Hello Members,

Our membership swelled to 7,779 this past week, and we had over 31 comments on 15 discussions, which, as Anuradha observed in a comment to my update from last week http://linkd.in/1qTnFkT, goes a long way in keeping our group active!
So, hearty congratulations to each of you in helping to develop a vibrant community! I look forward to your continued participation.

And, many of our members celebrated Independence Day here in the US, with yours truly also in that camp, and with some reflections on the July 4th weekend and it’s lesson for Carrier Ethernet shared here http://linkd.in/1n5mUh3

The topics posted this week represented wide variety – pointing to the expanding interests of the Group’s members.

Data Center Design:

i) First, there was the question of the new responsibilities that carriers must confront when transitioning to SDN http://linkd.in/1qIcrhx, and Steven Hills presentation from SDN+OpenFlow APAC Congress on the state of SDN in the data center, in the SDN Cup Runneth Over http://linkd.in/1tkRYCQ. This dovetails well into my post on Dr. Eslambolchi’s musings on the Internet-of-Everything and the DC http://linkd.in/1qTmJ02, where Anuradha (Udunuwara) pointedly asked if it is really necessary for everyone on the planet to digitally record their entire lives!

What do you think? Are you personally doing so, or are you aware of folks who are? And, is that something we should be doing? (My views are in the response to Anuradha’s comment under my post.)

Internet Operation:

ii) Next we had Ray (Sharma)’s post on Akamai’s State-of-the-Internet Report http://linkd.in/1n5nEmo, and Patrick (Lopez’s) observations on the common misconception that a faster network implies better quality-of-experience for the customer http://linkd.in/1oFvMyq, while Ray also posted an Infoblox report that 57% of enterprises felt their network capacity is insufficient to support the demand of the IoT http://linkd.in/1rOYArB.

Technology Development:

iii) Girish (Arora) posed a key question asking what the requirements were for data plane interoperability between two MPLS-TP domains? http://linkd.in/1n5oyPK
And this is still an open question on the Group, so would the MPLS/MPLS-TP professionals please share their views?

Mobile Networks:

iv) Last but not the least, Ray posted on the news that Idea Cellular in India was offering free data download to 137M customers in return for their agreeing to sponsored mobile data on their phones http://linkd.in/1n5oyPK. This is significant for several reasons – one, it kicks off a new business model for operators in their battle with the OTTs, and two, it burns a hole in the net-neutrality argument when one realizes the incentives there are to prioritize sponsored data over “regular” data.

In the same breath, we heard of the need for media optimization to tap into the burgeoning $278 Billion (!) mobile broadband market (something Patrick Lopez has written about when talking of mobile video optimization) http://linkd.in/1znNZpS. Talking of Patrick, he provided an interesting perspective on what the mobile network will look like in the year 2030 – so don’t miss this. http://linkd.in/1qTly0o

So, folks if you haven’t taken a look lately at the wealth of ideas and insights that are available here each week, and you’re letting your membership languish due to inactivity and lack of participation – think again! ‘Cause you’re sure missin’ out on a golden opportunity.

I encourage you to utilize your membership by active participation and contribution, and in that process expand yourself professionally while also contributing to the strengthening of our community/industry, as your colleagues are doing!

Do feel free to write to me with your thoughts and/or ideas at any time at v.sharma@ieee.org or via LinkedIn.

As always, until next time, may the bits in your bytes and the bytes in your packets be profitable!

Best wishes,
-Vishal