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Verizon expands cloud solutions with Secure Cloud Interconnect
Verizon is addressing the growing need for organizations to connect more than one cloud seamlessly and securely, with the launch of its Secure Cloud Interconnect service (SCI). Enterprise organizations will be able to use Verizon’s Private IP service to connect to multiple cloud services including the Verizon cloud and Microsoft Azure, with an additional half-dozen other major cloud services expected to come online later this year.
In addition, enterprises that have located their private cloud infrastructure in Equinix data centers can directly access Verizon’s Private IP service in 15 Equinix data centers in the U.S., Europe and Asia-Pacific; (Northern Virginia., Newark, N.J., Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Silicon Valley; London, Frankfurt, Amsterdam and Paris; Sydney, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Singapore).
“With Secure Cloud Interconnect, Verizon is removing the barriers for enterprise cloud adoption,” said Michael Palmer, vice president of product development for Verizon. “The reality is that many organizations today use multiple clouds to meet their business and technical objectives, but there was no easy way to manage this environment until now.
Our new offering uniquely gives enterprises everything they require in a multi-cloud environment– security, private connectivity, performance, simplicity and efficiency. SCI will enable a wide range of applications and use cases for organizations,” stated Palmer.
Verizon’s Secure Cloud Interconnect service will offer a combination of features to enterprises, including dynamic bandwidth allocation with fully redundant connections, application performance throughput and quality of service, usage-based billing, and simple provisioning and management via a centralized portal.
“As enterprises look to cloud computing for speed, flexibility and efficiency, they also require a platform that offers enterprise-proven performance and reliability,” said Yousef Khalidi, distinguished engineer, Microsoft Azure for Microsoft. “With many Fortune 500 companies already using Microsoft Azure, we look forward to extending our cloud services to Verizon’s extensive network of clients through its security-enabled enterprise platform.” With SCI, enterprises gain full visibility into which applications are being consumed, by whom, and where and how they are performing.
Video stalling in mobile networks has the largest impact on user engagement
Commuting on city streets to a cross-town meeting, a driver hits almost every red light, has to deal with rush-hour traffic, and contends with cyclists, pedestrians, and other unforeseen delays – all out of his control. Almost everyone can relate to the frustration involved in this commute. An equal number can relate to this experience when trying to watch a video on a mobile device. The video starts, pauses, buffers, plays, and then stops again. Just as a driver cannot control the traffic, a viewer has little control over how the video streams.
However, mobile operators can do more for their customers to ensure a smooth viewing experience. Video content constitutes a significant and growing percent of today’s mobile data traffic, and customer expectations for video delivery quality are increasing. This is a significant challenge for operators since customers tend to evaluate the overall quality of their broadband network based on their video viewing experience. It is therefore crucial that mobile operators understand the factors that affect video quality and to what extent they can be managed, optimized and controlled.
Many industry studies have concluded that video stalling in mobile networks has the largest impact on user engagement. Traditionally, stalling issues were managed by increasing bandwidth allocation. However, as networks become more congested and video content becomes more prevalent, it is harder to prevent the conditions that cause stalling.
We recently conducted an in-depth analysis on measuring the video experience to explore the factors that impact mobile video delivery quality, based on a randomly selected sample of 300,000 representative video detail records (VDRs) from hundreds of millions of unmanaged mobile video transactions during a given week. The research revealed a number of significant findings, including:
Softbank mulls Vodafone move japanese mobile operator reportedly eyes European opportunities in light of regulatory opposition to Sprint/T-Mobile merger
As U.S. regulators voice concern over a potential tie-up between number three player Sprint and its smaller rival T-Mobile US, the former's owner, Softbank, is rumoured to be evaluating a possible takeover bid for Vodafone. An unnamed source cited by Forbes late last week claimed that Japan-based Softbank would prefer to consolidate the U.S. market, but should that prove impossible it may instead turn its attention to Europe, and in particular, Vodafone.
Attempting to acquire Vodafone represents a much more expensive prospect compared to T-Mobile US; however, industry watchers have pointed out that Softbank will soon have an opportunity to raise a serious amount of cash.
The operator owns 37% of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding, which is planning what stands to be the largest Internet IPO in history. The listing is expected to value Alibaba at comfortably more than $100 billion, meaning Softbank could easily gain more than $37 billion should it opt to sell out. With a market capitalisation of around $97 billion, Vodafone is still a huge player to acquire. That said, banking sources cited in recent press reports claim banks would be more willing to finance future deals for Softbank because of the value of its Alibaba stake.
Despite the well-documented ambitions of Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son to create the world's biggest company, Total Telecom is sceptical that it will launch a bid for a company the size of Vodafone. If it did though, it would make for a remarkable coming-of-age story for Softbank, which acquired Vodafone's struggling Japanese business in 2006, when it was a fledgling telco that had just been granted its mobile licence. A lot has changed since then.
Softbank has established itself in its home market as a worthy competitor to NTT DoCoMo and KDDI, and it stepped onto the world stage in late 2012 when it struck a $20.1 billion deal to take majority control of Sprint Nextel
Telecoms Fraud Management & Revenue Assurance World Summit 2014
A report from Juniper Research found that the global mobile telecoms industry lost more than $58 billion in 2011 - over 6% of global revenues - due to inadequate fraud management and revenue assurance processes. The report suggests that under a ‘nightmare scenario' whereby operators fail to implement any remedial measures over the next five years, the scale of losses could rise five-fold by 2016.
The report found that as operators have been obliged to integrate an ever-expanding array of devices and to simultaneously manage a surge in cellular network traffic, billing systems have failed to keep pace. As a result, they are increasingly unable to accurately or efficiently capture the large volume of transactions that occur on the network. The complexity has magnified the scale of revenue loss, resulting in bad debts and a greater opportunity for fraud.
However, the report recommends that operators can minimize the outflows resulting from next-generation connectivity by implementing automated system solutions that provide end-to-end visibility of the revenue chain. Presumably, as a result of implementing those systems, the report finds that leakage will decline to 4% of revenue in 2016, representing a net reduction of nearly $15 billion per annum compared with 2011.” – TM Forum Telecoms Fraud Management & Revenue Assurance World Summit 2014 will draw together highly-regarded expert speakers from across the ecosystems of telecommunications industry and solutions providers to present to you the latest key trends and approaches taken and practiced in Telecoms Fraud & Revenue Assurance. The highlights of the summit will be Case Studies and Perspectives to be shared by telecoms operators on their successful efforts in tackling fraud & revenue assurance risks and the key challenges they have encountered. This participative event will also discuss critical issues faced by the telecom industry through panel and roundtable discussions.
India ready for further consolidation, says Vodafone chief 11 April 2014
Vodafone India’s chief executive Marten Pieters has expressed his belief that the market is heading for widespread consolidation as operators are not turning a profit. “There are currently about a dozen players, with many of them making losses,” noted Pieters, without confirming whether Vodafone India would be interested in M&A.
Pieter’s views are shared by many observers across the industry. Competition has long been fierce in India, inflaming price wars and driving down profit margins. There has been recent speculation that some of the market’s larger players may buy up their smaller rivals, with Vodafone India rumoured to be in negotiations with Tata Teleservices. In February, Bharti Airtel confirmed that it would acquire Loop Mobile once it received regulatory approval.
India’s recent spectrum auctions saw Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular, Vodafone India and dark horse Reliance Jio Infocomm acquire the most. This may be an indication of which players will be driving consolidation in the market. Pieters also noted that the country’s revisions to its M&A regulation would also encourage consolidation. The new rules are favourable to merged entities, raising their market share limit for subscribers and revenue from 35% to 50%.
With Who Moved My Cheese? Dr. Spencer Johnson realizes the need for finding the language and tools to deal with change-an issue that makes all of us nervous and uncomfortable. more