We are officially less than a month away from GENBAND™ Perspectives17 annual customer and partner summit and the anticipation is building, not only among our team but also among our customers and partners. I’ve already heard from a number of customers with whom I’ve visited over the past few months on how they are looking forward to attending this year’s show. I’m sure that everyone has their own reasons why they are excited about Perspectives but for me I get the opportunity to host a great panel on Network Evolution with executives from leading communications service providers (CSPs). 

From our “perspective” Network Evolution is an all-encompassing term. It can mean different things to different companies. It can mean transforming legacy communications networks to all IP-based technology with a cloud-based network and software centric approach for digital service delivery. It can mean deploying VoLTE, IPX, Interconnect, IMS, NFV/SDN or some other technology to enhance a CSP’s network. But bottom line it is about implementing strategies and deploying technologies that individual organizations feel are best suited for them and will allow them to exploit the benefits of the growing digital services economy.

This is such a relevant topic for so many of our attendees, so I am anticipating a very lively discussion. At GENBAND, we believe we are now on a steady pace to completing the modernization of communications networks and the move to the cloud by 2020, with all the follow-on applications development coming steadily over the next five years. Of the many network evolution projects we have designed and are implementing, and in some cases managing for our customers, we can say for certain that the evolution from legacy to leading edge networks is moving forward smoothly, with great cooperation from standards bodies and across the ecosystem.

CSPs with whom we’ve been working to modernize their technology, data centers, connectivity, interconnection, security and session management capabilities are already benefitting in that they are finding it much easier to design and roll out new services to their customers with, services they can provision immediately, bill for automatically, and manage in a “software defined” way. These CSPs are experiencing benefits in a world that is now being driven by policy, where real-time human communications networks are “programmable” and support not just “phone calls” but over-the-top (OTT) services and applications consumers demand, and marketing and product experts within the CSPs are inventing to keep their companies competitive.

During my panel discussion, we will touch the market’s status, where it is heading and some of the implications.  We will also touch on some of the over-arching trends seen in the industry and how some forward-thinking CSPs are leveraging their inherent advantages to exploit the opportunities that the market presents. A few key ones of course, will be featured during our session.

We will highlight success stories of how our partners are moving to IP, software and cloud based technologies to make 'digital transformation' possible, enabling not only service providers but enterprises and systems integrators who serve both to prepare for tomorrow’s digital services economy.

It is going to be a great panel and as usual Perspectives is going to be a great show; I for one cannot wait. I look forward to saying hello to you in person and to getting your perspective on where the industry is headed.