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Great chat. Thanks to all!

Platinum

Thank all of you, have nice time 

Steel

Poll ans,....Probably C and D options

Steel

Enjoying recorded archive, from México, some like  20 °C

Steel

Thanks for taking the time John. 

Author

Thanks for all the questions! I'll check back when I get a chance to answer any follow ons. Thanks for having me Mike! 

Author

This is absolutely true, we have to have "anchor" vendors. When deciding on our SDN platform we balanced the "build it yourself" option against the "buy it" option, both have advantages and disadvantages, we ultimately went sort of down the middle - buy it, but it's modular so we can customize to our needs. 

Author

I will take you up on that John. I think there's been some movement since we last spoke on SD-WAN among vendors and operators. 

Author

thank you, good day to all 

Platinum

I'm more than happy to set up a future session on SD WAN! It's one of my favorite topics.

Author

Good point about "zero touch" John. 

Author

It is highly customer dependent. Some customers say "Vendor X has this function and I want it in my network" other customers say "I have this business poblem, how do I fix it". The latter is probably better for us because there are often multiple ways to solve a problem, but we have to be able to adapt to the former as well. We also need to assess customer requirements against operational support, we have to be able to deploy and manage whatever we sell to a customer. It would be impossible to support every feature from every vendor in every flavor and be very good at managing it. 

Author

This cannot be understated, I probably should have brought this up on the show - operational support is very different in an SDN/NFV environment. I will say that after working through a few "Zero Touch" deployments, that is the biggest misnomer in the industry. It works great for greenfield, but if you're integrating to an existing network, there will be "touches". Overall we need different skills for operational support, we've created a specific helpdesk with those skills for our virtualized services. Of course there is tight integration with other helpdesks within Orange, but we felt it important to have specifically skilled agents. 

Author

Thanks, Mike and John! Great show, and thanks for getting to my questions.

The disparity is pretty great depending on how a vendor sells today (direct or through a partner), how close they are to the client and probably most importantly what their long term goal is. Some vendors are working in a niche others are looking at developing (or have developed) orchestration platforms themselves. 

I would recommend customers look at open systems and how open a vendor is, I RARELY see enterprises using one vendor for every network function, so interoperability and openness are key. Of course carriers can help here as well - if we're doing the interoperability and working with the vendors on this, then they don't have to. 

Author

I know John has to meet his LA customes, so one more round of thanks to him and to everyone that joined. He di say he would check in an answer questions when/if he has time. 

Author

@John: Seems like the next step is automating the customization -- leading to that sort of self-strategized automation.

But then, it seems as if once that happens, doom follows. ;)

I believe that your assessment is accurate - the use of APIs to automate the automation. I can't wait to see how this all manifests, it's going to be an interesting ride! Honestly though SON is enough generations away from where we are today that it will morph through the process. 

Author

when does the market mature?

Platinum

In our customer base there is almost always a need for some customization. What we are doing is creating as much automation as possible, without removing the ability to customize. From many customer interactions I would say that customization is more important than automation, but it's a balance. As the market matures this becomes less of a decision point.  

Author

@Mike: Sounds like a good show to have next!

@John: So cool. The intersection of customer feedback and new-product scalability fascinates me in this arena.

Do you find that a lot of these discussions are more about the customer going on about technological features they wish they had, or is it more innovating indirectly around functional, real-life business issues and tinkering from there? Or somewhere in between?

Wish we had more time to speak to John about what he is seeing with SD-WAN in general. 

Author

We spend a lot of time listening to our customers, when I describe my job I always include the feedback loop to our product and engineering teams. I have very definitely seen product developments follow the lead of our customers - internet, public cloud, SD WAN the development of products around these solutions has all been a collaborative effort with our clients. Of course we have to start with a product, but then the definition of how that product works is often tweaked as we talk to customers about the products. I am in LA now, just heading into a customer meeting to have exactly this discussion about one of our SD WAN products. 

Author

@Mike: Good. What else can I ask for?

Wow. Lots of great questions. I'll try to address them all, give me a few minutes to wade through here! 

Author

Here's a question for John from below: If we're predicting a fully automated network environment, what about automating the automation -- where networks can not only be fully self-managed but also fully self-strategized from a long view (i.e., the self-organized network, or SON)?

Author

Thanks, Mike and John! Good show! (looking forward to picking it up more granularly here.)

email question: How much does Orange rely on its vendor partners for offering new SDN and NFV services? My sense lately has been that a lot of operators have anchor vendors that they're using to take virtualization to the next level.

Author

"Let's get that stuff moving faster."

So maybe the magic wand IS a magic WAN! ;)

Magic wand or magic WAN? (ba dum tsh)

Hi ,

Can you please explain the new "operation/support" model which is different from the traditional model in Telco concidering NFV/SDN transformaiton and new on ground multi-envirment Vendor (NFVI , VIM, NFV Vendors &..n, NFVO,VNFM,..) ?

thanks

Wadii BELLAAJ

Product Owner & Cloud tehcnology Head

Make things simple, but not simpler.... 

Platinum

QUESTION: So it really sounds like getting vendors on the same page with the business and on the same page with each other. How much "vendor disparity" would you say you see, John? What do you advise for those organizations that need to simplify and unify here?

Funnily enough, which I think of now as John talks about Orange's work with AT&T, the more John talks about how networks have to work globally, the more I connect this to Orange's well publicized partnerships across and beyond the industry.

Not that Orange is the only polygamist here -- or even the most polygamous in the industry -- but I've seen a lot of stories and talk about Orange's work with others here. (The Red Hat announcement out of the recent summit in Sydney comes to mind.)

I would also agree on answer E.

Steel

QUESTION: If we're predicting a fully automated network environment, what about automating the automation -- where networks can not only be fully self-managed but also fully self-strategized from a long view (i.e., the self-organized network, or SON)?

Poll: Where do you see SDN having the biggest impact next year? E would be my assessment

 

Steel

I see it as -  C. Enabling agile development and continuous delivery as development continues 

Platinum

Ah, but the question is *biggest* impact... So I guess I'll ditch hedging and go with E.

Poll Answer:

F: Combo of all of the above, primarily driven by B and E.

Poll: Where do you see SDN having the biggest impact next year?

D. Enabling orchestration, programmability and APIs

Just my two cents.

Platinum

RE: REGULATION ON VIRTUALIZATION

QUESTION: But wait. What about New Zealand's TICSA and the notorious pull-out of that Google testbed? Have things changed since then? How so?

For context, here's Light Reading's 2015 article on the story: (link)

The issue of encryption regulations may throw some huge monkey wrenches into virtualization roadmaps... 

Platinum

Poll: Where do you see SDN having the biggest impact next year?

A. Enabling virtual CPU services

B. Managing flow of internal traffic

C. Enabling agile development and continuous delivery

D. Enabling orchestration, programmability and APIs

E. Applications and services, such as SD-WAN, at the network edge

F. Other, or some combination of the above (Give examples.)

 

Author

Questioning the wisdom of the idea of buying equipment to last for X years is perhaps as old as the idea of planned obsolescence itself. I don't think virtualization has changed that or even necessarily advanced it; it's just given it a different flavor.

Your link on Orange history is noteworthy, however Orange Business Services roots date back to the former Equant and Global One.  France Telecomm, aka, Orange, bought both of the former companies

 

Steel

Good question mhhf1ve!

Author

How do things scale if every customer needs customization? Obviously, Orange learns something from each customer engagement, but how does that make things more efficient in the future? How do automation and customization balance? 

Platinum

Hi from San Diego, CA USA

Steel

I wonder if the reason Orange France stands out for having its own domestic network is for the reasons John Barnes recently pointed out on one of our message boards regarding Orange's history: (link)

Yes, all of the innovative solutions come when we identify customer pain points. And thats when innovative solutions come due to collaboration.

Steel

"We don't have a domestic network per se... It has to work in a global environment."

It seems that this is increasingly true in the industry.

@abaccarani: Thanks for doing the conversion for us Yanks! ;)

@pbrundza: Jealous!

Well said. Tech solutions cannot be weighed in a vacuum.

QUESTION FOR JOHN: When you speak of staying close to your customers, how much of your work here is truly collaborative? Moreover, how -- if at all -- has your work with customers ever inspired new solutions or new approaches to solutions that you've then been able to turn around and offer to other customers?

North Italy here, about 43 F

 

Steel

Hello, Melbourne, FL 73 degrees

@Don: If only that were Celsius!

Grand Rapids, MI 24 degrees
Steel

Mn cold have not checked temp, probally 30 degrees.

Steel

Listening in from Boston. Don't know the exact temperature, but it's cool-ish.

To make my fingers yet limberer: The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dogs.

Hi, guys! Glad to make it today and get started!

Good morning/afternoon everyone!  Remember to turn up your volume on the computers.  At the top of the hour an audio player will pop up on your screen.  If you don't see it, try to press F5 to refresh your screen. Remember, there's no slides for this it's just a discussion, so be sure to post your questions, comments and thoughts on the message boards and we will join you on the chat after the audio stream. 

Author

Hello to all - @Mike - thanks for the links good info

Platinum

subject

hello all

 

 

Steel

This should be an interesting discussion!

 

Hello everyone, I'm looking forward to today's discussion! 

Author

Gd day everyone, looking forward to understand SDN/NFV>

Steel

Good morning everibody, ready for this event. Best greetings

Steel

Greetings and salutations everyone!

Steel

Greetings and salutaions all!

Steel

Looking forward to this show!

Steel


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