Cloud Committee Concludes

Leading names within the telecoms industry met last week in Latin America to discuss the future of the Cloud, and its effects for the continent.
Representatives from ¬¬¬¬Cable Vision – Federico Juarez Valdez, CIO, Telefonica Media Networks SA - Pedro Luis Planas, CTO LA, Grupo GTD - Cristian Eyzaguirre, CIO, Telefonica Media Networks Latin America - Javier Izquierdo, COO and COFETEL (Federal Telecommunications Commission) - Rodrigo Gutierrez Sandez, CIO – General Coordinator of Organisation and IT among others met in Mexico to discuss the advantages of moving to the cloud and how best to implement change at the NGT LA summit, an event hosted by GDS International.

The Information & Communications Technology (ICT) market will have a strong transformation over the next 10 years. Fixed and mobile network improvements, new infrastructure and application delivery models, along with more intelligent devices will change the way that consumers and businesses use technology, and ultimately the way they do business. It is still extremely important for service providers to set a roadmap for users to follow in order for them to be well prepared and to be successful in the current market transformation.
North America has already looked to the cloud to clean their data, reducing costs and implementing flexibility, but companies in Latin America are seemingly lagging behind; now these companies are seeing for themselves the opportunities for the taking.

Moving to the Cloud is a paradigm change, and much of the Telco and MSP market is fully aware of this. The issue is how to mature the approach to migrate from physical assets to virtualization, which stalls after a certain point, and then to an elastic infrastructure that can scale up and down on demand.

“To eLeading names within the telecoms industry met last week in Latin America to discuss the future of the Cloud, and its effects for the continent.
Representatives from ¬¬¬¬Cable Vision – Federico Juarez Valdez, CIO, Telefonica Media Networks SA - Pedro Luis Planas, CTO LA, Grupo GTD - Cristian Eyzaguirre, CIO, Telefonica Media Networks Latin America - Javier Izquierdo, COO and COFETEL (Federal Telecommunications Commission) - Rodrigo Gutierrez Sandez, CIO – General Coordinator of Organisation and IT among others met in Mexico to discuss the advantages of moving to the cloud and how best to implement change at the NGT LA summit, an event hosted by GDS International.
The Information & Communications Technology (ICT) market will have a strong transformation over the next 10 years. Fixed and mobile network improvements, new infrastructure and application delivery models, along with more intelligent devices will change the way that consumers and businesses use technology, and ultimately the way they do business. It is still extremely important for service providers to set a roadmap for users to follow in order for them to be well prepared and to be successful in the current market transformation.
North America has already looked to the cloud to clean their data, reducing costs and implementing flexibility, but companies in Latin America are seemingly lagging behind; now these companies are seeing for themselves the opportunities for the taking.

Moving to the Cloud is a paradigm change, and much of the Telco and MSP market is fully aware of this. The issue is how to mature the approach to migrate from physical assets to virtualization, which stalls after a certain point, and then to an elastic infrastructure that can scale up and down on demand.

“To effectively implement these solutions, it is necessary to understand the real-time network and applications performance, risk, and quality of business service that impact user satisfaction and productivity. This understanding must bridge across all physical, virtual, and cloud environments, from the mainframe to distributed platforms.” Kenneth Arredondo – SVP and GM Latin America, CA
The NGT LA Committee believe that by maximizing telecommunication companies' Cloud Computing services, capabilities and flexibility will be increased, time-to-market can be vastly reduced, and operational risks and costs can more easily be controlled. The committee hope that by implementing this they will see greater opportunities for offering new services and improving profit margins.

At this stage cloud computing is still relatively new. IT companies, for the most part, must implement their cloud solutions alone, but with meetings such as the NGT LA summit more and more cloud aggregators and integrators will begin to emerge.
ffectively implement these solutions, it is necessary to understand the real-time network and applications performance, risk, and quality of business service that impact user satisfaction and productivity. This understanding must bridge across all physical, virtual, and cloud environments, from the mainframe to distributed platforms.” Kenneth Arredondo – SVP and GM Latin America, CA
The NGT LA Committee believe that by maximizing telecommunication companies' Cloud Computing services, capabilities and flexibility will be increased, time-to-market can be vastly reduced, and operational risks and costs can more easily be controlled. The committee hope that by implementing this they will see greater opportunities for offering new services and improving profit margins.

At this stage cloud computing is still relatively new. IT companies, for the most part, must implement their cloud solutions alone, but with meetings such as the NGT LA summit more and more cloud aggregators and integrators will begin to emerge.

Chile Earthquake Shocks Telecom Industry to up its Game

As telecommunication companies across Latin America attempt to increase product and service offerings, few regions are seeing the execution of these plans more pronounced than through the restructuring of Chiles’ communications infrastructure.

This has allowed for a significant buzz around the NGT Latin America Summit 2010 due to the convergence of Chief Technology Officers from the likes of Telefonica and Global Crossing. Other topics of discussion develop how competitors to Telefonica and America Movil are able to provide services when broadband infrastructures are dated and hinder the development of applications customers will require.

A feel good story is brewing as well. Chile has had the most strenuous year the region has seen, but has also given themselves a great position for growth and prosperity as the New Year approaches. The ability for Chile to hop and skip up to a modern communication infrastructure has allowed for a fresh market to be developed leaving an opening for more Telecom companies and suppliers to fill the void.

The benefit is also seen through the use of top tier technologies and eco friendly solutions. Not only will Chile see a powerfully modern city but their rugged rural communities will see the benefit and have the capabilities for strong mobile and broadband internet services, not to mention the effect this has on an education system.

With Mexico hosting the NGT LA 2010 executives are also focusing on how best to develop all regions in Latin America and provide state of the art mobile services that can juggle the requirements of a streaming population. This is why leading executives like Gustavio Marambio the CTO of Telefonica Chile, Israel Madiedo the CTO of Cablevision and Antonio Casucci the SVP voice Services at Global Crossing Latin America are meeting at the Fairmont Mayakoba in Mexico.

The closed door meeting of competitors and colleagues to inform themselves on what the most viable technologies available are, and to look at the future growth of Latin America, is a bold step that justifies the growth the region is currently experiencing.

The Rise and Fall of Telecoms

The telecoms industry is once under attack from falling stocks with Verizon Communications and AT&T Inc both seeing drops of 1.5 percent. Is this a true reflection of how the industry is progressing?

Despite low figures the latest Intel acquirement of McAfee adds a new dimension to the telecoms industry and smart phone security. It is also just the tip of what has been an investment iceberg for the month of August. The acquisition by Intel is a defining step in their quest to be the chip supplier for nearly every electronic device which connects with the internet. The deal finally went through with Intel agreeing to pay $7.68 billion in cash for McAffee, and is the largest acquisition for the company in their 42-year history.

But what does this mean for the telecoms industry and how will it affect both competition and telecom security and which companies will be affected? AT&T who have just announced their attendance to the NGT NA summit (hosted by GDS International) know that, while mobile security is not yet at the top of the list of consumer concerns, as more people turn to mobile banking and technology reliant smart phones increase in popularity they will need to protect from external threats and the data bills that customers will receive from outside ‘hack jobs’.

So the future of telecoms will continue to track the growth of technology innovation. The NGT NA summit understands that there is more to telecoms than phones and contracts. It is an industry comprised of components and it is those closed-door acquisitions, which in part include that of Intel and McAfee, that fund the advancements of technology within the sector. Companies such as CenturyLink - Matt Beal, CTO and FiberNet - Jack Belcher, VP of IT, both of whom are part of the NGT NA committee, have been dominating the M&A frontier; CenturyLink Inc. have just acquired Qwest Communications International for $22.2 billion while Fibernet have had interest from NTELOS.

This month alone has seen over $175 billion announced in takeover plans, the most so far this year according to Bloomberg, with telecoms companies being among the most cash rich. So despite the drop in shares registered by some companies the recent surge in mergers and acquisitions show an industry that is far from dead. Rather, it demonstrates and how cross industries such as IT security and Telecoms are now coming together to provide the ultimate consumer experience.

Forward Thinking Telecoms

Executives from the telecoms industry have just met at the closed-door NGT20 meeting to discuss the vision for the future and key growth markets.

2010 so far has been un-momentous in the telecoms industry, but this is about to change if we are to believe the latest news from the NGT NA summit hosted by GDS International.

The senior executives gathered to develop a vision on the key steps needed to capture new markets and revenues. The meeting was moderated by Melanie Posey – Research Director Telecom Markets, IDC. Key points discussed focused on the future of cloud computing; hype, opportunity, or disintermediation? Customer experience and the role of portals: delivering customer satisfaction, reducing costs, and managing customer expectations and telecoms regulation.

As expected Cloud Computing was a talking point among the majority of attendees. Cloud is set to transform the way we do business; the opportunity it offers to business provides endless possibilities, surmised the executives who also discussed in detail the need to upgrade fibre-based networks, increasing the speed and quality of delivery to the consumer.

“Everybody wants a piece of the cloud - hardware, software, IT outsourcers, telecom carriers, and cloud-native X-as-a-service providers are all jostling for position in this emerging (and in some ways, ill-defined) arena.” Joe Weinman – VP Strategy & Business Development, AT&T

Given the myriad of challenges telcos face to their core businesses, they cannot allow themselves to be left out of the industry discussion. They must get on the cloud bus or risk being thrown under it. This is understood by representatives at AT&T Business Solutions - Joe Weinman, VP Global Portfolio Strategy & Business Development, Cox Communications - Dan Estes, Executive Director of Business Operations & Engineering, Global Crossing - Adam Uzelac, Director of Converged Network Architecture & Engineering, Pac-West Telecomm - Mike Hawn, SVP Sales, Sprint Nextel - Danny Bowman, President – Integrated Solutions Group, T-Mobile - Jim Zerbe, Director Product Development, Virgin Mobile USA - Dan Acton, Chief Information & Technology Officer .

The good news is that for once in almost 30 years, software is changing. No longer are you stuck with simply new features using outdated technology. You now have an alternative technology solution. But as is the case with most drastic business change the consumer will be the driving force.

COO of Vodafone talks ‘LTE and the Rise of the Mobile Prosumer’

Kyle Whitehill - COO, Vodafone India leads this year’s NGT Asia Summit in Sentosa.

Leading operators are now finding themselves in the hands of the ever-creative software/hardware companies and the changing consumer culture. iPhone appstore was the first to take advantage and make millions from the operators' customers, creating a financial redistribution within the Telecom industry. Despite this the world’s largest mobile-phone company (Vodafone) has just posted a 2.9 percent rise in profit.

A consortium led by Vodafone COO Kyle Whitehill is currently meeting in Sentosa at the NGT Summit held by GDS International. This closed meeting featuring Zhang Fan - CTO - China Unicom, Anil Tandan - CTO - Idea Cellular, Ravinder Jain - CIO – Aircel and Mu Piao Shih - President - Chunghwa Telecom was called to debate the rapid pace of communication, transforming from the one-to-one (direct) voice communication to the fast, informal and responsive opinion and thought exchange we have today and how operators can reduce the immense cost of a large network but maintain a high level of customer experience.

“The challenge with new technology is that it's big, complicated, expensive and with 3G, 4G, LTE, and TDD making its mark in the industry we are faced with the ultimate threat of being a dumb pipe provider. Our role is to provide fast, effective solutions that meet customer needs.” Kyle Whitehill - COO, Vodafone India and chairperson of the NGT Summit.

Such consumer and technology transformation has distorted the way 'Prosumers' consume their products and services, and interact with their mobile devices. The industry waits to see if Asia's Top Telecom guns can decide on a unified approach to map revenue streams back to the operators.

“It’s not just about the way communication has transformed, but also a revolutionary change of customer behavior. Traditionally, the consumers simply consumed products and services; but now they are becoming ‘Prosumers’ who use traditional services, but at the same time share, recommend and critique these products as well.” Roar Wiik Andreassen Chief Strategy Officer, DTAC

We at NGT are very proud to host the region’s leading telecoms lights and are looking forward to working closely in collaboration with all our CTO's over the coming years in APAC as they diversify and optimize their networks. This has been an exceptional gathering even by our own high standards and much progress has been made by our operator and vendor partners alike.
Nick York - NGT Summit Director Asia Pacific concludes.