I blog about what I know and what I like. So, in the interest of transparency you may like to know that I am now working with the network planning and optimization start-up, Aria Networks. And I’m really getting in to it. Such an OSS geek…
I am starting to understand the subtleties of the cool technology Aria’s products are based on, and that means more blogging on this part of the OSS industry.
What I am finding interesting so far is the difference in core technical approach, compared to CrAmdocs/Telcordia/Netcracker.
The Big OSS companies have products based on inventory and process automation. In developing product or offering solutions the first question they ask is ‘how do we leverage our inventory data?’, the second being ‘what process shall we build around checking and updating this inventory?’.
Aria Networks starts with a core, generic process: Routing. It is, after all, what managing and using a network is all about. This is then applied to a problem, such as bulk re-optimization of a network, where services are analyzed concurrently for optimal network use, QoS and resilience.
The upshot of this approach to OSS products is that you get the intelligence out of the box with Aria and can leverage existing inventory or network discovery products to feed the planning, optimization or forecasting analysis.
CTOs of services providers and OSS vendors have been talking about unlocking the value of their data for a while now. It’s start-ups like Celona, Ontology and Aria Networks that are delivering innovative technology that makes the most of this data.