exciting applications. All of these changes are helping the customers connect and stay connected to the network, and helping the carriers/service providers keep those networks full. So, stay tuned and get ready to embrace the future!
Jeff Seal
Editor in Chief
Telecom Review North America
