Interview: Douglas Loewe on Network Management

Ahead of the Network Management Show 2014, we've been interviewing our speakers to get their views on the hot topics.

 

This week we spoke to Douglas Loewe, Managing Director, Interxion, who will be speaking on Day 1 of the conference on the topic of 'Connectivity and Managing Data Centres: Making Smart Cities a Reality'. Read his thoughts below.  

Why is network management important in the telecom industry today? 

As a carrier neutral data centre, we don’t operate our own network, but we do work with over 500 carriers, so we have a pretty good understanding of what works for them and their customers.

 
One of things our customers say they look for when picking a carrier is the ability to ensure their high value applications have excellent response times for their end users. To deliver good response times you need to have good network management, so in my view good network management is absolutely crucial for the telecom industry.    

 

Where do you see most innovation happening in the network today? 

I think the key innovation has to be around flexibility through things like better speed of provisioning and dynamic bandwidth. Also I think application aware networking is really interesting and something that is changing the networking landscape.    

 

Is how you manage your network an opportunity for differentiation for telecom operators? 

Definitely.  When enterprises come to our data centre they tend to already know which carriers they want to use and the carriers that we hear the most are usually the ones that are well managed, offer flexibility and most importantly can deliver good response times.

 

How do you guarantee the customer experience? 

From what I see when working with carriers, is those that offer extra layers of resilience with good capacity to handle rapid traffic growth are usually the ones that continuously deliver on customer experience.  

 

Can operators look at trends such as SDN, Big Data, and network sharing in isolation or must they consider the wider Network Management perspective?

 

I don’t think any of these can be looked at in isolation. What we are seeing is that carrier-neutral data centres are the place where operators are introducing their SDN and Big Data products first and enterprises are selecting the carriers that can support all of these services and have a integrated approach on them.   

 

If you are interested in attending The Network Management Show you can find out more here.

Help operators navigate the network maze #NMS14

Could you explain one of the key aspects relating to management of today's complex networks to an audience of telecom operators and service providers? The Network Management Show is looking for content partners to help run the workshop sessions on areas such as:

- SDN & NFV
- leveraging Big Data
- network sharing and outsourcing
- automating networks
- delivering outstanding customer experience

If you are interested in the opportunity to be a content partner, download the information file or email sales@totaltele.com

10 White Papers You Have Got to Read #Telecom

Here's 10 white papers currently available for free through Total Telecom that you should read. For more http://www.totaltele.com/whitepapers

insight of this type visit

Simply Flexible—NEC’s SDN for the Service Driven Network

Services-oriented Mobile Access Architecture Evolution

Everything On LTE

Enterprise Services: Show me the money

Leap of Faith: Total Telecom's SDN special edition

MBB monetization: For real this time

Business Benefits of the Total Customer Experience: Mapping NPS to Revenue

5G: A Technology Vision

LTE-TDD Proves a Game-changer for Carriers

Excel in Operation Transformation: Manged Services for Total Value of Ownership

Plus a webinar recording you shouldn't miss:

Unlocking the full potential of customer usage data

Gather Round The Table

Shaking up the formats at the Network Management Show are our new roundtables. Held both afternoons after lunch, respected industry leaders will moderate discussions on a variety of key topics.

Seats will be allocated on a first come first serve basis, so Register Today to join in the debate.

There's lots of choice, which you can view on the event website, but here's a selection you might find interesting:

Software Defined Networking and Virtualisation: Revolutionising network architectures
Moderator: Gerry Feeney, Member, Open Networking Foundation
• It might transform network architecture – but what is the right definition of SDN and what roles do overlays, VPNs and APIs play?
• Closely tied to SDN is network virtualisation but how can it be achieved and how can the network functionalities be defined?
• Is SDN the only automation option or can other approaches be used that are just as effective?
• Is OpenFlow a key part of SDN?
• What are the application deployment issues related to SDNs?
• What kind of intelligence and management tools are required for SDNs?

Storage & Implementation: Getting the most from data centres
Moderator: Douglas Loewe, Managing Director, Interxion
• How to deploy next generation data centres
• Examining the benefits of consolidating or rationalising in the data centre
• Assessing the limits of data centre infrastructure
• Exploring the key network hardware requirements for software defined data centres

OSS: New system challenges and improvements
Moderator: Glen Ragoonanan, Lead Analyst, Analysys Mason
• How to identify operational support system requirements of new services and technology
• How to reduce the impact on customers and the network challenges of new systems
• How to use KPIs for OSS analysis and governance
• How to establish performance levels, areas of improvement and development

IPv6: Evaluating its adoption on mobile networks
Moderator: Latif Ladid, President, IPV6 Forum
• Exploring the challenges in implementing IPv6 on mobile devices, applications and networks
• Examining the various IPv6 mobile deployments and their technical choices
• Looking at the role of IPv6 in home networking and cloud

Telco Cloud: Business case advantages and getting over IT integration
Moderator: Darren Fields, Global Head of Sales, Global Cloud Services, Telefónica Digital
• Why telcos are moving into the cloud arena and what advantages do they have over other service providers?
• Why enterprises look for cloud providers that have complex IT skills and can integrate multiple systems, and why this is a major issue for carriers

Telco Big Data: ‘The oil to fuel operator growth’
Moderator: Terry Norman, Founder, Wireless Explorer
• How some operators are looking to transform themselves into companies that primarily manage data as well as providing communications services
• How big data can enable operators to make efficiency savings, increase cross-selling and improve the customer experience
• Do operators require partners, not vendors, to deliver strategic insight via improving, protecting and exploiting their big data?

Don't miss out, register today....

The Network Management Show is organised by Total Telecom and takes place in London on the 2 & 3 July 2013.

Top 10 #telecom downloads of 2012

Last years ranking of the top document downloads on Total Telecom generated so much interest, that we decided to repeat the excercise for 2012. So what have users been downloading in 2012 and what have you missed?

1. The biggest threat to telecom operators - an eBook from Total Telecom, featuring speakers from the Total Telecom World conference
2. Growing Strong: The Global 100 Operators Report 2012 - our annual ranking of the world largest telecom operators by revenue and profit
3. Top 500 Telecom Brands - in association with Brand Finance, our annual ranking of the largest brands in telecoms
4. Tellabs Insight Magazine Q2 2012 - Cover story in this issue: Driving Mobile Backhaul In Latin America
5. Understand the Business of Telecoms - an eBook that was created to support the 2012 Finance Summit
6. Understanding LTE - White paper from Anritsu
7. Advancing the development of open virtualisation solutions -  White paper from Intel
8. Carrier Ethernet Basics -  White paper from EXFO
9. OTT services: How operators can overcome the fragmentation of communication - White paper from tyntec and mobileSQUARED
10. Best Practices in SDM (Subscriber Data Management) Reliability - White paper from Huawei

If you want to figure in the 2013 list, get an early start and talk to the sales team about how your document / white paper or customer magazine can figure.

BYOD and Smartphones drives career demand #jobs

A recent study by ITCareerFinder has highlighted the fastest growing and most lucrative jobs in technology. High on the list comes network management at number five on the list.

ITCareerFinder offers a career projection over the 10 year period 2010 - 2020 suggesting that over this period network management jobs will grow at a rate 28% above the average growth in vacancies, with the main driver being organizations investing in new systems and network technologies. This reflects responses to date to our network management survey, where 80% of respondents say the area is of growing importance.

The study flags tablets and smartphones as a particular driver of the trend, but we're also interested in other factors, such as M2M, Big Data, Cloud and more.

Help us understand more on this subject by completing our survey, and we'll send you a complimentary copy of the report.

TAKE THE SURVEY

Looking for a network management job? Visit Total Telecom Jobs

Soapbox - network management

We've been going out and asking people what they think are the most important issues in Network Management - here in no particular order are the top 6:

> Network management should focus on a single point: Availability of network service.
> New/Emerging protocols and their adoption levels 
> Big data analytics
> Software defined networks - impact on network management
> Data visualization, Smartphone and tablet apps 
> 4G/LTE and its impact on Network Management apps 

So what do you think? These are responses to us asking the question, not necessarily the view of Total Telecom. Do you think these are the big issues in network management, what else would you suggest. How do the issues vary for operators / service providers and enterprise network managers?

PLEASE LEAVE YOUR COMMENTS

These type of areas will be under discussion at the new Total Telecom Network Management Show in 2013. If you'd like to explore the opportunities to share your opinions on these areas, let us know or visit the website www.totaltele.com/network

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The data tsunami is coming - you need to manage it #TTNMS

Ofcom have predicted that demand for mobile data in the UK could grow by 80 times by 2030 resulting in a capacity crunch for mobile networks.

To head this off, Ofcom plan to release more radio spectrum and are advocating better use of wi-fi. The also are pointing out the need for new transmission and compression technologies and say there will not be a problem if all these actions are followed through.

Ofcom are calming public nerves saying there will be no problem, but for enterprise and operators it is crucial that they don't leave this to chance, and ensure maximum efficiency in their networks - this is why Total Telecom has launched the Network Management Show...

Then stakes are high with a whole raft of new players emerging as the leaders in network management, such as Meraki, the three year old start up acquired by Cisco for $1.2 billion.

So to make sure you can see your way through the network maze and get involved with the Network Management Show - download the prospectus

Total Telecom introduces Network Management Show 2013 #TTNMS

Total Telecom is proud to announce the launch of Total Telecom Network Management Show from 2-3 July 2013.

This two-day strategic conference and exhibition will feature senior decision makers from the largest brands in the telecom industry.

The event, to be held at ETC Venues St Paul’s, London, will address issues within the network industry and aims to provide a unique environment to examine the issues of running the network and the skills and technologies involved. It will also address complex issues and the demands of end users.

Visitors to the event will be drawn from both the operator and enterprise communities and will join top decision makers from the biggest brands to examine these issues and Rob Chambers, Managing Director of Total Telecom, believes this is the event for those involved in the management of today's telecom networks.

“We’re really looking forward to the launch of Total Telecom’s first Network Management Show. It will provide a great opportunity to showcase network solutions and will see an exclusive gathering of the largest companies in the industry. We really hope that this event will be a success and become an annual show on the telecoms calendar.”

The Total Telecom Network Management Show 2013 will focus on many different aspects of network solutions including managing different technologies in your network, simplifying your networks and network management, optimising traffic on both legacy and new mobile platforms simultaneously and more.

Speakers will present case studies of innovation and excellence in a variety of topics ranging from understanding the options for better network management to developing revenue generating services from the core.

To find out how to get involved, download the prospectus 

5 Myths of Cloud Computing

Our friends at Interoute have posted a great press release on Total Telecom,"Common cloud myths put to bed"

They are attributed to CTO, Matthew Finnie, and include:

• Myth 1 - Cloud computing isn’t right for everyone
• Myth 2 - You can’t trust the cloud
• Myth 3 – The cloud is a fad
• Myth 4 - The cloud doesn’t really change anything
• Myth 5 -There’s no future in the cloud

As Interoute are a finalist in the Best Cloud Service category for this year's World Communication Awards, they presumably know a thing or two about cloud, but it will be interesting to see if others agree with them.

HOW IMPORTANT IS CLOUD?

Disruption Eruption Question Time: What will the successful operator look like? BYOD, OTT, cloud, M2M, Big Data and more.
Find out at Total Telecom World - 13 November.
www.totaltele.com/world