The energetic Amy Chang, head of collaboration technology at Cisco, talks with a less energetic Mitch Wagner of Light Reading about the vendor's strategy to partner with service providers to take the stress out of videoconferencing.

Comcast, Liberty Global, Bell Canada, Samsung and Sagemcom are on board with 'OpenSync,' as Plume seeks much more buy-in for its smart home software initiative.

Adding more Southwest US 'on-ramps' to its Cloud Connect platform underscores importance of fiber reach.

Outposts lets users run native AWS software, or VMWare Cloud on AWS, on AWS-built on-premises hardware.

AWS CEO Andy Jassy says enterprise are 'looking to flee' Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server – and the Philippines' Globe Telecom says they're one example of a company that moved off Oracle.

Cisco's annual state-of-the-Internet report – a.k.a. the Cisco Visual Networking Index – projects 4.8 zettabytes of annual traffic by 2022, as networks are transformed by edge computing, IoT and the growing popularity of OTT-delivered video.

Verizon's Shawn Hakl, SVP of Business Products, talks with Light Reading's Mitch Wagner about the telco's 5G rollout and its recent, sweeping reorganization to focus on customer segments.

Amazon Web Services launches Global Accelerator and other networking services. Is AWS going into competition with telcos?

Lee Wade, CEO at UK cloud and data network operator Exponential-e, talks cloud and network evolution, automation, security and why he has two baristas at the company's London HQ.

Cable's business services are still growing, but MSOs aren't standing pat as they pursue new areas and lines of business. Jeff Lewis discusses how Comcast is homing in on new opportunities such as SD-WAN, managed security services and the delivery of faster and faster speeds.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Alfa deploys Nokia's 4.5G tech; TalkTalk ups sticks, sets up fiber rollout arm; Deutsche Telekom and Ericsson provide campus network for Osram.

On this podcast, we discussed CenturyLink new CTO, why Dull But Critical (DBC) is our favorite category of telecom infrastructure and how cable companies are warming up to the cloud. We also ask a critical question: Does the telecom industry need RFPs?

After getting some baseball news out of the way, Light Reading's Alan Breznick and Jeff Baumgartner sum up their findings and observations from the recent 'The Future of Cable Business Services' event in NYC.

Light Reading's Mitch Wagner filed this report from Las Vegas, where he spoke to enterprise partners, telco CTOs and Cisco executives about the emergence of IoT, AI and 5G – and how those technologies are reshaping networking.

Greene grew Google Cloud to a top enterprise cloud player. Oracle, meanwhile, is flailing in enterprise cloud, making ex-President Thomas Kurian a puzzling choice as successor.

'We're effectively IoT over the top,' machineQ exec says.

Zero-touch provisioning and plug-and-play are still buzzwords where SD-WAN is concerned, but not reality, says VSG's Erin Dunne.

IBM is beefing up its automated tools and services for moving applications to multiple clouds.

Orange Business Services is working with several vendors to develop multivendor SD-WAN expertise and counting on MEF application programming interfaces and definitions for SD-WAN to enable a single portal for its SD-WAN offering, says Franck Morales, vice president of marketing of connectivity services for Orange Business Services. In addition, its SD-WAN service will be built on four other pillars: native cloud connectivity, best-of-breed security, global services and future-proof solution.

Oracle will integrate the venerable SD-WAN provider into its communications service provider business unit.

Activist investor Carl Icahn, who threatened fire and fury against Dell's plan to go public, now says the company's sweetened deal is the best he's going to get.

SD-WAN is changing the way customers think about networking, from just routing packets appropriately to looking at application flows, and determining the best approach for each application, says Roman Pacewicz, chief product officer for AT&T.

Overall revenue was up 8% year-over-year in Q1 2019 and product orders also grew by 8%, but service provider product orders were up just 2% and executives provided little insight as to why that line of business is lagging.

Enterprises are shifting to a carrier-managed version of SD-WAN, with only about a quarter of companies preferring a DIY approach, says Roopa Honnachari, industry director, business services and cloud computing for Frost & Sullivan's ICT practice.

Satellite access will play a key role going forward in reaching distant locations more quickly than fiber can, providing access and wireless backhaul, enabling disaster recovery and backup and connecting mobile sites including cruise and shipping vessels, airplanes and more, says SES CEO John-Paul Hemingway.

Organization says home networks are in need of enterprise-grade protection as IoT devices proliferate and that meeting this challenge will require steps well beyond the boundaries of the cable industry.

Newly named unit has built a global edge cloud platform that connects a core network to dozens of last-mile service provider networks and a unified software stack.

Mirko Voltolini, global head of Network on Demand at Colt, talks about how the operator has automated the service delivery aspect of its Ethernet services but is still working on the significant challenge of automating the service assurance lifecycle.

Enhances security, performance and programmability of its Cisco SD-WAN service.

Cisco wants to give telcos and other communications service providers opportunities to sell cloud voice calling through Webex Teams. And the vendor is also introducing videoconferencing technology for confined spaces.

Service interconnection is changing, requiring automation to handle commercial agreements at scale and blockchain can enable that, says Marc Halbfinger, CEO of PCCW Global.

Network operators will each take their own unique journey to becoming more cloud-native. This heterogeneous, 'lumpy' universe will be with us for quite a while.

Amazon is making good progress moving its databases from competitor Oracle's software, and AWS CEO Andy Jassy can't resist tweaking Oracle about it.

Gap Inc. is moving its 3,100 stores and other channels to the Microsoft cloud, including Old Navy, Gap and Banana Republic, as well as mobile and other channels.

CenturyLink is moving to 'as-a-service' model to support enterprise use of multiple cloud platforms, says Andrew Dugan, who is now the carrier's CTO.

Cisco has deals with all the major cloud providers now, building its multicloud vision for enterprises.

With the acquisition of Kubernetes startup Heptio, VMware takes a careful step navigating the delicate transition to cloud and open source without alienating its existing customers.

Satya Parimi of Spectrum Enterprise, says managed SD-WAN services are coming shortly following trials that revealed the complexity of deploying this new service.

Public safety expert tells conference there's no reason agencies can't be 'mobile-first' and consume as-a-service apps immediately to save more lives.

For the last several years, CIOs and IT professionals have been wrestling with two specific issues as they work toward a cloud-centric future: Agile IT and the rush toward digital transformation. While enterprises want to keep innovating, finding a starting point and knowing which projects to tackle first remain a major obstacle.

To get a better handle on Agile IT and digital transformation, Light Reading Managing Editor Scott Ferguson recently spoke to two experts in these fields: Dan Kearnan, senior director of marketing for cloud at SAP, and Roy Illsley, a distinguished analyst with Ovum.

Most communications service providers (CSPs) surveyed for this month's Thought Leadership Council (TLC) report feel they are on track with network security planning, but more than 80% of respondents worry about future technology being used to launch complex attack vectors.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Telia clears out of Kazakhstan; Openreach brings fiber to Nottingham and Belfast; EU divided over digital services tax.

The two companies are collaborating in a 'cloud factory' in Austin, Texas, to migrate thousands of Walmart apps to the Microsoft Azure cloud. And that's just the beginning.

With telco cloud and open source developments playing a key role in network operator strategies, Red Hat's acquisition could bolster IBM's opportunities with communications service provider customers.

Service providers need to broaden their view of what uCPE can offer to include not just VNFs but virtual functions that support basic IT.

The International Space Station's onboard computer will start chewing on real scientific data, after a year running test suites and benchmarks.

Microsoft's $7.5 billion GitHub acquisition and IBM's $34 billion purchase of Red Hat mark the final end of open source's outlaw period. Light Reading looks at how open source went mainstream, and what the revolution means for business.