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Gartner tells users to choose well as public cloud rises to $482bn in 2022

Annie Turner
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Gartner tells users to choose well as public cloud rises to $482bn in 2022

Garnter’s recent magic quadrant for public cloud shows AWS ahead for eleventh year running, but warns of high pressure sales.

Gartner predicts that global cloud adoption will continue to expand rapidly. It forecasts end-user spending on public cloud services to reach $396 billion (€333.5 billion) in 2021 and grow 21.7% to reach $482 billion in 2022.

Additionally, by 2026, Gartner predicts public cloud spending will exceed 45% of all enterprise IT spending, up from less than 17% in 2021, as shown in the table below.

Magic quadrant

Separately, the research house has published its magic quadrant report on the cloud infrastructure and platform services (CIPS) market names AWS as the leader for the eleventh year.

It defines CIPS as “standardized, highly automated offering in which infrastructure resources (for example, compute, networking and storage) are complemented by integrated platform services.

They include managed application, database and functions as-a-service offerings.

AWS, followed by Microsoft then Google are the only three to make it into the coveted top right-hand box for leaders.

Tencent, Oracle and IBM are all classed as the niche players, with Alibaba Cloud just making it to being a visionary.

Gartner warns that the offers are very different, and that serious care needs to be taken when choosing a cloud provider.

Notable among Gartner’s comments on the relative strength and weaknesses of each are:
• AWS tops the bill for its engineering, customer adoption rates and innovation, and “guides the roadmap” for other cloud cos.

• Gartner is not impressed by the complexity of many of AWS’ solutions and, at the same time, its “bare bones” offers that are not ready for enterprise use.

• reports from “dozens of Gartner clients across multiple geographies have reported pressure from AWS sales, which has increased considerably in the past year, to increase annual spend commitments by 20% to renew existing contracts. Customers that rely heavily on the AWS platform are not happy. Gartner reckons hard selling is not AWS’ policy and could be stopped if customer escalate complaints.

• Microsoft is found to have the widest suite of capabilities and strong relationships with enterprises, but customers and potential clients are still edgy about its resilience – like when Azure Active Directory fails. The Azure Kubernetes Service is also prone to outages.

• Gartner also called out Microsoft for its overly complex licensing and its sales teams not being too interested in bringing down customers’ costs as opposed to selling more.

• Google got a positive write-up including the “most fully featured Kubernetes service of any provider in this market” but noted post-sales satisfaction could be higher regarding Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and warned that its aggressive pricing is unlikely to be maintained, given GCP is the only hyperscaler reporting losses for that area of business.

• Tencent is mostly concentrating on the Chinese market but is the only one of the hyperscalers to have a presence in Russia.

• IBM was noted for its strength in regulated industries and edge computing, yet has a relatively small market share, despite efforts over many years to crack the cloud market, including its acquisition of Red Hat in 2019.

• Oracle is pushing hard to hit the big time in cloud and Gartner describes it as having a unique private cloud region on-premises product due to its full parity with the public cloud, without depending on the internet. Even so, the research house says Oracle engenders negative responses in developers and has many “new and immature” services.

• Gartner warns of a lack of clarity around its Alibaba’s pricing and technical info about its services. I’d say there is also the fear of Chinese authorities acting against it and Tencent if it is perceived by them as being too big for its boots.

Iliad tables undisclosed bid for Liberty Global’s UPC Poland

Nick Booth
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Iliad tables undisclosed bid for Liberty Global’s UPC Poland

CEO Thomas Reynaud explains the mobile operator’s odyssey.

French telco Iliad has declared that it made an indicative offer for the whole of Liberty Global’s Polish fixed internet operator UPC, reports Reuters. Iliad recently bought the Polish mobile operator Play.

The bid for 100% of UPC Poland’s shares would give the company an enterprise value of 7.3 billion zlotys ($1.90 billion), according to Iliad.

The bid’s valuation was undisclosed but was based on estimated earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of 782 million zlotys (€171.6million) in 2021 for UPC Poland, Iliad said.

Covergence is the goal

On a call with investors, Iliad’s CEO Thomas Reynaud explained that the potential acquisition would be in line with its ambition to become “a true convergent player in Poland,” adding that “we’re currently looking at different options on our broadband activity.”

One option, as part of the strategy, would be the “potential acquisition of a broadband player on the Polish market,” Reynaud said, in relation to the group’s approach to UPC Poland. 

Fibre optic roll out for Poland

Another strategy option would be to set up Iliad’s own broadband company to roll out optic fibre technology in Poland, said Reynaud. 

Xavier Niel has just launched a tender to take the company he founded 22 years ago private.

 

 

A Practical Guide to Subcontractor Management in Field Service Management

Annie Turner
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A Practical Guide to Subcontractor Management in Field Service Management

Every day, field service companies must provide the best possible service while taking into account such areas as operational costs, human resource management, and business flexibility. All of these are relevant when employing subcontractors, which can be very beneficial for an FSM company.

Yet, how can you make sure that this is the best choice for your field service provisioning company? What should you take into consideration when employing external technicians? What are the best ways to control the quality of their work, and how can you motivate them to perform their best?

You can find the answers to these questions and more out in the latest expert guide from Comarch FSM. By reading the guidebook you can learn more about:

  • The pros and cons of using subcontractors
  • Different subcontractor management models in terms of planning and dispatching
  • Ways of controlling work quality
  • How to use technology in your favor
  • Ways of motivating subcontractors
DOWNLOAD NOW

Sponsored: Is there a way to accurately block robocalls?

Annie Turner
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Sponsored: Is there a way to accurately block robocalls?

It’s time to end the nuisance for once and for all.

There’s nothing more annoying and disruptive than a robocall, and no matter what anti-spam solution you use, some robocalls always seem to get through. In fact, unwanted voice traffic is the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) top consumer complaint in the US.

But the fight against robocalls has just hit a new milestone — July 30th was the deadline for US. operators to implement STIR/SHAKEN or an alternative robocall mitigation program.

No silver bullet

In a statement given on June 30th about the approaching deadline, FCC’s Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said, “While there is no silver bullet in the endless fight against scammers, STIR/SHAKEN will turbo-charge many of the tools we use in our fight against robocalls: from consumer apps and network-level blocking, to enforcement investigations and shutting down the gateways used by international robocall campaigns.

“This is a good day for American consumers who – like all of us – are sick and tired of illegal spoofed robocalls.”

Rosenworcel’s statement makes it clear that the FCC isn’t focused solely on STIR/SHAKEN—it’s encouraging service providers to use additional tools in the fight against robocalls.

Why is it that? Are there gaps in STIR/SHAKEN coverage? Is the coverage it provides insufficient, although it is being used as the minimum standard?

STIR/SHAKEN matters

STIR/SHAKEN was designed to inform the end user whether a call can be trusted and trace the source of a robocall, but not to block robocalls. That’s why service providers are now trying to take the next step and find a way to block robocalls using information the STIR/SHAKEN provides.

But there are many questions that remain unresolved. For example, what blocking policy should service providers apply? Who defines and regulates the policy? What STIR/SHAKEN parameters can service providers use to block unwanted calls? 

At the end of the day, there really is no foolproof way to determine which calls should be blocked and which shouldn’t using STIR/SHAKEN.

A-level attestation also doesn’t guarantee that a call can be trusted – it can be undermined by calls terminated via SIM boxes that have A-level attestation.

Likewise, a call with a C-level attestation isn’t clear cut — it might be from somebody in the subscribers’ contact list. Even the absence of attestation is not conclusive – it might have been lost due to a TDM segment on the path of the call.

That’s why the FCC recommends using alternative tools for the final determination. For example, manipulations to the A-number, also known as CLI spoofing, can be a more accurate indicator of a robocall.

Innovative alternative

A Florida-based company called AB Handshake is offering an innovative alternative to fight robocalls and meet FCC regulations.

Unlike STIR/SHAKEN, AB Handshake was designed to provide a comprehensive solution to the robocall nuisance using global call validation.

Rather than each company and/or regulator pouring resources into fraud protection systems based on sampling, patterns, or statistics, AB Handshake has built a community of businesses that work together, using a common ‘handshake’ to validate each call from both ends. 

The solution is integrated into a company’s network using the default functionality of the existing equipment and standard protocols – no special hardware or infrastructure is needed.

How it works

Picture 1 shows how it works. When a call is placed, the originating and terminating operators send  verification requests directly to each other to confirm the parameters of the call.

 

If it’s a robocall which uses CLI spoofing to hide the real origin of the call, the terminating operator reaches out to the owner of the A-Number used by the fraudster and does not get verification. The call is automatically identified as fraudulent and blocked in real time, before it can harass customers or rack up costs to telecom companies.

AB Handshake can block all types of fraud by identifying any manipulations to the call parameters in real time. There is no reason for such manipulations other than fraud, providing foolproof logic for an automatic blocking mechanism.

The solution provides value for both the originating and terminating service providers, as calls can be blocked by operators on either side. It is more secure than the alternatives, as the transit carriers do not participate in the validation process.

Worldwide effort

The company is now actively onboarding service providers worldwide and the system already has live traffic to any country in the world. The traffic can be used as a natural 24/7 test probe to detect any type of fraud in inbound and outbound traffic.

Learn more at www.abhandshake.com.

SES Networks and Orange integrate global networks to boost maritime services

Nick Booth
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SES Networks and Orange integrate global networks to boost maritime services

Fusion creates network with wider reach and digital impact

Orange’s maritime customers will enjoy higher-capacity satellite connections thanks to its new pact with partner SES Networks.

The mobile operator will integrate its global infrastructure with the SES Networks Skala Global Platform. 

The boost in bandwidth makes it cheaper for Orange’s maritime customers to create global digital services using its Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), edge and cloud computing applications.

SES Networks’ Skala Global Platform provides worldwide coverage via multiple geostationary satellites and gateways interconnected by a global terrestrial network. The pact with Orange creates two main improvements: secure broadband services to developed markets and extended coverage to Earth’s remotest and least accessible corners. 

The maritime industry, which has suffered a container distribution crisis recently, has been hampered in its ambitions for rapid technological change. Shipping companies need a plethora of digital inventions to remain competitive, according to Orange. 

Soon everyone will need satellite

Satellite will be the future of the comms industry as new inventions make it a core telco technology. says Orange. “It’s the same whether services are in Africa, developed areas like Europe and North America, or in specific areas such as Maritime,” said Jean-Luc Vuillemin, Executive Vice President, Orange International Networks Infrastructures and Services.

The partnership with SES supports the digital transformation of customers and widens access to the largest number of people. “The commercial maritime sector is seeking global and high-quality connectivity as it enters the next stage of automated technologies,” said Vuillemin, “expanding our partnership with SES will open the door to more exciting innovations for our maritime customers.”

Flexible bandwidth will catalyse growth

Flexible bandwidth gives shipowners the full value of their digital investments, John-Paul Hemingway, CEO of SES Networks said: “As our partner, Orange was the first major telco player to embrace our upcoming O3b mPOWER.”

This is the latest in a series of recent service partnerships between Orange Group and SES Networks. Orange uses the SES O3b satellite constellation operating in medium earth orbit (MEO) as well as SES’ geostationary satellites in a bid to provide fibre-like, low-latency services across the globe to its mining customers. Orange also uses SES’s MEO and GEO services to provide international connectivity and cellular services across remote areas of Africa.

Orange is the first announced network operator to adopt O3b mPOWER, SES’s next-generation MEO system, which is planned for commercial service availability late in 2022. 

Internet of Things (IoT)

Private 5G nets will grow faster than public 5G, peaking in 2027

Annie Turner
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Private 5G nets will grow faster than public 5G, peaking in 2027

RAN Research predicts private 5G networks will generate $19.3 billion (€16.25 billion) in equipment sales at their height.

Private 5G network deployments will surge over the next few years faster even than public 5G, reaching a peak in 2027 when they will generate $19.3 billion in equipment sales, before subsiding after that as saturation approaches.

Enterprise Wi-Fi

There will be a similar boom in deployment of enterprise Wi-Fi networks around the latest 6E standard offering greater capacity and performance than the current generation, closer to 5G.

However, that Wi-Fi growth will be confined largely to North America and Europe, and will peak earlier in 2024, after which an increasing number of sites will swing to 5G for more demanding use cases.



These are key findings of the latest report, Private Networks Driving Opportunities in 5G and WiFi from RAN Research, the wireless forecasting arm of Rethink Technology Research.

The forecast drills down into regions and vertical industry sectors, identifying manufacturing as a major driver for private enterprise 5G in line with the industry 4.0 revolution, but with strong growth across the board.

Healthcare, transportation, energy and government stand out as other sectors where deployments of private 5G and WiFi 6E will take off faster than the average.

Spectacular 5G growth

Cumulative growth in private 5G will be spectacular, with 26.6 million networks deployed around the world by 2028, up from 1.1 million in 2021.

This growth will occur in all regions but will be especially striking in four countries leading the private 5G field now, the US, Germany, China and Japan.

Don’t forget 4G

While 5G will account for the lion’s share of the growth over the whole forecast period, there will still be a significant number of 4G private networks being deployed over the next few years.

Similarly, on the WiFi front, the last generation 5 is dominant at present but it will be the latest 6E that takes over during the forecast period and offers an alternative to 5G for some of the emerging cases.

There will also be a revival of heterogenous networks combining WiFi and cellular under these two latest generations, as new AI based techniques finally deliver the smooth handover that has proved elusive for so long. 

Private 5G networks will attract more new players into the mobile arena. Operators face competition not just from new service providers but also enterprises themselves bypassing them to build their own networks.  

The established technology providers themselves face a challenge from new providers coming in on the back of Open RAN.

Some telcos still using ‘punch card’ programming metrics for 5G software

Nick Booth
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Some telcos still using ‘punch card’ programming metrics for 5G software

On average €106.1 million (£92 million) of revenue is lost each year from using ancient software delivery techniques.

Telcos are gauging their software using techniques dating that are half a century out of date.

CircleCI, a continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) platform, announced the findings of a new study, The Business of Software Report: Uncovering the Knowledge Gap.

Developers know best

 It reveals that businesses may be sacrificing up to £92 million in revenue per year due to ineffective software delivery.

Surveying more than 2,000 business leaders in the US and the UK across 12 industries, the report identifies a critical knowledge gap between leaders and developer teams that is causing businesses to miss out on potential revenue.

It shows that while almost nine out of 10 execs believe they know how to measure software delivery well, at least 40% are using outdated metrics like Story Points and Lines of Code – a metric that’s been around since the earliest days of punch-card programming.

Most business leader respondednts (97%) believe the success of their business within the next year relies on the ability of their software teams.

Yet, two-thirds of them aren’t developers and over half (52%) don’t allow their software developers to choose their own tools. This decision is prone to stifle developers’ choice and business innovation.

Ineffective metrics

The study found 89% of executives believe they have a good understanding of how to measure the performance of their engineering teams, yet the findings reveal that 40% of companies rely on measuring the number of lines of code written, and 37% measure story points.

Both measures have niche utility but are ineffective at measuring a software teams’ success and impact on business.

Jim Rose, CEO, CircleCI, said, “Over the last 18 months, businesses have realised that, regardless of their industry, or the products or services they provide, they are a software business at their core.

“The survey results show that today’s executives need to better invest in developer operations and accurately measure the productivity and business impact of engineering work to remain competitive. If business leaders want to create a continuous innovation powerhouse, they need to close this knowledge gap before it’s too late.”

Takeaway findings from the report:

  • 95% say they have a good understanding of how to measure the performance of software engineers
  • 46% are still measuring lines of code written (an outdated metric that’s been around since the days of punch-card programming)
  • 41% are measuring Story Points (a measure of effort, essentially, but a poor measure of quality)
  • $141.9m is the estimated potential revenue uplift per company with improved software delivery. Or, to put it another way, poor software could be costing each telecoms business $141m per year
  • 74% said over the next year, the success of the business relies on the ability of software engineers (37% say it matters a lot; 37% say it’s critical)
  • 74% are currently working on some kind of digital transformation

 

 

 

Billionaire founder in €11bn bid to take Iliad group private

Annie Turner
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0
Billionaire founder in €11bn bid to take Iliad group private

The French entrepreneur Xavier Niel launched a tender to take the company he founded 22 years ago private.

Xavier Niel’s bid to take his Iliad operator group, which operates under the brand name free, has been described by some as surprising – which is surprising in itself.

Fellow French billionaire Patrick Drahi, founder and now private controller of Altice, did a similar thing at the end of last year, albeit after a tussle with other shareholders – then bought a 12.1 stake in BT in June.

Towering concerns

Both said they felt the share price did not reflect the value of their companies.

More established and traditional telecoms operators, including Orange, Vodafone, Telefonica and others have hived off their passsive towers in a bid to release more value from their assets which they feel are undervalued by the stock market.

Indeed they go from being a cost to prized possessions once taken off the operators’ main balance sheets and private equity firms are queuing up to invest in cash-strapped European telcos.

Niel  owns about 71% of the share capital of Iliad, the mobile and broadband provider whose cut-price offers disrupted the French market before moving into Italy and doing the same there

Iliad acquired th Polish mobile operator Play last year.

The tender

Niel’s tender will offer shareholders €182 a share – a 50% premium on the average share price over the past month – the company said in a statement.

In the same statement, Niel said, “From now on, a new phase of development for Iliad will require quicker transformations and significant investments that will be easier to carry out as a private company.

“Our ambition for Iliad is to accelerate to become a leader in telecommunications in Europe.”

Iliad shares jumped 61% to just above the offer price when the news broke, valuing the market capitalisation of Iliad at €10.85 billion.

Before this, Iliad’s share price had dropped by a third with investors edgy about the level of investments in Italy and fierce competition in France.

This is not the first time Niel has taken action when he feels his company’s share price does not reflect its value: he bought back shares in 2019 when their price was half of their highest price.

Vodafone’s cable wins German access network speed test

Annie Turner
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Vodafone’s cable wins German access network speed test

Computerbild’s network tests provide an insight snapshot of Germany’s broadband.

Computerbild’s network test rated the speed of various broadband providers in Germany and found internet access via cable to be the winner.

It provides speeds up to 1Gbps and Vodafone comes as out as the best of them.

Vodafone acquired Liberty Global’s cable assets in Germany, Hungary, Czech Republic and Romania two years ago. You can read our exclusive interivew with Vodafone Deutschland’s CTO, Gerhard Mack, here.

Computerbild notes that although speeds drop during peak TV viewing times, Vodafone has made considerable efforts to address this issue while suppliers like Pÿur are rated significantly worse.

The publication gives Vodafone in first place for cable-based access, with an average of 266Mbps download and 28Mbps upload.

It rates the company’s adherence to promises made in its adverts at 3.3, which is seen as satisfactory, and stability of the speed of connection scores 2.5, also deemed satisfactory.

FTTH is a rarity

The tests found that full fibre to the house (FTTH) is rare and that Telekom Deutschland tends to be the sole provider of broadband in rural areas.

It typically uses VDSL technology to deliver a maximum 250Mbps download speed, but Computerbild says that more often, the maximum speed is 100Mbps.

The test concluded that, although Telekom Deutschland remain the leading provider of DSL technologies and has increased its download speed by an average of 17% over the previous year, Telekom’s DSL is slower and more expensive than cable internet access.

Telekom Deutschland scored an average of 65Mbps for downloading and 24 Mbps for uploading. It was rated 3.1 (satisfactory) for living up to advertised speeds and its speed stability is also “satisfactory” at 2.8.

Relying on others

EWE lands in second place, although its services are not available nationwide, and third place went to 1 & 1, which was 19% faster than the previous year.

The test found the 16-Mbps entry-level tariff is slow, and every third person does not even reach 6Mbps, according to the newspaper.

This could be due to the fact that 1 & 1 has to rent third-party lines (mostly from Telekom) and, with DSL, often does not use the new Telekom distribution box in front of the front door, but rather uses a port in the switching center further away. And long lines are “deadly” with DSL.

Vodafone DSL is in the same situation and lands fifth.

The publication states that this speed is “sufficient” for many customers, but too slow “when many bandwidth-hungry users are in the house or on the connection”.

Noovle becomes TIM’s first ‘public benefit’ company

Annie Turner
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0
Noovle becomes TIM’s first ‘public benefit’ company

Noovle is TIM’s cloud and edge services company.

TIM says Noovle reflects the corporate goal of operateing in an increasingly sustainable and transparent way regarding its green policies.

Noovle’s data centre network uses the most advanced technological and security standards in line with international best practices (LEED Gold), according to TIM, to win its Benefit Company status.

The cloud company makes efficient use of space, has reduced energy consumption and pays particular attention to the materials used and has adopted circular economy models to “regenerate” servers and equipment to lengthen their useful life.

Feeling the benefit

Benefit companies were introduced in Italy in 2016 to identify companies that pursue specific purposes for common benefit, with the aim of generating value for citizens, businesses and manufacturing companies in the country.

To maintain its status, Noovle undertakes to publish annual sustainability results, through an Impact Report, measuring the social and environmental benefits it provided with the aim of becoming a reference model.

Furthermore, the company envisages progressing towards a zero-greenhouse gas emissions economy, in line with the European objectives of climate neutrality and the national objectives of ecological transition.

 
 
 
 

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