(c)iStock.com/franckreporter
As the first working week of 2016 comes to a close and organisations settle into the new year, industry experts offer their forecasts for the telecommunications sector. Below are concise, practical predictions from leading voices—read and consider which you agree with and which you think may miss the mark.
“There will be merging between wholesale telecoms providers and data centre hosting” – Antonio Manzalini, Senior Manager Innovation, Telecom Italia; Chair, IEEE Software Defined Networks Initiative
Softwarisation of telecommunications will accelerate the convergence of infrastructure toward a platform that supports a wide range of virtualised network and service functions. This trend will drive a clearer separation between entities that own and operate converged infrastructure and those that act primarily as service providers.
Traditional retail telecommunications offerings will evolve into bundled services, where voice is packaged with internet access, premium TV and other services. Telecom retail will increasingly align with over-the-top (OTT) models, creating new hybrid offerings. At the wholesale level, telecom providers and data centre hosting businesses will move closer together, forging partnerships or consolidations to meet demand for hosted, virtualised services.
Concurrently, some telecom equipment vendors will transform their business models to focus mainly on software solutions, repositioning themselves as software providers rather than purely hardware manufacturers.
“100 Gigabit Ethernet will reach a tipping point for mass deployment” – Scott Kipp, President, Ethernet Alliance; Principal Hardware Engineer, Brocade
100 Gigabit Ethernet (100GbE) is set to exceed one million switch ports in shipments during 2016, signaling it has reached a tipping point for broad deployment. Once that threshold is crossed, 100GbE is likely to enter a self-reinforcing cycle of rising volumes and falling costs, enabling use across many more applications and network layers.
One important factor driving cost reductions is the adoption of smaller QSFP28 port form factors, which support higher port density and lower cost per port. Following a path similar to 10 Gigabit Ethernet’s expansion to mass-market volumes, 100GbE will benefit from QSFP28 implementations built on 25Gb/s lane technology, enabling higher production volumes and improved affordability in 2016.
“The IoT industry stops paying attention to just the number of devices connected” – Macario Namie, Vice President Strategy, Jasper
Different analyst firms continue to publish widely varying estimates of the number of devices that will connect via the Internet of Things. Yet focusing solely on device counts misses the point: IoT is fundamentally about services.
In 2016 the industry will shift attention away from chasing headline device numbers and toward tracking the diversity and quality of services enabled by connected devices. Security will move to the forefront of priorities: the sector’s winners will be those solution providers that help enterprises not only deliver connected services, but secure them end-to-end.
“For big data in 2016, we will begin to see a move towards the ‘democratisation of data’” – PHEMI
Historically, business intelligence and analytics teams have acted as gatekeepers—creating datasets, generating reports, and serving information to other parts of the business. Emerging technologies that emphasize privacy, governance and security are changing how data is managed, shared and consumed.
We expect a shift away from bespoke, department-driven data requests where specialized teams control and distribute information via spreadsheets, dashboards and static reports. Instead, the democratisation of data will expand safe access across organizations, enabling more stakeholders to leverage data directly. By unlocking access while preserving governance and privacy, data-driven enterprises can generate greater insight and value across teams and functions.
What do you think will be the key industry trends this year?