NetEvents EMEA Summit, Garmish, blog - part three

Rosalind Craven, IDC: Helping Mobile Operators Boost Profitability

Introducing the discussion, Craven said that voice revenues are not going away but that data volumes are growing while average revenue per user remains flat or is even falling., which means that means profits are under threat.

She said that carriers need a reduction in data transport costs, especially mobile backhaul but "they don't want to invest now and have to spend again in two years time - they need a longer term solution. But data usage is unpredictable, and they need the cost/bit to fall."

Evaluating this challenge, Roland Klemann, director, service provider practice at Cisco, said: "Mobile traffic is now eight times more than the whole of Internet traffic in 2000. Operators need better offerings, as tiered pricing and advances in spectrum efficiencies will not deliver enough savings."

Alan Solheim, VP at DragonWave, said: "Operators want higher capacity than technology can deliver so customers are looking at new ways of doing business. Ethernet backhaul growth was about capacity to start with but this is now about new services, such as using that bandwidth more efficiently."

Kevin Vachon, chief operating officer, MEF, said: "India is saying they have yet to experience this as they don't use so many smartphones but it's a matter of when not if. We want to help operators move to carrier Ethernet from TDM, and it's happening, driven by LTE. Now with class of service we allocate bandwidth better to make big pipes more efficient. Operators say they can save 25-40% of their bandwidth by using different configurations.

Craig Easley, VP marketing at Accedian said: "Now that operators have experience of carrier Ethernet, they are more comfortable buying lower cost services and that's where they save. If traffic is not real-time, they can drop a few packets and do it with a lower cost service and not compromise quality."

Solheim said: "We are seeing more intelligence at the edge of the network, and that same technology can be applied to mobile backhaul. The hardware cost is only 10pc of total cost - it just needs to be more reliable and faster to deploy."

Greg Gum, chief marketing officer, TelcoSystems, said: "A survey of top mobile operators worldwide said they have a mobile backhaul strategy but only 42% were upgrading to just mobile backhaul to separate data and voice. In India, SE Asia, eastern Europe and Africa, they're still on 2G or 3G so the ability to use carrier Ethernet's smarts has yet to take hold."

Addressing the significance of MEF carrier Ethernet standards on profitability, Vachon said: "Standards apply to multiple service types -- we created a new higher level specification that shows how they can be applied in backhaul environments, specifically in 3G or 4G deployments.

Easley said: "MEF22 was a stake in ground for backhaul standards. The biggest problem remaining is taking backhaul technology and applying it to 4G."

There followed a discussion about small cells, such as wifi and pico and femtocells as a way of offloading data from the mobile operators' networks. Klemann said: "We see 11% of mobile traffic being offloaded growing to 25%. That yields operational challenges for service providers. Small cells are easier to manage -- there's more redundancy and self-healing -- but more access points that need to be linked to backhauls. Operators will emerge to meet this need for backhaul."

Solheim said: "The capacity crunch point is the radio network. All new spectrum efficiencies only make 10% of the capacity gain we need, so we need a new architectural changes, that's why we have small cells. But they present operational challenges: how to connect them? We don't want wires so it needs to be wireless backhaul. The aesthetics of the solution are as important as the technology as local council won't put up with ugly boxes on the lampposts.

Gum said: "Wifi is the main offload mechanism, especially for streaming video and web intensive apps such as Facebook."

Easley answered an audience question about whether LTE will succeed: "For operators, differentiation is all about the network so they have to move up to faster radios. It's coming, it's way past trials."

Roland Klemann, Cisco: A Vision for Cloud Mobile

Roland Klemann concluded the plenary proceedings with a presentation on mobile cloud. "When mobile and cloud collide it's an explosion of data," he said. He then presented the results from a rich Cisco survey into the behaviour of end users and businesses.

He said that new devices are driving the mobile cloud, especially the iPad. "Apple is selling 1500 per hour and they generate three times more traffic than a smartphone," he said. Users are using and will use email, social networks, VC, games, documents -- video is a big driver, along with shared content, and file storage and backup.

Business users will drive the mobile cloud, according to Cisco's data, as they are twice as likely to use cloud services. "This will change the way people work," Klemann said. "It will mean more cost-efficient workplaces, more productivity." In future, we will see virtual desktop integration, thin-client, cloud-based devices, that professional and personal lives will blur and that we will need dual personality devices, one personality for work, one for personal use.

Consumers want to use any device anywhere and they use cloud services because they know their data is safe no matter what happens to the device, he said. "Drop it in the toilet and the data stays safe," he said.

Users said they trusted mobile cloud providers, and Klemann said that mobile cloud apps will generate the most network traffic -- 7.6 exabytes -- an increase of 66% worldwide. Most mobile data consumption is actually from fixed locations so wifi will work as an access method, found the survey. Klemann said that people said they would wait for wifi to access mobile cloud apps.

NetEvents APAC Press Summit ,Thailand - Day 2 Highlights

Datacentre transformation “changes economies and business models” claims John McHugh at NetEvents 2011 APAC Summit

2-day Summit climaxes with visionary advice for surviving 2012

November 22nd, Phuket, Thailand: John McHugh gave the closing keynote at NetEvents 2011 APAC Press Summit at the Indigo Pearl, Phuket, Thailand today. Taking a year of challenging and insightful presentations from NetEvents summits across the globe during 2011, McHugh distilled the essence of what will become critical issues for CIOs in Asia over the next few years. His advice rounded off the 2-day conference which included debates on current industry issues and trends plus round table press and analyst briefings attended by an audience of top execs from Arista Networks, Brocade, Extreme Networks, Fortinet, Blue Coat Systems, HP Networking, MEF, Niometrics, Sourcefire, UIH, IDC, Gartner, Analysys Mason, Market Clarity, Ovum, Forrester Research and others.

“The trend towards datacentre transformation is inexorable - it will change economies and business models", said McHugh, counted among network world’s “top 50 most powerful people in networking” and known for his insight and sharp analysis of trends. "This past year, business leaders have worked in an environment full of challenges for the future. They will be thinking about risk," he said, arguing that IT was or should be transformational, especially given the growth of new end-user devices that offer new ways of workforce provisioning. On storage, he said: "we are feasting on more information – it’s important because the CIO needs to lead the strategy around information”.

http://www.netevents.org/events/binaries/Thailand2011/20111117-Closing-Keynote-transcript.pdf

The day began with Ian Keene, Vice President, Gartner introducing a HEAD 2 HEAD challenge between another of this year’s hottest Silicon Valley start-ups, Arista Networks, and three of the biggest global names in networking – Brocade, Extreme and HP – with a multimillion dollar virtualisation deal on the table – who takes the prize? This was an key opportunity for Arista – one of the hottest new names in Silicon Valley – choosing the NetEvents Summit as the launch pad into the APAC market for their Extensible Operating System (EOS™) based platform. Douglas Gourlay, VP, Arista Networks, emphasised the importance of openness: "People don't want a large, flat, layer-two network, and smart network engineers don't want to build or operate them”. He introduced EOS as a ground-breaking network operating system with single-image consistency across hardware platforms, and modern core architecture enabling in-service upgrades and application extensibility.

Other key highlights:

- John McHugh, CMO & VP, Brocade, hit back with: "our presentations are like our networks - faster than Arista!" He went on to argue: "80% of network traffic will be going east-west, not north-south as the network was designed to work. Brocade’s fabric gets rid of one aggregation layer to save power, and consolidate your edge layer to create a universal touch point for most of your datacentre devices."

- Shehzad Merchant, VP of Technology, Extreme Networks, said: "Everything is converging on Ethernet with no more separate network technologies for HPC, SANs and data."

- Erik Papir, Worldwide Director, HP, said: "You need to look at the overall infrastructure in the datacentre not just the network. Compute power and storage are going to be critical to enable the instant-on enterprise."

http://www.netevents.org/events/binaries/Thailand2011/20111117-Head-2-Head-transcript.pdf

http://www.netevents.org/events/binaries/Thailand2011/20111117-Head-2-Head-presentation.pdf

http://www.netevents.org/events/binaries/Thailand2011/20111117-Arista-H2H-presentation.pdf

http://www.netevents.org/events/binaries/Thailand2011/20111117-Brocade-H2H-presentation.pdf

http://www.netevents.org/events/binaries/Thailand2011/20111117-Extreme-Networks-H2H-presentation.pdf

http://www.netevents.org/events/binaries/Thailand2011/20111117-HP-H2H-presentation.pdf

The second session Ethernet's role in the Cloud, was introduced and chaired by Matt Walker, Principal Analyst, Ovum. Key highlights included: highlights:

- Shehzad Merchant, VP of Technology, Extreme Networks: "How do you take things like group identities into the cloud?"

- Deb Dutta, VP Asia-Pacific, Brocade: "You need a cloud ID that allows you to demarcate your domain in the cloud and migrate from one SP to another."

- Nan Chen, President, MEF said it was “working on an ID standard so you can classify VMs and assign them priorities."

http://www.netevents.org/events/binaries/Thailand2011/20111117-DebateII-transcript.pdf

http://www.netevents.org/events/binaries/Thailand2011/20111117-DebateII-presentation.pdf

Session III – From Desktop to Smart Devices – implications for infrastructure, management & security – was introduced and chaired by Tim Dillon, AVP Asia Pacific End User & Mobility Research, IDC. Key highlights included:

- Jonathan Andresen, product and solutions director APAC, Blue Coat Systems: "Cloud security is the first line of defence. Catch malware in the cloud and you don't let it into your network."

- Shehzad Merchant, VP of Technology, Extreme Networks: "Security should be multi-level and omni-present."

- Shara Evans, CEO, Market Clarity: "End-user devices are insecure because they get left in taxis. So the network needs to understand who the user is, as they may not be authentic."

http://www.netevents.org/events/binaries/Thailand2011/20111117-DebateIII-transcript.pdf

http://www.netevents.org/events/binaries/Thailand2011/20111117-DebateIII-presentation.pdf

NetEvents contact:

Helen Whitworth

Tel: +44 (0)870 760 6464

Email: helenw ‘at’ netevents.org

NetEvents APAC Press Summit Day 2 - November 17th

Day two of the NetEvents conference in Phuket, Thailand, opened with a fantasy.

Ian Keene, VP at research firm Gartner, pretended to be a late CIO at a company that was late at adopting cloud computing. With the help of panellists Douglas Gourlay, VP Arista; John McHugh, VP & CMO, Brocade; Shehzad Merchant, VP of Technology, Extreme Networks; and Erik Papir, Worldwide Director, HP, all of whom pitched for his 'business', Keene had to decide how to upgrade his datacentre. Fellow analysts Tim Dillon, AVP APAC End User & Mobility Research, IDC and Michael Barnes, VP Research, Forrester, acted as consultants to help him make his decision.

Gourlay said that Keene's company's IT dept was not innovating or creating value for the business. He suggested that Keene should ask any vendor of datacentre network fabrics if their technology was open and if you could replace parts of their solution with products from another vendor. "People don't want a large, flat, layer-two network," he said. "Smart network engineers don't want to build or operate them - vendors are trying to lock you in."

For Brocade, McHugh quipped that "our presentations are like our networks - faster than Arista." He went on to argue that "80% of network traffic will be going east-west, not north-south as the network was designed to work. Our fabric gets rid of one aggregation layer to save power, and consolidate your edge layer to create a universal touch point for most of your datacentre devices."

Merchant said that today, everything is converging on Ethernet with no more separate network technologies for HPC, SANs and data. "Flat networks are better, with active-active paths so that recovery is under 50ms," he said. "You need 40Gbps for the aggregation layer, and you cannot be tied into a proprietary technology - so you need an open fabric."

Papir argued: "You need to look at the overall infrastructure in the datacentre not just the network. Compute power and storage are going to be critical to enable the instant-on enterprise." He went on to say that a framework to address business needs such as cloud deployment can enable end to end virtualisation. "It can consolidate management systems, and we are open," he said. "We work with you to ensure interoperability is not a problem."

Keene asked for help to be more green and use less energy. All the vendors promised to radically cut power consumption radically, and reduce the rack space needed. Merchant said that Extreme would help with analytics too and that his company would provide tools to examine the network down to the level of individual virtual machines.

The 'consultants' asked the vendors how they could help Keene drive change inside his organisation. All promised consulting services, along with free trials using virtual machines.

The discussion moved to applications and it was generally agreed that some applications will be suited to cloud, while others will not, depending on the workload. It was agreed that critical data should be kept local for the time being at least.

At the end, the audience of press and analysts were asked to vote on which vendor they would choose, a poll won by Arista with 34%, closely followed by Brocade with 32%, then Extreme Networks at 18% and HP 16%.

The next debate, Ethernet's role in the cloud, was opened by Matt Walker, Principal Analyst, Ovum, joined by panellists Deb Dutta, VP Asia-Pacific, Brocade; Shehzad Merchant; Nan Chen, President, MEF; and Passakorn Hongsyok, Director International Business from the Thai service provider UIH.

Walker defined the term cloud and sized the cloud services market at $233 billion by 2016. As a telecoms analyst, he pointed out that cloud is not a core focus for telcos but said that they can benefit from the connectivity gap, as the last mile is an issue.

He explained the benefits of Carrier Ethernet as flexibility, scalability, diversity and redundancy, describing it as a facilitator of the cloud. "Ethernet now the de facto access standard," he said.

Asked if there was scope for smaller telcos, Hongsyok said that Ethernet business was growing rapidly and that customers want rapid deployments.

Merchant highlighted the challenge of dealing with IT management tools and policies. "How do you take things like group identities into the cloud?", he asked.

Dutta talked about the importance of standards so that customers could develop an exit strategy from a cloud provider's facility. "You need a cloud ID that allows you to demarcate your domain in the cloud and migrate from one SP to another," he said.

Chen said that the MEF "was working on an ID standard so you can classify VMs and assign them priorities."

The final debate of the day concerned the trend from desktop to mobile devices and asked what are the implications from infrastructure, management and security perspectives?

The panel for this debate consisted of Jonathan Andresen, product and solutions director APAC, Blue Coat Systems; Shehzad Merchant, Extreme Networks; and Shara Evans, CEO, Market Clarity.

It was opened by Tim Dillon, IDC, who described the dominance of mobile devices in Asia-Pacific, using examples of airline crew and corporate execs using tablets. "Market growth will come from applications, a lot of which are downloaded from the cloud. There's no single OS in the enterprise any more," he said. The problems this raises include complexity and security.

Andresen said that network managers wanted to know how mobility was developing in their enterprise, and that they want to know what it will do to their network. "Video can swamp the network," he said.

Merchant said that the network needs to understand who the user is and what they are trying to do, and that security should be multi-level and omni-present.

For Evans, end-user devices are insecure because they get left in taxis. "The network needs to understand who the user is, as they may not be authentic," she said.

Andresen argued that putting data in the cloud enhanced security. "Cloud security is the first line of defence," he said. "Catch malware in the cloud and you don't let it into your network."

Brocade's chief marketing officer and VP John McHugh rounded out the final plenary session of the event with a keynote entitled NetEvents 2011: The Takeaways.

"This year, business leaders worked in an environment full of challenges for the future. They will be thinking about risk," he said. He argued that IT was or should be transformational especially given the growth of new end-user devices which offer new ways of workforce provisioning.

On storage, he said that "we are feasting on more information - its important because the CIO needs to lead their strategy around information.

"CIOs can't opt out," he said, as questions from the CFO and CIO will drive transformation while on-premise datacentres will be prime locations for years to come as datacentres virtualise. Crucial to the process is the network which is not yet robust enough. However, he said, "the trend is inexorable - it will change economies and business models."

On datacentre network fabrics, McHugh predicted that in next six months, over 50% of CIOs will be deploying a network fabric in their datacentre, and that it would be part of a converged infrastructure.

On outsourcing and the cloud, McHugh described his early days as a production engineer at HP when the decision had to be made to outsource production to Singapore. "Ultimately, HP started looking at quitting a capital-intensive practice because someone at the top had the vision and understood that trends, directions and options needed that leadership. It's now ridiculous to think we wouldn't have moved forward. The cloud is the same. The biggest risk is that the competition does it first."

He was then interviewed onstage by editorial director Manek Dubash, who asked about storage architectures, datacentre transformation, and network reliability, among other things.

The meeting then broke for lunch, resuming with scheduled meetings between press and vendors.

A list of links to the NetEvents APAC Press Summit Day 2 Transcripts, Presentations and Photos can be downloaded from this URL:

http://www.netevents.org/events/binaries/Thailand2011/NetEvents-APAC-Press-Summit-Nov-2011-Day2-URLs.pdf

(Transcripts will be available within 24 hours)