Light Reading's 41 Most Popular Stories in 2018

The whole idea of the cloud is still pretty cool, isn't it?

What it represents -- a future where we have on-demand, unlimited amounts of computing and storage available to us on mobile devices -- is a cultural shift for consumers and a complete re-invention of what some businesses are, what they do and how quickly they help (or harm) us.

The advent of the 5G network promises to add the word "instantly" to the description above. That march toward lower latency is, in some ways, where the worlds of IT and telecom continued their collision course in 2018, as noted by our list of the most popular stories.

In looking over the list, sometimes consumer cloud services and AI enhancements are rumored, and those stories catch on quickly. Sometimes the cloud giants make architectural decisions that send telecom vendors into a panic. Sometimes people just want to know who won the Leading Lights awards. And, finally, sometimes we take a step back and cut through the hype and say, "Hey, this NFV stuff isn't working right!"

We hope you enjoy looking at and clicking through this list of Light Reading's 41 most popular news stories and blogs published in 2018.

1. AWS Launches 'Outposts' On-Prem Cloud Hardware, With VMware Help
2. Red Hat Takes Aim at VMware
3. Charter Unleashes Spectrum Mobile… Without the iPhone
4. Networking Is Eating VMware
5. Feger Leaves CenturyLink for F5
6. IBM: Don't Panic! We Won't Mess With Red Hat
7. Verizon Outsources IT, Offers Sweetened Buyout
8. Apple's Planned Cover-Up Meets Backlash
9. Sale of Arris Set-Top Box Biz 'On the Table' for CommScope – Analyst
10. BT's McRae: Huawei Is 'the Only True 5G Supplier Right Now'
11. A 5G Device Timeline for 2018 & Beyond
12. Huawei Can Help Cut 90% of Networks Operations Jobs, Says Senior Exec
13. IBM & Google Launch 'Istio' Cloud Software, but Amazon & Microsoft Skip the Party
14. VMware Challenges Cisco With AWS & Microsoft Pacts
15. Apple to Build $1B Austin Campus & $10B Nationwide Data Center Expansion
16. Bye Bye Cisco Video Software, Hello Synamedia
17. Leading Lights 2018: The Winners
18. Nokia, Samsung Are Beating Ericsson in 5G Sales to AT&T, Says Analyst
19. 5G in the USA: A Post-MWCA Update
20. Here Comes DOCSIS 4.0
21. Ericsson Back in Profit After Fierce Cuts & 5G Action
22. Verizon's Fixed 5G: A Cable Alternative Is Coming!
23. Amazon Ditching Oracle by 2020 – Report
24. How VMware Plans to Put the Screws on Cisco
25. NFV Is Down but Not Out
26. Microsoft Scores Another Retail Win, Taking Gap to the Cloud
27. Fly Me to the Moon: Nokia & Vodafone Team Up for Lunar Expedition
28. Don't Laugh, Charter Is Testing '6G' Wireless
29. DT Forms New Edge Computing Unit, Appoints Ex-Ericsson Cloud Guru as CEO
30. Ericsson vs. Nokia: Who's Ahead in 5G Right Now?
31. IBM Buying Red Hat for $34B, Turning Cloud Upside Down
32. AWS Takes Aim at Oracle & Microsoft – With Telco Assistance
33. Leading Lights 2018: The Finalists
34. VEON: When Transformation Goes Bad
35. Cisco's Top Service Provider Exec Jumps Ship
36. Are Oracle's Aggressive Sales Tactics Backfiring?
37. Will Amazon White Box Switches Take On Cisco, Juniper & Arista?
38. IBM Sells Off Notes & Other Software You Barely Remember for $1.8B
39. 'Keep Talkin' Larry' – AWS CEO Trolls Oracle's Ellison, as Amazon Dumps Oracle
40. How Comcast Used AI to Make Its X1 Voice Remote Bilingual
41. DirecTV Now Inches Toward Cloud DVR Debut

Thanks for reading all the way down to the bottom of this list. Also, thanks for your continued support of Light Reading. We're looking forward to 2019 and all the madness that the rise of 5G networks will bring to the companies, people and technologies we cover. Happy New Year!

— Phil Harvey, US News Editor, Light Reading