Like many start ups, we use cloud computing services from major providers to provide core elements of our infrastructure. Right now, one of them is experiencing major issues across the board in the part of their cloud that we use. That has meant that feed serving from our data centers has been unstable for the last couple of hours, and that the options available to us to mitigate the effects are limited, as they would rely on the same cloud provider that’s currently in trouble.

We apologize for the inconvenience. We’re working mitigate the effects of their outage as quickly as we can. Right now we’re serving feeds, but on limited capacity and so it’s slow. We’re adding more capacity where it’s robust to do so in order to get back to full availability for RSS clients.

Update: Around 4:20pm eastern the provider in question started to recover. RSS feed services are now back to full strength

       

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• Gainspeed is headed by Krish Padmanabhan, who previously was Senior Vice President of Products and Solutions at Harmonic Inc., where he oversaw overall strategy for its video playout and compression portfolio.
  
• Gainspeed was founded in 2012 by Shlomo Rakib (previously co-founded Novafora and Terayon Communication Systems, where he invented the SCDMA technology that was the basis for DOCSIS 2.0), Jeff White (previously president of Hatteras Networks), and Mark Stalica (previously Vice President of Strategic MSO Accounts for Metaswitch Networks).

This article was authored by John C. Tanner, and was originally posted on telecomasia.net.

There are many conversations to be had about network virtualization in general, and SDN in particular. One conversation we don’t always hear about is the human factor – which is to say resistance from telecoms department heads who see SDN as a challenge to their livelihoods, ... [visit site to read more]

Last week I told you about how we’d updated our privacy policy. This week, it’s the terms of service’s turn for a little sprucing up.

It’s the same deal, basically. No changes in who we are, how we approach business, and what we do.

As part of modernizing it, we’ve added sections to cover the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (the “DMCA”) and how we deal with account ownership disputes. It’s very dry reading (something perhaps only a lawyer can love?), but it is our contract with you unless we have a separate agreement in place.

So the usual words apply: If you continue to use FeedBlitz, you agree to these terms. In brief:

• There are no guarantees.
• You are responsible for your own content, and its compliance with applicable law.
• FeedBlitz is not liable for damages, including (but not limited to) those arising from any use, abuse, misuse or non-performance of the FeedBlitz service or the information provided by third party publishers.
• FeedBlitz is not liable for third party content redistributed using FeedBlitz.
• These terms of service can change at any time; if you continue to use the service you have implicitly agreed to the changes.
• Your FeedBlitz account may be terminated by FeedBlitz at any time for any reason and for no reason.
• You may cancel your use of our services at any time.
• Any refunds other than for fraud, or billing errors, are at FeedBlitz’s sole discretion.
• FeedBlitz may insert advertising depending on current program policies and your level of participation.
• FeedBlitz may require upgrades or payment depending on prevailing policies.
• FeedBlitz may suspend mailings on your behalf after any grace period expires or for suspected abuse.
• FeedBlitz will not sell, rent or otherwise deliberately reveal your email address (see our privacy policy).

And because our lawyers will have a fit if I don’t say this, the words that count are on the terms of service page, here.

       

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Shweta Latawa of NXP Semiconductors shares her thoughts on the Women in Comms event, co-sponsored by ONF during Light Reading’s BCE.

I am excited to write about the Women in Comms event that I attended in the heart of Texas – Austin – on May 23 as a part of the Light Reading Big Communications Event (BCE). The first-of-its-kind conference investigated the challenges and opportunities for women in the next-gen communications industry and had participants from Intel, AT&T, Dell, Flex, Fujitsu, and others.

ONF co-sponsored the Women in Comms event, which was free of charge and hosted by Women in Comms (WiC), a not-for-profit, independent initiative established by Light Reading in January 2016 to provide information, networking, mentorship, access to jobs, and support for women in the next-gen communications industry. Light Reading is a leading media partner for ONF.

The half-day conference was open to all and featured a luncheon with opening addresses from Intel and other WiC members. It also hosted two powerhouse panels tackling the realities of being a woman in the communications industry, how to improve gender diversity, and how men can get involved with the cause. In support of WiC’s commitment to offer increasing opportunities for women, the luncheon was followed by a job fair for women, providing direct access to jobs at leading communication companies.

This event offered me an opportunity to dive into my own thoughts and perspectives as a woman in the communications industry. I work in the Digital Networking business unit at NXP Semiconductors, an ONF member company that is closely following SDN and NFV evolution and its influence on the semiconductor ecosystem.

With growing technology access at work and home, I resonate with Sheryl Sandberg’s conclusion that “there’s no such thing as work-life balance.” Work-life balance actually becomes work all the time. As a mother of two, and a professional woman seeking “it all” – a profitable career and a happy family – can be challenging. There are various compromises that a working mother makes for herself personally, aiming to juggle a high power job and family responsibilities. But there are practical things women — and, importantly, men — can do to help women succeed in their careers and make a challenging situation work better. A spouse who supports your ambitions, not only by offering words of encouragement, but by doing half of the work at home, from changing half of the diapers to doing half of the laundry, serves as a pillar of strength. Being able to manage both work and home well offers the overall fulfillment and satisfaction that we expect from our lives, in comparison to just achieving one or giving higher priority to one over the other.

During BCE, one of ONF’s training partners conducted a training class leading to SDN skills certification. ONF offered the training and test free for women of member companies. I was fortunate to attend this training and successfully earn the SDN Associate credentials. This gesture reinforced the fact in my mind that organizations and society in general do wish to enable women. It is on women to tap such opportunities and make the most of them. We cannot just continue to say that there is a problem and not work toward ways to make the situation better. After all, men, too, slog and pave their way out with consistent effort.

I appreciated some valuable points that Lynn Comp, the senior director of Intel’s market development and network platforms group, made during this event about the importance of focusing on a direct, collaborative approach, keeping the business case at the core of decision making and making a conscious attempt to educate oneself in the latest technology aspects. It’s really important to encourage continued interest in STEM, beyond establishing initial interest, since life happens and career challenges can derail women from their primary goals. It is important to keep going beyond that mid-point of the career. A common problem is that we don’t ask; we assume we have constraints, so we don’t volunteer for opportunities. We may not realize that we are natural multi-taskers, often efficient and organized, and will do well anyways. We should look for practical options like flexible work hours, support systems, and any such means to make ourselves successful.

After all, we OWN our careers, family and all!

- Shweta Latawa, Strategic Marketing Manager, Digital Networking Products, NXP Semiconductors

While we explore the various features old and new (Hello, Groups!) available to our publishers, this week’s post touches on one of our oldest core features. For some, it will be an introduction while for others it will be a refresher. Regardless, we hope you will find a touch of inspiration for one of our most beloved email marketing features.

Have you ever wanted to resend a post which has already gone out to your list? Reasons for doing this can vary, yet there can (and most likely will at some point) come a time when you need to manually resend a particular post. For this purpose FeedBlitz offers the functionality of sending an On Demand mailing.

What is an On Demand mailing?

An On Demand mailing is an email which is manually selected and sent to an audience. This links in with our On Demand scheduling option which prevents mailings from being sent automatically.

How do I send an On Demand mailing?

It’s very easy to send an On Demand mailing! Our FeedBlitz Support Team put together this quick video tutorial to walk you through the steps:

Trouble viewing this video? Please click here.

You can also bookmark our quick guide with screenshots in our Knowledge Base.

Why would I want to send an On Demand mailing?

• Manually send posts from your website.

• Re-send a mailing to those who did not open or click the initial mailing.

Pro Tip:A majority of emails have an estimated 20% open rate. (Hint: Unless you are a deal blogger, this is a target open rate goal to reach!) The funny thing is that each day your 20% can be comprised of a completely different 20% of your subscribers. This is why the occasional re-sending of an important post is efficient in helping you reach a wider portion of your audience! But we caution – use this tactic sparingly so as to not upset those who do open every email you send.

FeedBlitz How To: Use a Segment to pull email addresses for those who did not open or click in the mailing. The segment code to use is: NOT (opened>=”YEAR-MM-DD”) and NOT(clicked>=”YEAR-MM-DD”) When using a segment, be sure to always select Check Segment Syntax and Count Included Subscribers to ensure the segment is correct and the subscriber count is in line with your estimate.

• Email a post to additional lists in your account.

• Create a roundup of posts to send in one email.

On Demand mailings can include as many or as few articles as you would like. As long as the post is in your feed, you are able to send it On Demand. (This is GREAT when sending year-end round-ups, which we’ll talk about more next week!)

Once you have selected the articles for your mailing, you can reorder them in any way you choose before hitting send. On Demand mailings are even set up to use the email template of the list, so there’s no extra worry about design or layout. And if you remember our previous post on Groups, you can use this feature to help specify even further the audience who will receive your On Demand mailings.

Many of our publishers enjoy using our On Demand feature with their email marketing. Whether used regularly or sparingly, this feature is available for all FeedBlitz publishers. If you have questions about how to send an On Demand mailing, send us an email at support@feedblitz.com, chat, check out our Help Forum, or give us a call at 1.877.692.5489. Our Support and Sales Desk is available Monday – Friday from 9 am to 5 pm EST.

-•-

Easy enough for a blogger to set up in seconds, powerful enough for sophisticated corporate email campaigns, FeedBlitz is an RSS, Email and Social Automation Tool to take your email marketing to the next level. Visit us online to learn more or start your 30 Day Free Trial!

       

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ONF Executive Director Dan Pitt shares the personal experiences that led him to a career in networking.

So how did I end up in the networking business? It all started with babysitting.

I found myself as a young babysitter alone with an AM radio after the kids went to bed, and even in Madison, Wisconsin, the nighttime reception brought in faraway stations from the southern midwest all the way to the east. (Later, in ultra-flat central Illinois I picked up stations from as far away as New York, New Orleans, and the Netherlands Antilles.) I used my babysitting money to buy myself a short-wave radio and that piqued my interest in the lives of people in other places.

In college my roommate and I did various nefarious things with the campus radio station and telephone system, always motivated by a fascination for sharing perspectives with people living in a different reality. In graduate school, we built a radio station with a broadcast range of maybe 100 meters and played weird music. I worked at two radio stations (one student, one commercial) and loved it when listeners called in with reactions.

I also got deeper into weird (and probably not at all legal) telephone-related shenanigans. But I got such a charge out of talking with people far away. Even when I got my first job, I installed telephone jacks all over the house and got a lot of telephones and long cords. I was the first person I knew who would bring a telephone up to the roof just to call someone and tell them where I was calling from. Those of you brought up on cellphones have no idea how lucky you are.

In looking for my first job out of grad school, I faced a choice between a telecom job (Northern Telecom) and a datacom job (IBM). I loved the idea of working in telephony (big switching systems) but frankly the IBM offer was a lot better, so I took it.

I soon found myself in the network architecture group, specializing in local area networks, and I loved the technical structure of the work. But I missed the human (telephony) aspect of it and was often drawn to (admittedly far-fetched) early approaches to carrying voice on datacom LANs. When ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) came along I thought the gap had finally been bridged. I was wrong. The ascendancy of Ethernet and IP for data, voice, and video took me by surprise, but I had long understood that what constituted Ethernet was simply an addressing scheme, frame format, and (MAC) service interface, not an access method. My work in LAN standards also taught me the sometimes disappointing reality that better is the enemy of good enough.

My interest in human-human communication continues in a number of manifestations, including in the precise, creative, and sometimes even disobedient use of language. I wish I spoke fluently the language of every country I visit. I enjoy the common aspects of formal languages, philosophy, and communication protocols. I love the purity of network architecture but know not to be a slave to it. I am both amused and annoyed that “networking” can mean all the technical notions we work with every day as well as the social process of meeting other people (often with a drink in hand, and usually not a very good one). I actively network in both senses. I always will.

- Dan Pitt, Executive Director

Now that you know how to re-send posts from your site with our On Demand mailing feature, you’re ready to learn about another one of our great features which can be combined with On Demand and Groups.

Before we get started, though, we have to ask: Have you ever wanted to contact your subscribers without having to publish the content on your website? Possibly send a special thank you or offer to your email subscribers in appreciation for being a member of your site? Maybe send a group of posts but have a personal introduction paragraph before your site’s content?

You can do this and more with a FeedBlitz Newsflash!

What is a Newsflash?

A Newsflash is a mailing through FeedBlitz, not originally powered by an RSS feed. These free-standing emails can be sent to one or all of your lists, use the template of your newsletters, work with a completely different template if preferred, and can be sent on demand or scheduled for a particular time.

How can I send a Newsflash?

Sending a Newsletter begins in a very similar manner to sending an On Demand mailing. For a basic Newsflash, we created this video to walk you through the process:

Trouble seeing this video? Please click here.

Did you know about the FeedBlitz Support YouTube channel? Find tons of videos like this one to help you up the ante with your email marketing. Check it out!

Why would I want to send a Newsflash?

Our publishers are finding new ways to incorporate Newsflashes into their email marketing plans each week! Below are a few of our top ways to add Newsflashes to your sending schedule:

• Sending information you don’t want to post to your website

• Emailing sponsored content with a different template

• Using a blank template and a private “members only” mailing list to send what resembles personal correspondence from the publisher

• This is a great idea for coaches of all types, and our publishers who do this often charge a membership fee.

• Create a weekly email with a personal blurb followed by the week’s posts

• Compiling Top Articles of the Year / Week / Season (etc.) emails

How do I send a Newsflash with posts from my website like an On Demand mailing?

Combining a Newsflash and On Demand mailing is as easy as clicking one button as opposed to the other!

From here you will be able to select the articles you’d like for your mailing, reorder them as you’d like and then continue to edit content and make any changes to the template you’d like. You may recognize this process, you’re creating an On Demand mailing and then editing it like a Newsflash. It’s that simple!

This is the method used by our publishers who enjoy sending a weekly email containing their latest posts, but with the capability of adding a personalized introductory paragraph, as well as those looking to send a Most Popular Posts email. You can use the same template of your regularly scheduled RSS-to-email mailings, or our support staff can work with you to create a new template.

Pro Tip: For a quick reference guide on how to send an On Demand Newsflash mailing, bookmark this article from our Knowledge Base!

Newsflash mailings are a great way to take your email marketing to the next level. Depending on what you are sending, you can even save and reuse this content or create an Autoresponder from it. The possibilities are as vast  as you let  them be when it comes to email marketing – now go get started on your brainstorming. We can’t wait to see what you come up with for your next Newsflash!

Looking to start working with Newsflashes but have a few more questions? Send us an email at support@feedblitz.com, chat, check out our Help Forum, or give us a call at 1.877.692.5489. Our Support and Sales Desk is available Monday – Friday from 9 am to 5 pm EST.

-•-

Easy enough for a blogger to set up in seconds, powerful enough for sophisticated corporate email campaigns, FeedBlitz is an RSS, Email and Social Automation Tool to take your email marketing to the next level. Visit us online to learn more or start your 30 Day Free Trial!

       

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Dan Pitt discusses the convergence of SDN and NFV into SDNFV, and why you should be using it.  

SDN and NFV are converging physically and acronymically. No longer does the industry hold the view that one does not require the other; it is now clear that SDN and NFV should accompany each other. From this convergence comes the simplification of the terms into one – SDNFV. In my recent article for Light Reading, excerpted below, I cover exactly what SDNFV means and why the industry should be using it. To read the full piece, click here.

Industry perspectives on the relationship between network functions virtualization (NFV) and software-defined networking (SDN) are evolving, and for the better.

NFV has long been championed by telcos as a way first to reduce capex by eliminating proprietary appliances, and more recently as the key to virtualizing much of their operations. SDN was described as orthogonal and complementary, but not essential for NFV; neither SDN nor NFV depended on the other.

Boy, that sounded good. But it was bogus.

SDN is now seen as an essential foundation for many virtualized network functions (VNFs), where SDN abstracts the infrastructure and provides interconnection, while NFV virtualizes what the network does. Our position has always been that any VNF that requires the network infrastructure to actually do something (such as directing packets, dropping malicious traffic, or accelerating certain application flows) needs SDN to convey those instructions to the infrastructure. Even within hypervisors, SDN has enabled service function chaining. Because SDN accompanies NFV almost everywhere it is deployed, these two approaches are converging. The greatest benefits can be achieved when both are deployed, and the industry is embracing this perspective.

In my complete article, I share some thoughts from my experience at Light Reading’s Big Communications Event (BCE) and go into further detail on the converged term SDNFV. You can read the article in its entirety on Light Reading.

- Dan Pitt, Executive Director

Learn about ONF’s Common Information Model work and how it will benefit network operators as well as their respective organizations.

Information modeling holds significant value for network operators and their companies, but this is one area in the SDN landscape that has admittedly been a little lacking. We’ve aimed to address this need through our Common Information Model (CIM) work, and I recently shared some additional information about this project with Network Computing readers. Here’s a quick excerpt:

Information modeling may seem like an arcane aspect of computer networking, but it has huge implications for the level of consistency — and therefore interoperability — that product developers, service providers, and open source projects bring to their respective products, services, and architectures. That’s why the Open Networking Foundation (ONF) launched its CIM work in 2014.

Our goal is to help foster development of an industry-wide, open CIM that reduces unnecessary variety in how developers represent a given concept or problem. Having a CIM, a process for using the CIM to generate implementation views, and tools that consistently generate the implementations is key to ensuring unambiguous and interoperable products as well as open source software.

This also helps reduce errors and enables code to be more easily produced. For network operators who want to build best-of-breed networks, it enables them to compare apples to apples and take full advantage of the latest abstractions and virtualization technologies.

To learn more about information modeling and ONF’s CIM work, read the full article at Network Computing.

- Dan Pitt, Executive Director

Happening to even the best of email marketers, hard bounces can be extremely frustrating.

What is a bounce?

Mailing servers, both outgoing (FeedBlitz) and incoming (your subscribers) talk to each other with short messages before and during the exchange of an email. If servers were people, it’d could look like:

Hi!

Hello.

Is Bob there? I’ve got a message for him.

Sure!

That’s when everything works as it should. Sometimes though, Bob is not going to get the email.

Hi!

Hello.

Is Bob there? I’ve got a message for him.

Hmm, Bob’s mailbox is full, try again later.

This indicates the problem is temporary.

Or

Hi!

Hello.

Is Bob there? I’ve got a message for him.

Sorry, Bob doesn’t exist.

This would happen if the problem were permanent.

A hard bounce occurs if:

• FeedBlitz attempts to send an email and receives a permanent failure message from the subscriber’s internet service provider in return

• FeedBlitz email servers received a temporary failure message repeatedly from  subscriber’s inbox after an established, standard set of contact attempts.

When an email returns as undeliverable, we will continue mailing the email address for a period of two weeks or three subsequent mailings, whichever time frame is longer. Once these contact attempts have been exhausted, the email address will be classified as a hard bounce and removed from your list of subscribers.

Why remove the email address if it bounces?

Email addresses returned as hard bounces are removed to protect the sending reputation of all FeedBlitz publishers. When an email service provider continues to send to an email address that has returned as bad or invalid, it will cause a series of red flags, eventually blacklisting the sender. FeedBlitz closely monitors both hard and soft bounces, removing emails when necessary, to prevent possible blacklisting.

In other words, we do it all for the sake of your reputation! (Ok, we do it for ours, too.)

What’s the difference in a soft and a hard bounce?

When an email address is temporarily unavailable, or the mailbox is full, resulting in a mailing not being delivered, it is referred to as a soft bounce. A soft bounce turns into a hard bounce once the contact threshold of two weeks or three subsequent mailings has been passed, with zero successful attempts in reaching the email address.

Why do emails bounce?

Hard bounces (and soft bounces) can be the result of a variety of factors such as:

• Email address no longer exists

• Stricter spam filtering

• Invalid domains or typos

• Blocking of FeedBlitz mail servers *We constantly monitor all major email providers (Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail etc) and address these rare issues immediately.

Can I prevent hard bounces from happening?

While hard bounces are often unavoidable, there are a few steps you as the publisher can take to ensure the greatest likelihood of your emails being received.

1. Encourage your subscribers to have the email address feedblitz@mail.feedblitz.com added to their whitelist of approved senders. (Note: We recommend they do this in the activation email received after subscribing to your site!) If a large number, 10+, belonging to the same, personalized, domain are returned as hard bounces, the subscribers will need to contact their IT department have the domain holders whitelist our FeedBlitz servers. This can happen in cases such as business-related email addresses.

2. Have a personalized @sitedomain email address as your sending email. Using @aol, @yahoo or even @gmail can prevent emails from reaching inboxes properly. While FeedBlitz takes great measures and precautions to avoid this from occurring, you can greater ensure proper delivery by editing your sending email address.

Want More Information? You may remember a previous post regarding recent DMARC changes in Gmail. As we did similarly with AOL and Yahoo, our development team put safety precautions in place well before these changes went into effect. You can read more about that here.

At FeedBlitz we use multiple email servers to deliver your emails at any given mailing. Should we notice an ISP having trouble sending from a server, all mailings will be rerouted through another server while the issue is addressed. This all takes place behind the scenes, with zero to little disruption in email distribution.

What do I do after a hard bounce?

FeedBlitz publishers are able to receive summary emails regarding subscription and unsubscription information for their lists, these automated notifications show any potential hard or soft bounces experienced during mailings.

Should you notice a hard bounce has occurred on a valid email address, you are welcome to contact that address to encourage adding feedblitz@mail.feedblitz.com to their whitelist of approved senders. This typically resolves the issue.

Corporate Email Addresses: If a large number of addresses (20+) all associated with the same domain name are returned as hard bounces, an individual of that domain will need to contact their IT department to have FeedBlitz added as an approved sender.

Mainstream ISP providers such as Yahoo, Gmail or Apple mail, FeedBlitz Support are monitored and FeedBlitz will investigate issues associated with abnormally high bounce rates.

All other issues are evaluated on a case by case basis, once a publisher has exhausted all initial contact and whitelisting attempts.

If you have further questions on hard bounces, send our Support Team an email at support@feedblitz.com, chat, check out our Help Forum, or give us a call at 1.877.692.5489. Our Support and Sales Desk is available Monday – Friday from 9 am to 5 pm EST.

-•-

Easy enough for a blogger to set up in seconds, powerful enough for sophisticated corporate email campaigns, FeedBlitz is an RSS, Email and Social Automation Tool to take your email marketing to the next level. Visit us online to learn more or start your 30 Day Free Trial!

       

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SDN is having an impact on networking throughout the globe. 

It is no secret that SDN has made great strides over the last five years. In this time, we have seen SDN grow and expand to have a global impact. Research firm IDC recently forecasted that the worldwide SDN market will be worth nearly $12.5 billion by 2020. There is good reason for this projected growth – as more and more connected devices emerge for consumer and enterprise use, the networks will be tasked with handling the increase in traffic flow and radically changed usage patterns. The reality is, not all networks today are set up to manage traffic in the ways that can accommodate their evolving usage. Here are three areas within the networking industry that are driving SDN adoption around the globe.

Cloud Data Centers

Data centers are growing in complexity and requiring greater agility, motivating enterprises to move their data centers to the cloud. In 2014, cloud traffic crossed the zettabyte threshold, and according to the Cisco Cloud Index Report, more than 86 percent of all data center traffic will be based in the cloud by 2019. Cloud data centers support increased virtualization, standardization, and automation leading to better performance as well as higher capacity and throughput, but at the cost of significantly increased network complexity. With virtualization, services move rapidly between physical hosts, and data must often migrate between locations. To cope with these demands the network fabric must be dynamically reconfigurable in real-time, while exponential growth in the number of network connected devices is rendering manual control of the network logistically and economically unfeasible. Even though traditional switched networks are still prevalent in the enterprise, the value of SDN in coping effectively with and even reducing complexity in the data center is already well established. The performance of cloud data centers with SDN means that administrators can deploy new services quickly and securely, scale them gracefully and cost effectively, and optimize utilization of resources in support of evolving network usage. Now more than ever, reliable implementations of SDN technologies is an essential requirement for leading data centers.

Applications

SDN creates a direct channel of communication between applications and network functionality, very much in contrast with traditional networking where applications see the network as a “black box” into they have very limited oversight. SDN makes it possible for applications to replace and expand current network functions that have traditionally been delivered through proprietary network appliances and hardware devices. SDN-enabled applications can actively request specific network resources and participate in managing network bandwidth and Quality of Service (QoS), thus directly impacting customer experience, delivering new monetization opportunities and ultimately enhancing the network’s overall business value. For example, consider self-optimizing networks. Organizations have long relied on technologies such as load balancers and mobile optimization, applied on a device-by-device level and not holistically. Self-optimizing networks enable IT managers to have a bird’s-eye view of the entire network, allowing them to manage, route, and prioritize traffic effectively. Since optimization can be done automatically via an application, these networks can turn the network overload into a balanced load, improving the quality of user experience. By thinking of these applications now, network infrastructure providers and operators will be able to rapidly evolve and provide customized, flexible networks that enhance the user experience and positively affect their bottom line. Moreover, many of these network functions are now available as Open Source Software that can be deployed on standard COTS or merchant silicon based platforms, reducing both OPEX and CAPEX, avoiding vendor lock-in, and enabling a more agile response to changing networking requirements.

5G Connectivity

With the emergence of connected devices from smartphones to fitness trackers, our mobile networks will soon face a revolution. Current mobile connectivity, 4G, has lived up to its expectations. But in order for mobile networks to successfully transmit communication from the disparate connected devices that are emerging, they too will also need to change, and SDN can help. The next generation of connectivity is already being tested in some markets around the globe. There are also plans to have 5G connectivity up and running as early as the 2018 Winter Olympics in Seoul, Korea. 5G promises to provide 100 times greater speed, latency cut by a factor of five, and data volume capacity up to 1,000 times greater than 4G. In order for 5G networks to be successful, they will need to have SDN at the core to allow flexibility and programmability. As more devices infiltrate the network, SDN and NFV will be critical in not only reallocating resources based on demand, but also deploying services to the network’s edge. 5G will drive a revolutionary change in the way networks operate and SDN will help them along in this revolution.

The networking areas highlighted above are not acute to one region over another. All of these areas touch various businesses around the globe in need of SDN today in order to support network connectivity of the future. As SDN continues on its path of exponential growth, we will continue to hear about new use cases that SDN impacts for the better. It is clear that SDN will continue to have a global impact as the revolution continues.

- Marc LeClerc, Market Area Director and VP of Strategy and Marketing for NoviFlow

• Juniper Networks virtual routing
• Cisco virtual router
• Fortinet virtual security
• Riverbed virtual WAN optimization

AT&T Commits its ECOMP Service Orchestrator to Open Source

AT&T confirmed that it is committed to releasing into open source its current Enhanced Control, Orchestration, Management and Policy (ECOMP) platform, which is the service orchestration system that powers the AT&T software-defined network (SDN).

AT&T said ECOMP is mature, feature-complete, and tested in real-world NFV deployments. The company believes open source ECOMP will bring maturity to SDN and become the industry standard for orchestration, management and policy control.

By releasing the ECOMP code as open source, AT&T said other service providers will be able to use this software to meet non-stop network demands as data-hungry technologies like autonomous cars, augmented and virtual reality, 4K video and the Internet of Things (IoT) take off.

“In March, we opened the hood of our network, showed you the engine and the industry responded asking to join us,” said John Donovan, Chief Strategy Officer and Group President, Technology and Operations, AT&T. “Over the last few years, AT&T invented what we believe to be the most sophisticated, comprehensive and scalable software-centric network in the world. Today, we’re letting anyone use and build upon our millions of lines of software code by committing to releasing it into the open source community.”

“This is a big decision and getting it right is crucial,” Donovan continues. “We want to build a community – where people contribute to the code base and advance the platform. And, we want this to help align the global industry. We’ve engaged a third-party company to be the integrator and provide support in the industry for the ECOMP platform. And we’ve received positive feedback from major global telecom companies. We’re excited to share more on that front very soon.”

http://about.att.com/story/network_playbook_into_open_source.html