With the U.S. Presidential election over, there is now talk about infrastructure investment, and by that, most people mean roads and bridges.But not so fast. The most important infrastructure of a modern economy or a modern business is the digital infrastructure. And it’s in worse shape than our roads and bridges. Most of today’s networks were put in place 20 years ago, well before the debilitating forces of cloud, big data, social, mobile computing, and most recently the Internet of Things (IoT) eroded their effectiveness and caused data traffic congestion.+ Also on Network World: Digital transformation: Not your grandfather’s bank +
Sure, these networks still work—they still chug along, even if they’re slower and more vulnerable than we’d like. And let’s face it; it’s human nature to take an "if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it" approach. But that approach didn’t work in the 1990s for the brick-and-mortar businesses as the internet era emerged, and it won’t work today for any company that needs to digitally transform and do business in the network age.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
There is a fundamental differentiator between companies that are winning the digitization race and transforming industry segments and those that have traditional business models.I’m talking about companies like Airbnb, Uber, Facebook or Amazon. Those companies don’t just create stuff for their customers, their customers create stuff for them, and for each other. The value of their product or service, therefore, is co-created by the people who use it.+ Also on Network World: Is your network a platform for business innovation and growth? +
Facebook is the most obvious example of this. We are the product. Facebook just provides a platform. Its customers create all of the content and thus create the reason to engage as well as the value of the platform. Without us, there is no reason to be on Facebook.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
There is a fundamental differentiator between companies that are winning the digitization race and transforming industry segments and those that have traditional business models.I’m talking about companies like Airbnb, Uber, Facebook or Amazon. Those companies don’t just create stuff for their customers, their customers create stuff for them, and for each other. The value of their product or service, therefore, is co-created by the people who use it.+ Also on Network World: Is your network a platform for business innovation and growth? +
Facebook is the most obvious example of this. We are the product. Facebook just provides a platform. Its customers create all of the content and thus create the reason to engage as well as the value of the platform. Without us, there is no reason to be on Facebook.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
There is a fundamental differentiator between companies that are winning the digitization race and transforming industry segments and those that have traditional business models.I’m talking about companies like Airbnb, Uber, Facebook or Amazon. Those companies don’t just create stuff for their customers, their customers create stuff for them, and for each other. The value of their product or service, therefore, is co-created by the people who use it.+ Also on Network World: Is your network a platform for business innovation and growth? +
Facebook is the most obvious example of this. We are the product. Facebook just provides a platform. Its customers create all of the content and thus create the reason to engage as well as the value of the platform. Without us, there is no reason to be on Facebook.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The whole point of a network is just to connect stuff, right? Connect people to people, people to machines, and machines to machines. It’s pipes and plumbing, a necessary part of the business infrastructure and, hopefully, one that costs less and less over time. After all, it’s a cost center not a growth engine. At least, that’s the way it’s treated by most businesses these days.Most, but not all.+ Also on Network World: Accelerating business innovation: Don't let networks get in the way +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The whole point of a network is just to connect stuff, right? Connect people to people, people to machines, and machines to machines. It’s pipes and plumbing, a necessary part of the business infrastructure and, hopefully, one that costs less and less over time. After all, it’s a cost center not a growth engine. At least, that’s the way it’s treated by most businesses these days.Most, but not all.+ Also on Network World: Accelerating business innovation: Don't let networks get in the way +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
In a previous series of blogs, I talked about why your network is the critical foundation of the digital transformation and of the business benefits of moving to a new IP network architecture. I talked about how networks help you control time, how the effects of Metcalfe’s and Reed’s Laws result in wealth creation, and why there is such a tension between your dumb pipes and your smart business. But it’s not just the technology that matters in this coming digital transformation; it’s also your skills and ultimately your career.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
In a previous series of blogs, I talked about why your network is the critical foundation of the digital transformation and of the business benefits of moving to a new IP network architecture. I talked about how networks help you control time, how the effects of Metcalfe’s and Reed’s Laws result in wealth creation, and why there is such a tension between your dumb pipes and your smart business. But it’s not just the technology that matters in this coming digital transformation; it’s also your skills and ultimately your career.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Nothing slows down a project more than waiting for the IT and network teams to get it deployed. Right? What most of us want is for the network to just get out of our way so we can make progress on the things that really matter. Networks don’t matter. Customers matter. Revenue matters. Competitive advantage matters.+ Also on Network World: The network effect on wealth creation +
In previous blog posts, I’ve made the case that networks are a strategic element for rapid innovation and the critical foundation for a competitive digital business. But aren’t networks just plumbing? Aren’t they just the dumb connections between machines that only need to be fast, cheap and invisible? Don’t we already have networks that are good enough? After all, Google, Amazon and Pokémon Go all seem to work just fine, right? We certainly don’t want to invest more in our networks. In fact, we want to invest less.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Nothing slows down a project more than waiting for the IT and network teams to get it deployed. Right? What most of us want is for the network to just get out of our way so we can make progress on the things that really matter. Networks don’t matter. Customers matter. Revenue matters. Competitive advantage matters.+ Also on Network World: The network effect on wealth creation +
In previous blog posts, I’ve made the case that networks are a strategic element for rapid innovation and the critical foundation for a competitive digital business. But aren’t networks just plumbing? Aren’t they just the dumb connections between machines that only need to be fast, cheap and invisible? Don’t we already have networks that are good enough? After all, Google, Amazon and Pokémon Go all seem to work just fine, right? We certainly don’t want to invest more in our networks. In fact, we want to invest less.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
In his book The Seventh Sense, Joshua Cooper Ramo makes the thought-provoking statement that networks compress time. Nowhere is this more visible than with Amazon. Amazon reportedly releases more than 20,000 new features, capabilities and services to their customers a day, making changes to production every 11 seconds. Facebook does multiple releases a day, and Google does a large package of releases every week or two.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
In his book The Seventh Sense, Joshua Cooper Ramo makes the thought-provoking statement that networks compress time. Nowhere is this more visible than with Amazon. Amazon reportedly releases more than 20,000 new features, capabilities and services to their customers a day, making changes to production every 11 seconds. Facebook does multiple releases a day, and Google does a large package of releases every week or two.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
We live in a network-centric world, and network laws are beginning to govern business models and even global economics. When you understand these laws, you begin to understand why we live in a world where new network-centric business models (think Google, Facebook, Amazon, Airbnb, etc.) become de facto monopolies that result in incredible wealth creation.More important, you might be able to figure out how to put these same network effects to work for your business to spur growth and increase customer and shareholder value.Metcalfe’s Law and network effects
The first law to understand is Metcalfe’s Law. As you probably know, Bob Metcalfe is the co-inventor of Ethernet. I’ve met Bob a few times in my career. He’s smart, kind and very intuitive. Back in the dawn of networking, he made an observation about how networks work, and he put an equation behind it. That equation has come to be known as Metcalfe’s Law. Here’s how it goes and why it’s critical for modern business models, not just for the networks that underpin them.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
We live in a network-centric world, and network laws are beginning to govern business models and even global economics. When you understand these laws, you begin to understand why we live in a world where new network-centric business models (think Google, Facebook, Amazon, Airbnb, etc.) become de facto monopolies that result in incredible wealth creation.More important, you might be able to figure out how to put these same network effects to work for your business to spur growth and increase customer and shareholder value.Metcalfe’s Law and network effects
The first law to understand is Metcalfe’s Law. As you probably know, Bob Metcalfe is the co-inventor of Ethernet. I’ve met Bob a few times in my career. He’s smart, kind and very intuitive. Back in the dawn of networking, he made an observation about how networks work, and he put an equation behind it. That equation has come to be known as Metcalfe’s Law. Here’s how it goes and why it’s critical for modern business models, not just for the networks that underpin them.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
We’re leaving the Information Age and entering the Network Age, at least that’s what Joshua Cooper Ramo argues in his compelling and thought-provoking business book, The Seventh Sense.As we move to digitize everything from retail and services to cities and healthcare, networks are the secret sauce at the center of new business models. They separate the winners from the losers. They transform industries, social movements, governments and our everyday lives.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
We’re leaving the Information Age and entering the Network Age, at least that’s what Joshua Cooper Ramo argues in his compelling and thought-provoking business book, The Seventh Sense.As we move to digitize everything from retail and services to cities and healthcare, networks are the secret sauce at the center of new business models. They separate the winners from the losers. They transform industries, social movements, governments and our everyday lives.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Christine Heckart