Another CTIA has come and gone. Despite being tempted to sit by the pool all day (it was 85 degrees compared with the typical 40 degrees in Boston), CTIA surprised us all by being very busy in spite of “being too close to MWC” and “Orlando not being a great location.” The show was all a buzz on the recent AT&T and T-Mobile announcement. It seems like every show needs a big announcement like that to set the stage.
We were able to continue the momentum we set at MWC to talk to our customers and the media about our M.O.VE. strategic framework. Everyone agrees that monetization, optimization, and video are the hot topics, and are the main challenges that operators are working to address. It’s always exciting to talk about the tie-in between our recent customer announcements at Reliance and MegaFon and our M.O.VE solution.
At Mobile World Congress last month we introduced our M.O.VE strategic framework and we’re already seeing the message take off. We recently announced our relationships with major mobile operators, MegaFon in Russia and Reliance Communications in India. Both of these operators are taking advantage of solutions within the M.O.VE strategic framework.
M.O.VE, with its targeted approach to helping operators monetize and optimize their mobile networks while enhancing the video experience, appears to be the right framework at the right time, and speaks to operators’ technical, financial, and business needs in a comprehensive and tangible way.
Last week at the ODVA Annual Conference--as part of ODVA’s announcement of a new energy initiative and white paper--Cisco’s Bryce Barnes roused a packed-house audience representing ODVA’s ~200 industrial and automation suppliers with a compelling speech on the immediate need for Optimization of Energy Usage (OEU™) in the Production domain. Energy consumption statistics for the industrial sector are staggering, most estimates suggesting half of the world’s total delivered energy, and that amount is projected to increase by 40% over the next 25 years. For Manufacturers, energy typically constitutes the first or second highest portion of product variable costs, and most manufacturing companies now report as part of their governance a sustainability strategy that is core to their overall business strategy. Furthermore, volatility of energy markets--closely linked to the stability of governments, international relations and policies--raises the risk profile for continuity of supply, production and satisfaction of customers. Optimizing energy consumption, minimizing energy costs and mitigating energy risks are clearly top of mind business imperatives for the Manufacturing CEO.
Mark Wylie discusses the importance of energy optimization to sustainable manufacturing operations. Check out Mark’s December blog on factory energy management.
Musings, factoids and random thoughts from the just-completed Mobile World Congress 2011 in Barcelona:
This may be the only place on the planet in which there are lines outside the men’s rooms, but not at the ladies’ rooms.
But even more seriously, folks . . .
MWC continues to enhance its position as a major worldwide technology show and the most important event focusing on the service provider segment
The initial tally revealed that >60,000 – a record – attended
Verizon, AT&T and Google exhibited for the first time
Major topics of interest were monetization and video . . . conveniently, also major topics for Cisco.
IP has never been more relevant at MWC than it was this year
Policy was another major subject – also fitting nicely into the Cisco story of intelligence in the network. Quality of experience got a lot of attention, too
And applications enablement – “It’s not just the network that matters,” one analyst said. “It’s the network PLUS the apps that run on top of it. At the end of the day, it’s apps that make the real difference.”
Cisco enjoyed record interest, holding more than 600 meetings with customers, prospects, partners, analysts and media
Cisco’s MOVE (monetization, optimization, Videoscape experience) was well received by analysts
One operator told Cisco that voice is now comprises only 1% of its total traffic
Analyst Observations:
“The definition of the ‘busy hour’ for the network has expanded to 19 hours, thanks to video.”
“There is a lot more positive feeling this year . . . maybe that means the world economy is on the mend.”
Several analysts – unsolicited – remarked on Cisco’s ability to define a vision and drive conversations. “You’ve done a great job of launching visions and architectural plays,”
Regarding Cisco’s MOVE announcement, one analyst remarked, “A lot of smaller optimization guys are losing sleep because you’re moving into this space.”
“The big factor [to operators] is not necessarily [a vendor’s] technology portfolio. It’s about services and flexible business relationships. Especially in emerging markets.”
“Monetization is what is keeping operators awake at night.”
Regarding the continuing decline of the fixed lines: “At a lot of the operators, the mobile guys are in charge now, not the fixed-line guys.”
In closing . . .
MWC will start two weeks later in 2012 – even closer to the CTIA Wireless event than before . . . a coincidence??
Next year is the last of MWC‘s current pact with Barcelona. Munich, Paris and Milan are trying to lure the show from Barcelona, and some people were hearing that Munich had the inside track. We’ll see.
Wherever the event ends up, let’s do something about those lines at the men’s rooms. OK?
As mobility becomes a characteristic of an increasing number of networking services, Cisco is not just driving advancements with its mobile internet architecture, but as the MOVE announcements highlight, it is about interconnecting the mobility technology brought in last year with the acquisition of Starent with the routing and switching and video technology to create cross architectural differentiation.
For closing thoughts on Cisco at MWC 2011, I caught up with Kit Beall, VP of World Wide SP Mobility Sales, to discuss where Cisco mobility has been, how it is perceived by the customers today, and where it’s going next year:
Earlier, I also had a quick exhange with Nick Adamo, SVP of World Wide SP Sales where we talked about some of the feedback we heard during our customer meetings this week on Cisco’s vision for mobility and the network architecture:
