Does Network Virtualization Make Your Head Spin?

Posted by on Nov 1, 2018 For nearly two decades, I’ve tracked trends at the SCTE-ISBE Cable-Tec Expo. This year’s event in Atlanta provided many chances to do so, including the Light Reading breakfast session on “Virtualizing the Cable Architecture.” My high-level takeaway from this Oct 23 gathering: Virtualization is in a holding pattern, at least as far as cable is concerned. It is not surprising that an industry once...
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A Tale of Two (or more) DevOps Reports

Posted by on Sep 18, 2018 A recent email from IT automation software company Puppet plugged its 2018 State of DevOps Report. Because this topic is important to many companies I write for (and because I read last year’s report), I downloaded a copy. A few things stood out. First, authorship. Puppet and machine-data software company Splunk present this year’s report. There are three authors from Puppet and one from...
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CenturyLink Hosts RVA Tech on Tap

Posted by on Aug 18, 2018 “No drink, no ink” – that’s the classic line of an old-school journalist meeting a source at the local bar. So full disclosure up front: I did have a beer at the RVA Tech on Tap gathering on Aug 16, at the Three Notch’d Brewing Co and Collab House. But I paid $10 to attend. That makes my drink mostly a wash between me and the event’s sponsor, CenturyLink. CenturyLink is still interesting...
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Intel Pitches Optane for Content Delivery

Posted by on May 16, 2018 The Content Delivery Summit, hosted by StreamingMedia.com in New York City on May 7, provided a stage for chip maker Intel to discuss a storage technology that it developed several years ago with Micron and later branded as Optane. The pitch was a head-turner for a few reasons. First, let’s underscore a point. Intel was talking memory and storage, not micro-processing or CPUs, with which...
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Cable-Tec Expo: A Mile High and 18 Years Deep

Posted by on Oct 27, 2017 This year’s SCTE•ISBE’s Cable-Tec Expo in Denver was my 18th. To old-timers, that still makes me a rookie. Yes, the cable industry can be tight-knit and self-referential. But it is also welcoming, open to change and attentive to innovation. And mile-high Denver was the place to go this fall to tap into the industry’s forward-looking execs. Joining the big blue bear at the Denver Convention...
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IBC 2017: VR, Big Data and Other Trends

Posted by on Sep 29, 2017 IBC 2017, Amsterdam. That should have been the dateline. But the night before I was supposed to leave, I checked my passport. Surely it hadn’t expired. Arghh…it had. After an hour of checking on a quick renewal, I cut my losses and canceled. (Thank you, Expedia travel insurance.) So no Schiphol Airport or time at the RAI Convention Center. Too bad. But live and learn. And you can still learn,...
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