Cisco - Q2 Collaboration Review

Today was the first time I've attended one of Cisco's Collaboration Reviews via telepresence. Telephone or WebEx sessions are the norm, and while they're usually pretty good, TP is the next best thing to being there. Before getting your hopes up too high, this wasn't a full-blown TP session (and I've been on plenty of those). It was just me and their AR liaision, Andrea Berry at Cisco Canada's HQ in downtown Toronto. While this was a global event, with 22 analysts participating, it looks like I was the lone Canadian analyst - lucky me. So, I can say with pretty good confidence that this may well be the first news you've heard about today.

There wasn't anything really groundbreaking, and the session was just an hour - and I mean that literally. Cisco makes extensive use of TP internally, and apparently their TP rooms are booked months in advance. So, when your time slot is up, it's up. The screen abruptly went blank on the host in mid-sentence at 1pm on the dot. Gotta keep the train moving I guess.

Most of the talking was done by two key drivers of their collaboration initiatives - Barry O'Sullivan - SVP Voice Technology Group, and Carl Wiese - SVP Global Collaboration Sales. They had a lot to recap from the recent quarter, and here are the main points that I can share:

- they posted 17% year-over-year growth across their collaboration portfolio - UC, contact center, telepresence, IP telephony, WebEx, etc.

- like any vendor in this space, they have been aggressively going after competitors who have struggled, namely Nortel, Siemens and ALU

- while revenues were not disclosed, they cited early successes in their various spaces - 12 customers now using WebEx Mail (all are U.S. and primarily SMB), 450+ are using cloud-based IM, over 3,600 locations using telepresence, and 75 customers using Show and Share

- perhaps the strongest message overall was their move into hosted services - this will now give their customers a choice between premise-based and carrier-based solutions

- highlights were given about 4 recent customer wins - each one showcasing a particular strength of Cisco or attractive market opportunity

- their objective of providing "pervasive video" - both big and small - was briefly discussed, but no updates on the Tandberg deal were given

A couple of these points warrant a bit more detail, so here goes...

Regarding WebEx Mail, that was a highlight for me at their Collaboration Summit last November. They shared one lesson learned with us today, which I found interesting. Their early deployments did not support BlackBerry, and it looks like they underestimated how important this was, even for SMBs. As such, they've had to accelerate BlackBerry integration to keep these deployments moving forward. I asked if they had any indication yet as to whether their email platform has led to faster adoption of other collaboration tools. They liked the question, but didn't have much to say - am guessing it's early days, but I have to think that's the end game here.

The move to hosted has huge implications, and the analysts had lots of questions about this one. I wanted to better understand the role they seek to play, especially in terms of owning the customer and sharing revenues with service providers. They talked about their intent being to get the carrier set up to offer hosted, and then let them run with it. The acronym they used is BOT - "Build, Operate and Transfer". That's the process, and we'll just have to see how it actually unfolds. It's clear they want to have it both ways - deploy on-prem, as well as partner with carriers - with the customer choosing the best path. They wouldn't quantify the market opportunity, but did go so far to say that it "appears real". They're in talks with 10 carriers now, and BT is the one they point to as an announced partner for hosted. There is a lot of potential here for channel conflict, and Cisco is not afraid to tread on new ground. However, I got the sense they are approaching hosted cautiously, and it looked to me like they were choosing their words carefully. Regardless, they're not going to ignore the hosted market, so get used to it, folks.

Two customer wins were of particular interest to me. One was Duke University, where they talked about how they're using telepresence to help extend the classroom experience off campus. I've long felt that distance learning is a huge opportunity, and that IP technologies will play a big role in re-defining higher education.

The other customer win was Molina Healthcare. Aside from this being another great vertical market for collaboration, they cited an interesting outcome from deploying telepresence there. They're finding that people are meeting twice as often, but for half as long. That's a pretty good result, and a great way to validate the value of telepresence.

Finally, I just had to comment on the actual experience of using TP today. Since the topic was collaboration, one would expect the tools for the meeting would properly reflect that. For the most part they did. Even though the screen we used was fairly small - see photos below - both the audio and video quality were very good. However, there was no use of split screens, which would have been effective at times, since Barry and Carl were in different locations. As such, the visuals were very much in a serial manner. One speaker at a time - cut to the next speaker - cut back to the first speaker, etc. I found it a bit like watching a newscast - it's ok, but not that engaging.

Two other small things. I suspect other locations had multiple screens, whereas we only had one. When the host was addressing me, she was looking to the right, which must have been the screen she was seeing me on. This would look perfectly normal from her end, but Andrea and I only saw her looking right, and not at us. This takes some getting used to, as it wasn't clear that she was talking to me. To us, it looked like she was talking to someone else. Live and learn.

The other small thing was the use of a slide deck during the session. They were really just used in passing reference, and most of our attention was centered on the speakers. That was probably for the best, since the slides were only displayed in the bottom right corner of the screen. Since we had a small TP unit, the slides were really small, and almost impossible to read. I'm sure this would be less of a problem on a full-size system, so I guess this comes with the territory. On the other hand, I would have been just as happy to have no slides, which would give us an unobstructed view of the speaker (see photos below). For any speaker sitting on that side of the screen, the slides block out a good portion of their body. While Anderson Cooper would probably roll with that, Ted Baxter would be freaking out - so, as long as the egos are in check, it's probably not a problem. :-)


Barry O'Sullivan


Carl Wiese

Aastra MX-ONE Comes to Canada

This may seem like a strange headline, considering that Aastra is a Canadian company. However, that's the news that we got updated on at today's analyst briefing at their HQ just outside of Toronto. MX-ONE is Aastra's mid/large enterprise offering, and comes out of an acquisition from Ericsson. I commented on this briefly in a recent writeup on the UC Strategies portal.

Today's briefing actually addressed two items - MX-ONE and their Q4 earnings, which were announced yesterday. Keeping with my recent blog theme about good news stories, Aastra is definitely another solid example, and it's especially nice to hear about a Canadian success story.

On the earnings front, this is their 47th consecutive profitable quarter - does it really get any better from a company that flies below a lot of people's radar? Sales were $833 million - flat from 2008 - but they're well on target for hitting $1 billion, which is pretty significant for a Canadian telecom company not named Nortel. Similar to the strong numbers reported by Acme Packet last week, Aastra has money in the bank - $117 million - and spent a respectable $82 million on R&D, which is just under 10% of sales. So, they have the means to both continue innovating and make strategic acquisitions as needed - that's a nice combination to have.

With Nortel folding into Avaya, Aastra now becomes one of the four major players in the U.S., along with Cisco and Mitel. This leads us to MX-ONE, and their roadmap to become established now in Canada and enter that select circle up here. Of course, all the vendors have their let's-exploit-Nortel's-demise strategy, and Aastra feels they offer a strong alternative. Aside from being financially stable, they talked about some other core virtues - namely proven technology, a commitment to open standards, and being easy to do business with. I wasn't able to stay the whole morning, but from what I saw, they did a good job backing these claims up.

Between Unified Communications and Contact Center solutions, they feel there's a $2 billion market opporunity in Canada, and following the Nortel saga, the time is right to go after the mid/large enterprise market with MX-ONE. They have a global footprint today with this offering, so there should be a natural appeal for multinational companies with Canadian branch offices. They also stressed their ability to integrate with other PBX vendors, and with their HP ProCurve alliance, they have a solid software-based solution. This plays nicely into their focus on SIP and virtualization, making it easy for deployments to scale and add new IP-based applications. Given how Cisco is crossing into HP's territory these days, the Aastra/HP combination presents a best-of-breed alternative for businesses concerned about vendor lock-in with Cisco.

They also talked about channels, and it's clear their success will weigh heavily on developing the right partner mix. Aastra prefers a more select approach with partners who are either strong in a particular vertical and/or selling against a key competitor. I agree that channels are the name of the game, and with Canada being a greenfield market for MX-ONE, they'll need to pick their partners carefully. Two of them were on hand today - Demarcation Point, and Conpute, and we heard a bit from the latter, who is particularly strong in the education market.

The more I get to know Aastra, the more I like them, and it's great to see a local company become so large and successful. I asked how much MX-ONE drives their top line growth, but didn't get an answer. That's ok. You could argue that their Canadian push will not have much impact in the short term, but if Canada really is a $2 billion market for them, even a 10% share would account for almost 25% of current revenues. Clearly, they've done very well to date without this market, but if they execute well, there's no reason why MX-ONE can't be a big part of helping them get to $1 billion in the next 2-3 years.

Yves Laliberte, EVP kicking things off



Craig Ballard, Technical Sales Manager - reviewing their competitive differentiators



Mark Marshall, VP Enterprise Sales - discussing Aastra's go to market plans



Don Conley, Conpute - the channel perspective

Good News, Part 2 - Acme Packet

Picking up from yesterday's post, here's another good news item of note. Acme Packet has done more than anyone else to personify the session border controller space and has emerged as the clear market leader. It's one thing to be number one in your market, but it's even better when you're dominant, as is the case with Acme. I've written about Acme many times, and a quick search on my blog will take you to posts that help explain how they got to be this way.

Earlier this week I was briefed on their latest news in advance of next week's Mobile World Congress, and that embargo was lifted today. There are really two threads to this good news story, and I'll touch on each separately.

First would be their Q4 2009 earnings, which has largely been re-hashed by the financial analyst community. Being an industry analyst, I'm more focused on the business metrics than the earnings, and even just a few numbers tells a lot.

On the finance side, it's hard to ignore the basics:

- Revenues are at critical mass now - $141.5 million in 2009. When I began following them back as a tiny startup, let's just say the numbers were a lot smaller. 2010 is looking even better - they expect 30% growth, which will put them on track for about $185 million.

- Net income was $17.1 million, up 47% from 2008. This isn't huge, but they're making money, folks, and profits are up sharply.

- Money in the bank - $175 million. Wow - that's pretty healthy, especially when you consider they absorbed Covergence last May, and there's not much left out there competition-wise that's worth buying. Maybe Sipera or Sansay. Being public, no doubt the portfolio managers will be watching closely to see what they do with that stash. They'd either have to move sideways and acquire related or complementary technologies - perhaps firewalls or routers - or make a big upward move to acquire someone much bigger but less stable. I'd bet on the former if they do anything at all.

Speaking of being a public company, it's also worth noting that Acme's share price has recovered very nicely from last fall, when they were under $4, and is now up near $14. Going public cuts both ways, but with their current momentum, Acme looks about as good as it gets for companies in this space.

Financials aside, the customer footprint really tells the story for me. I'd say the most impressive metric is customers - 980 and counting. I don't know if they'll have a special prize for customer #1,000, but that will be a nice milestone to hit. Keeping pace with their strong financial metrics, Acme added 235 customers last year. I'll bet it takes a few years for a lot of companies to add that many. I should also add that almost 20% of their customers are enterprises, so Acme is more than just a carrier play.

Unlike Vonage, where churn is a fact of life, and ARPU is hard to grow, Acme doesn't lose many customers, and most of them have a lot of upside for SBCs, as the migration from circuit to packet continues. Finally, it's worth adding that Acme is truly global, with customers in 104 countries.

Enough said. The second strand of news was announced today in a rather long, complex press release. The news covers three big updates to their Net-Net portfolio.

First is the Net-Net SIP Multimedia-xpress. This update focuses on the challenges service providers face with IMS compliance, which has proven slow to materialize. Acme has come up with an "IMS equivalent alternative", with the idea being to provide a lower cost, more flexible way to help carriers introduce new SIP services in a scalable manner. The focus is on time-to-market, which carriers desperately need to stay competitive.

Second would be their Net-Net SBC Cluster/Session-Aware Load Balancer. That's a mouthful, and all I can say is that it enables SIP multimedia applications on a large scale. And they do mean large - up to 2 million subscribers. That's a big number, and I can't validate that for you, but clearly, Acme is aiming high here. Bottom line is that Tier 1 operators are adopting IP at a fast rate now - especially with mobile - and it won't take long for them to support services on this scale.

The third element is the Net-Net Route Manager. This seems more straightforward, and supports more centralized management of SIP routing across the network, which may have many nodes across many geographies.

I'll be the first to say this is a simplified summary of the enhancements, and the details are simply too technical for me to explore further. SBCs are complex, and I'm not the only analyst out there who can only digest Acme's news at a high level. Most network elements are fairly intuitive, but Acme has taken SBCs to a very advanced level, and even their press release - which should only be 1-2 pages - requires 5 pages to explain it.

I'm not technical enough to say whether this complexity is by design, and I'll take it on faith that all these enhancements are going to make life better for operators. If you want a higher comfort level, I suggest you talk to an Engineer. However, from my vantage point, I believe Acme has a strong story to tell, and have no doubt the carriers at MWC next week will be a great point of validation for them.

Good News, Part 1 - Xconnect Doubles Revenues

Being shut down with a head cold for a few days will put a damper on things, but I'm definitely on the mend. Haven't been able to follow things much lately, but good news seems to come in cycles, and I'm seeing one now. Last week I talked about the new CEO at Metaswitch and how that's lining up nicely with a bigger growth story they seem to be managing very well.

There was a second good news item last week from XConnect, another company I've followed closely for a long time. Being an Advisor, I've deliberately held off blogging about this, and don't want to give the impression I'm sharing anything sensitive or a scoop ahead of the pack. Am just treating this as a straight up news item, and I think it speaks for itself. As announced, their 2009 revenues doubled, and traffic is up 81%. The metric I look
at with even more interest is customer acquisition, and they added a healthy 63 new service provider customers last year. The peering market is still advancing slower than anticipated, and the revenues are still fairly small, so doubling sales is not as impresssive as it would be in a more mature market.

That aside, XConnect is on track for a strong year. The press release notes the addition of a London POP, and money in the bank to support expansion via last year's $10 million Series B raise. Like many companies focused on the long term migration from TDM to IP, XConnect is riding on some big trends that will play in their favor over time, with the most recent being the explosion of mobile broadband (and with it, more and more wireless substitution), and the adoption of HD services. It's early days for HD voice, but just like with HD TV, once you try it, there's no turning back.

XConnect is far from a household name, but they're a leading player in their space, and I know their time will come. The company got some nice recognition along these lines month, being named a Red Herring Global 100 Winner. This may have been the first a lot of people heard about them, but those of us following them more closely, it's hard not to argue that their prospects are looking good.

Tomorrow I'll continue the good news theme with Part 2, and a bunch of news from another company that's driving IP to the masses.

Metaswitch Announces New CEO

Was just on a briefing call about some news from Metaswitch. I don't track news items as a matter of course, but this announcement came my way on short notice, and being a company I follow closely, it's worth noting.

Metaswitch is a great example of a company that goes about its business quietly, deliberately and effectively. These really aren't 2.0-style virtues, but I'll take their track record any day over the fast and furious.

The news item is pretty pedestrian - Kevin DeNuccio takes the CEO reins from John Lazar, who now moves into the Chairman spot, in turn from Ian Feguson, who remains on the board. You can read the details here on the press release that just ran this morning.

Kevin has big company experience from Redback Networks and Cisco, and it looked like a good move when he came on board as a director in 2008. I've seen this with other companies who are ramping up for growth and/or targeting bigger customers. This type of pedigree can be invaluable on a few levels, and it's not surprising to see Kevin now in the CEO spot.

You could argue the company wanted more of a U.S.-based/style of CEO, but I think that's the short answer. Their culture is too strong, and I don't see them becoming a rah-rah type of company trying to get really big by acquiring competitors and raising lots of money to fund it. That's not their style.

I see this more as another step along the way to deepen their management team, and position the company for continued, global growth. Metaswitch is definitely growing into new frontiers, namely wireless and developer-based applications, and of course moving further up the chain with bigger telco customers. I can see Kevin's presence helping with bigger telcos, but I'm not as sure about these other areas.

Regardless, I think this sends a positive message that Metaswitch is well positioned for 2010, and having gone through some corporate re-jigging/branding last year, they have a plan in place, and this news is just part of how they're executing on it.

I'm still not entirely sure why this move is happening and why now, and we'll just have to take it on the faith that it's all for the best. My only concern is their ability to assure core customers that nothing changes for them. They've done a great job acquiring - and keeping - Tier 2/3 carriers, and will need to be careful not to give them a reason to think they're moving away to chase bigger game. We got assurances on the call this won't happen, and I'm confident that's how things will unfold. They know their roots too well - just consider where their next customer forum takes place - Nashville. Great music aside, I can't think of a better spot to be among your people. I hope Kevin likes country and bluegrass....

UC Strategies - ITExpo/Industry News Recap

After a brief hiatus, I was able to join the weekly UC Strategies podcast on Monday. This week, the focus was a recap of recent industry events as well as news of note, namely the iPad launch.

A few industry events were discussed, but ITExpo was the only one I had attended. I shared my thoughts on the Expo along with others who were there such as Jim Burton and Dave Michels. All told, it's a nice recap, esp from Dave, who was attending for the first time. Towards the end, we also talked about the iPad, and I managed to add my take to the mix.

The podcast is running now on the UC Strategies portal, and you can access it here. Hope you give it a listen, and if you attended the ITExpo, by all means, let us know what you thought of it.

DAVE Wireless/Mobilicity - the Next Wave in Canadian Wireless Competition

The second shoe dropped today in terms of new entries for Canada's wireless market. I've been following this space for some time, and the winners of last year's AWS auction are starting to make moves to shake things up here. About six weeks ago, the most ambitious entry - Wind Mobile - was the first to launch. I've generally been skeptical of the chances for these new players, and as first movers go, I haven't been overwhelmed with Wind.

Enough said for now - but we can talk more about that later. Let's focus on today's news, which has a few angles of interest. The next entry making noise is DAVE Wireless. The acronym is awkward and misleading - Data and Audio Visual Enterprises - but guess what?

Breaking news - they've just done their branding launch, and I like the new name MUCH better. They're coming to market under the moniker Mobilicity, and the press release just hit the wires. A bit like Sex and the City - rolls off the tongue nicely and hints at adventure, and combines two words that define their value proposition - mobility and city. I also can't help but notice the subtle homage here that comes from their CEO's former role as head of Toronto Hydro Telecom, the telecom arm of our local electric utility.

While that news is very much here and now, let me rewind to earlier this morning, where I attended the first public address about their plans at the Toronto Board of Trade. That's what I'm trying to post about, but the re-name news just came out while writing this up.

So, bright and early at 8am, DAVE Wireless's CEO, Dave Dobbin addressed a very full house about their latest news. First off, the service hasn't launched yet - that's coming in the spring. This gives Wind a 4-5 month head start, but if DAVE really is as distinct as promised, it may not be much of a factor.

Dave's main message this morning was to set the stage for their launch by explaining why competition is a good thing for consumers, and how their service is going to be different. Just a quick aside - TELUS is one of the sponsors of this breakfast speaker series, and in my recent conversations with them, it hasn't been lost on them that their dollars are helping provide a stage for a new competitor to tell their story. Am sure Mr. Dobbin sent Mr. Entwistle a friendly text message to thank him.

Back to the presentation. I certainly like the opening comments, where he noted that the mere threat of competition has already benefitted consumers. That's very true, esp considering that the AWS auction seemed to be ages ago, and so far, only one new service has actually come to market. Despite that, prices are lower today, system access fees are going away, and Canada now has 6 3G networks. Well, if that isn't progress, I don't know what is. Nice way to start things off.

Moving on to the more pressing questions, things are a bit less clear cut. Dave focused on the three questions his company gets asked about the most - is there room for DAVE?, can you afford to build out a network to be competitive?, and how will DAVE compete?

On the first question, I have no issues. I've long felt the Canadian market is too small to support more than 3-4 wireless operators, but there's no doubt there are many ponds to fish in for customers. Sure, there's the greenfield opportunity (but I think it's overrated), and we'll get our share of wireless substitution up here. The bigger variables are the unhappy subscribers they can siphon off from the Big 3 as well as the prepaid plans where there are no contracts to lock people in. To reel in their share of customers, DAVE simply has to have a great marketing plan and execute on it. This isn't about technology - it's about meeting customer needs better than the other guys.

I also agree strongly with Dave on the second issue. Our incumbents have been crying for ages that it's taken almost 20 years to start truly becoming profitable given the high costs of building cellular networks. This is why they've fought competition for so long, as they'll now have to share those profits with newcomers. It's a bit like the pharmaceutical game where patent protection is necessary to enable a payback on the long R&D cycles to develop new drugs. Of course, this is one of the great things about Canada - all those low-cost generics, thanks to the absence of patent protection here. The tradeoff is simple - we get cheap drugs, but all the R&D is done elsewhere, and with that come lots of high value jobs. You can't have it all, right?

Anyhow, I've long concurred with Dave that networks can be built more quickly, more cheaply and more flexibly today, so cost isn't the issue it once was. I've certainly followed this long enough in the VoIP world, and it's no different for wireless. Dave added another important point that works in DAVE's favor - they're not building a national network. They're only serving the top 10 urban markets, so they're optimizing both their spend and coverage - good idea.

On to the third point - how will DAVE compete? That's really the big one, and I'm not entirely convinced they can bring enough differentiation to make a huge impact. On the other hand, maybe they don't need to. They're not as leveraged financially as Globalive, and to their credit, don't have any foreign ownership issues to hold things up (which I believe hurt Globalive by causing them to launch after the Xmas season rush). Aside from being a low cost operator and having a high value offering for a distinct segment of the market, I'm not really sure what their service will actually look like. Dave talks about having a flexible business and following the best of breed partering approach - Amdocs, Ericsson, Ingram Micro, etc. Nothing wrong with that, and it sure makes the risk factors more manageable.

It seems to me they'll be targeting urban users who are somewhere between the prepaid market and high end power users. There's a big middle ground there, and I'm sure with some well executed marketing, backed by reliable market research they'll hone in on this target and hit it pretty well. Dave also made it clear they won't be competing directly with the incumbents - again, a good idea. However, I think that's easier said than done. We don't know how the majors will respond, but whether it's their prepaid plans or postpaid plans, I have no doubt they'll find ways to counter any new entry that makes life difficult for them.

On that note, my impression is that the weak link for DAVE is channels. All Dave would say is they'll have "some forms of national retail". I don't think he means Sears or Walmart or Canadian Tire - or maybe this is just a red herring. There's a reason why Bell Canada bought The Source (Radio Shack) - to take another channel away from new entries. Sure, DAVE will have their own stores and independent dealers, but I suspect they'll need a lot more to get beyond grassroots support. If you look at my post about Wind that I cited earlier here, there are some photos of their kiosk, and it's not very encouraging. Guess what? I pass by that kiosk a few times a week, and it looks the same every time. With this kind of traffic, I don't think the incumbents have too much to worry about.

That said, with DAVE being a pure consumer play, and no other bundled service to piggyback on, having strong retail channels will be paramount. Otherwise, you get stuck on the Vonage treadmill and black hole of marketing spend to acquire - and keep - new customers. No thanks.

To wrap up, do I think DAVE will succeed? It won't be easy, but so far, I like their chances better than Wind. It's not quite as ambitious, and maybe that's the point. There are plenty of free radicals out there up for grabs, so why not DAVE? From where I sit day-to-day, I'm not seeing anything truly innovative here, and not once did I hear "applications" mentioned. I think there is a world of opportunity for wireless operators to reinvent their business - with or without smartphones. This holds equally for DAVE as it does for the incumbents, and if DAVE does what Dave says they will, they have as good a chance as anyone to make this work. More chapters to be written on this topic, so don't go away for too long.




Great to see a packed room for this


Our backroom media scrum after Dave's presentation

january media roundup

Fairly light month in terms of media coverage, but I certainly had my hands full with the Smart Grid Summit. No quotes in the press - which hasn't happened in a long time - but I've already done a couple of stories that will run this month.

Basically, my citings are all article-based - three written by me, and one as an interview about the Summit. Let's start there:

- PR Vibes - Smart Grid Summit Preview, Q&A with Jon Arnold

- UC Strategies - Interactive Intelligence Moves Toward CaaS for Contact Center Automation

- Service Provider Views - Google in China - What Business are you Really In?

- Service Provider Views - 2010 - it's only January, and Already so Many Questions About Service Providers

Service Provider Views - Why Life is getting harder, not easier

My latest Service Provider Views column is running now on TMCnet. Having just come back from the ITExpo, a few things struck me there that would work well for my next article. This would have been enough material, but on top of that, the last week or so has been full of news that pose new challenges and raise new questions for service providers. Not the least of which is the iPad launch, Jajah's acquisition by Telefonica, and the latest earnings news from AT&T and Verizon.

I could probably squeeze a few more columns out of this morass - and I just might do that - but for now, I've managed to hit the high points in today's column, and you can read that here.

Any way you look at it, January has had more than its share of news that impacts service providers, and could be an ominous way to kick start the new decade. I can't wait to see what February holds in store.

Toronto Blues Society Awards Night - Oscars for Canadian Blues

This post is just for the record, and is part of the backlog from last week I'm trying to clear up. We all have busy lives outside of work, and for me, music is one of those lives - especially blues. I'm not one to post much about my personal life, but in the blues world, this one is worth sharing.

I've been a long-time supporter and board member of the Toronto Blues Society, and one of our marquee events is the Maple Blues Awards. I've posted about this before, and the MBA is Oscar night for Canadian blues. We have a great blues scene up here, and the TBS is right in the middle of what happens here in Toronto. Over the years our MBA program has evolved into a national event, and it's a great barometer of the best blues going from coast to coast.

Last Monday was this year's event, held for the first time in brand-new Koerner Hall in downtown Toronto. The venue was a bit uptown for blues, and is really built for acoustic music, but things worked out just fine. I had to fly out early the next day for the Smart Grid Summit, and combined with a technical glitch, I haven't been able to post this until now.

For all kinds of reasons, I'm happy to do shout-outs like this for the TBS, especially in 2010, as we mark our 25th anniversary (and I've been there since Day 1). The Canadian blues scene is world class, and if you like the blues, there's a lot to like about our artists. The MBA showcases this in spades, and if you're in Toronto next MLK Day - an appropriate date for the awards - you really should attend.

For this year, the full list of winners and nominees is summarized on our website. These won't be household names to most of you, but that shouldn't matter. The music is first rate, and I'll share a couple of photos here. If you poke around the Net, I'm sure you can find some video clips as well. Better yet, come to TO, and I'll take you around to the clubs. And - if it's a Tuesday, you can check out my 13 old son and myself at a local blues jam!

The Maple Blues All Stars - the best blues band in the land - really...



The Twisters - these guys were FUN...

ITExpo Photo Highlights

Never a dull moment at the ITExpo last week, and as per my earlier post today, here are some highlights of goings-on I caught outside the Smart Grid Summit. I'll preface this by tipping my hat to Rich Tehrani and his 24-7 team for putting on another successful ITExpo. More importantly - and as noted more extensively in a previous post - TMC continues to be open to new ideas for making the Expo a richer experience as well as reaching new audiences.

I'm very appreciative of the support they've shown for our Smart Grid Summit, and no doubt my cohorts feel the same for the other co-located events run under their tent, namely 4GWE, M2M, the Cloud Summit and Startup Camp. From what I can tell, all were successful, and I'm sure all of these will be back bigger and better this October for the LA ITExpo. With that said, here are a few photos to give you a flavor for what I mean.


Rich Tehrani kicking off the ITExpo keynotes


Rich hosting the lunch time panel exploring the implications of the Avaya/Nortel deal


Perhaps the sleeper event of the week - Larry Lisser's Telecom Startup Bootcamp. A bit like American Idol - here are the judges who gave their feedback after each startup pitch. The room was packed, which says a lot considering the event took place Thursday night after a full day of ITExpo activity.


Shai Berger of Fonolo during his pitch. I had mixed feelings about the pitches I saw, but they all had interesting ideas for sure. Shai shares his thoughts on his blog, which in turn takes you to Andy Abramson's blog, both of which are good reads. Like Andy, I have a vested interest in Fonolo, so I'll leave it at that for now.


Next stop - the show floor. Not as big as in the past, but healthy traffic. I didn't get to spend enough time with exhibitors to gauge the quality of attendees, but the energy level was high every time I got out to the floor. First, a couple of shots from the Smart Grid Pavilion - small today, but should be much bigger for the next summit. Below is the Redline booth and then Livecage, who did a series of video segments for us.




Here's the Ontario/Canada pavilion - busy as always


Keeping on the Canadian theme, here's the reception they hosted Wednesday night. An open bar and a motorcycle giveaway will always draw a crowd, but I'd like to think people were at least a little bit interested in what our companies are doing up here...


In what's becoming a tradition, no Expo is complete without an invite to Andy Abramson's wine dinner - good to the last drop. Big thanks to Andy for sharing his wine with us as well as Andrew Hanson and Freetalk for sponsoring. If you haven't seen how Skype is approaching the small business market with a Jazinga-based IP PBX system, then you need to do some homework. Or just call me.

Smart Grid Summit - photo highlights

After the Summit finished up on Friday, I had an extended family visit for a few days, and am just back to everyday stuff now. Had some technical difficulties with my new PC, and wasn't able to post my photos from from the show, so I've got those coming here in two posts. First, this post about the Smart Grid Summit, followed by some photos from the rest of the ITExpo.

Too much time has passed for a thoughtful review of the summit, but we did have a fair bit of media attention, and I'll be posting a roundup article citing all of this for our Smart Grid portal later today. If that doesn't do the job, then drop me a line and I'll be happy to tell you more.




We had four keynotes during the Summit. First up, Dr. Ron Sega, Colorado State University



Kevin Suitor, Redline Communications


John Bryan, Secure Smart Grid Association


Ryusuke Masuoka, Fujitsu Labs of America


Here are a few shots from the panels. Fist, Christine Hertzog moderating the Game Changing Apps session.


Shidan Gouran and the Standards/Interoperability panel


One of my sessions - What Utilities can learn from Telcos


Rose Gabriele moderating the Modern Network Solutions session

smart grid summit - day 1

Way, way too busy to give you a recap from our first day, but I can say it went really well. Our room was over-full from the beginning, and stayed that way all day. I'll get a recap article out to our portal ASAP, and have some photos to post here. For now, I'll steer you to the ITExpo Show Daily, which covers all aspects of what's going on here.

Will have more to report tomorrow - so please bear with me and keep visiting the Expo website.

Smart Grid Summit - Lots of Reasons to Come

Tying up loose ends today, and flying to Miami tomorrow for the Smart Grid Summit and ITExpo. I've been posting off and on about this for the past few days, and wanted to do one more post summarizing the highlights of what you can expect to see at our event, running this Wednesday - Friday.

Today, I posted Part 3 of my Smart Grid Summit preview series articles. You can read it here, and to get the full story, you can read Part 2 here, and Part 1 here.

That pretty much tells the story, and I hope to see you in Miami. If not, please check in regularly to the portal, where I'll be posting daily recaps. Also, one of our media partners - Livecage - will be doing live video streaming, and once it's running, I'll let you know where/how to find it. In fact, if you go to their website now, you'll see a couple of placeholder welcome video messages for our event. Trust me, it will look a lot better once we have our speakers up there!

Google and China - What it means for telcos

This is the Google mega-story of the day, and I think it's a big one for all kinds of reasons. Have you ever seen a company get so much global attention over such a short period of time across so many unrelated businesses? That's a story unto itself, and the irony isn't lost on me when I think about their name.

Google's differences with the great firewall of China are all over the news, and I'm here with a bit of a different take. In my latest Service Provider Views column on TMCnet, I'm more concerned with what all this means for privacy and how that impacts service providers.

Up until recently, service providers were in a very different business than Google, but today that line sure is blurry. So, it seems to me that whatever challenges Google is facing - especially with China - is going to matter to service providers. Pretty fertile ground here, and I'm sure I'll be revisiting it soon.

You can read the article here, and I'd love to hear your thoughts.

smart grid summit - product of the year awards deadline fast approaching

Many hats to wear to make the Smart Grid Summit happen, but we're almost there. For those of you on the vendor side, this post will be of interest and importance. The Product of the Year Awards were recently launched, and this is a great way to gain recognition in an exploding market space and at an event that's poised to become a leading Smart Grid showcase in 2010.

In that regard, I have a bit of news. The final deadline for submitting applications is Monday - January 18. The Early Bird deadline has passed, so you have to pay the full fare, but if you win, I'm sure you won't think twice about that.

The winners will be announced in March, and TMC will publish this on the Smart Grid portal. Recognition like this is especially important in a newly developing market, and needless to say, TMC has a multitude of ways to help the winners maximize their 15 minutes of fame, which hopefully will soon become fortune. Isn't that how life works?

Wryness aside, it's a great program, and I want to be sure you know about it. You can read more about the details and registration process here, and I'll certainly be doing my bit blog-wise when the winners are announced.

Smart Grid Summit - Fly to Miami, Drive Home in a Honda Element

Well, I wouldn't say this if it wasn't true. Crappy economy be damned, Rich Tehrani and his never-stop-working team at TMC continue with the big prize draw hook to get you to Miami next week. Although it's been insanely cold there lately, the weather is usually reason enough to go in January.

The other day, I posted about 5 reasons to be at the ITExpo next week. Nothing has changed there, so I won't say anything more. Well, the Honda giveaway is a great reason #6, and if you want a 6B, they're also giving away a Honda motorcycle on Thursday. Maybe that's reason enough for you to go - if you're not sure, check it out for yourself here.

Our Smart Grid Summit is much smaller than the ITExpo, and we can't compete with that. I could offer something like one pick from my vinyl record collection, or an online guitar lesson by my shredder wiz son, Dean. He's only 13, but I've been taking him out with me to play to play at a local blues jam, and he's got the goods. I've been playing for decades, but he passed me by a long time ago. Remember his name - someday he'll do something cool....

Back to Smart Grid. With just a few days to go, we're tapping all channels to get the word out and hope you can join us in Miami. I just started writing a series of preview articles about the program, and you'll see those starting today on our portal. I've also been busy with shout-outs on my Linked In and Facebook pages and groups, and gained some good exposure on CircleID with my recent article about Google Energy.

By the way, if you haven't subscribed to our eNewsletter, you should do that now.

Finally, you may already be receiving eblasts from TMC with the latest news about the summit. Here's the latest one, and I think this will give you even more reasons to come. If you'd like to receive these eblasts, let me know and I can get you added to their database.

Metaswitch - Rolling Along Nicely

Metaswitch is a company I've followed for a long time, and as private companies go, they're right up there in terms of being well run. Their offerings are solid, their customer base keeps growing, they're making money, the management team is stable, and they have a strong employee culture.

Doesn't get much better than that, and yesterday they had their quarterly update call. Aside from public companies with their obligatory earnings calls, I can't think of anyone else in this space who does this. As far as I know, they're not required to do this, and I think this kind of transparency is great, at least for those of us invited to the call.

I won't go much beyond the highlights shared in today's press release, other than to assure you this is a company with a plan and the ability to execute on it.

I'd say the most noteworthy news is the announcement of their 500th customer - Misamis Oriental Telephone System, based in the Phillipines. Not only is this a big milestone, but a good example of the global reach Metaswitch is starting to achieve. The company actually has two operating divisions - this is their Carriers Systems Division - CSD. They also have NPD - Network Protocols Division - which ended 2009 at the 250 customer mark, with Celtro, a Delaware-based wireless backhaul operator.

Another bright spot was the trickle-down effect of the Broadband Stimulus funding to their bottom line. They highlighted Slic Network Solutions as a recent recipient, and that money will enable them to buy a Metaswitch solution, from which they'll be able to provide lower cost VoIP services to their base of rural customers. That may not sound like much to most of you, but there are a lot of operators like Slic out there, and the combination of this funding and IOC-friendly vendors like Metaswitch is very good news, especially after such a difficult 2009.

Something else caught my eye that was briefly mentioned - their expanding relationship with Huawei. This is a company you can't ignore, and either admire or fear. They represent a lower cost alternative to all the U.S./E.U. telco vendors, and it's just a matter of time until they become a major player in their home markets. I don't have anything to add beyond the public news, but it's a partnership that I will follow with interest.

Finally, it was great to hear John Lazar talk about smart phones and the impact they're having everywhere, especially for new applications. As is the case with all platform vendors, Metaswitch has its own developer ecosystem - Innovators Community - and it's become a key element of their overall value proposition. This isn't the MetaSwitch we knew from earlier days, and now that it's Metaswitch, I see a company poised for a great run this decade. I can't think of too many companies of this size who had a stronger 2009, and the critical mass is there today to make them a top tier player in the not-too-distant future.

Five Reasons to be in Miami for the ITExpo

As it gets colder in Canada by the day, Miami is looking better by the minute. Weather, beach and Latin music aside, it's time to start thinking about why TMC's ITExpo is the place to be later this month for all things related to communications. Here are my fave five...

1. The ITExpo. Having cracked the 10 year barrier, TMC's flagship event has become a cornerstone of our market, especially for anyone focused on enterprise and SMB communications. Many shows have come and gone in this space, and ITExpo keeps getting bigger and better. There are lots reasons to be there, and you don't have to spend much time at the show's website to see why. Digium/Asterisk World is a reason all by itself, but there's much, much more to see and do. If you can only look at one quick link, try this one - it's a great summary from Rich Tehrani about who's coming and the sessions you can see there.

2. Smart Grid Summit. Self-promotion aside, this is our second summit with TMC, and it didn't take long to expand this into a three-day program. We know we're on to something good here, and I really believe this is one of the ways that the ITExpo experience is truly different from most any other communications conference. We have keynotes from Redline Communications, Fujitsu, the Secure Smart Grid Association, and Ron Sega, a former NASA astronaut. Our agenda and roster have pretty much filled out now, sponsorship and industry support has been strong, and we've added a BOF session with the SIP Forum to talk about their new Smart Grid working group.

3. 4GWE. We have followed in the footsteps of Carl Ford and Scott Kargman to partner with TMC for a vertical event. Their wireless event has been a success from the start, and provides a lot of depth into all things LTE and 4G. Whatever stolen moments I can take from my Smart Grid duties, I'll be checking out their sessions. A sidebar to this is the M2M event, which they also put together, and is another important vertical for emerging communications technologies.

4. Cloud Communications Summit. Just as we've followed 4GWE, our good buddy Thomas Howe has followed us. He's teamed up with TMC to put this one day event together during the Expo. Tom will always be Mr. Mashup to me, but this venture will be a great showcase for something much bigger. It's one of the big trends I'm following this year, and am hoping to contribute some content that will be included with material Tom is preparing for the attendees.

5. Telephony Startup Camp. I feel like I'm building a pyramid here. One step behind Tom is Larry Lisser - another colleague I've worked with on several occasions. Larry is one of the best guys out there for working with startups and getting them to market. He also had brought a new concept to TMC, and hats off to them for running with this is as well. The economy can't suck forever, and in time, startups will get their mojo back. There are lots of reasons to believe that we'll see momentum build in 2010, and Larry has put together a mini-event to showcase a series of startups. The lineup hasn't been announced yet, but it will be series of 15 minute pitches. I don't think ITExpo has done this before, and I think it's a great way to expand their reach and give startups a new platform to show their stuff. Larry's event runs Thursday evening, and I hope to catch it after we finish up our Smart Grid sessions.

Meet the Canadians at IT Expo in Miami

Over the next few days, I'll be posting about the upcoming TMC ITExpo in Miami, running from January 20-22. It's coming up quickly now, and my hands have been very full with the Smart Grid Summit, which is co-located there. More about that on another post.

Right now I want to update you on the networking breakfast that's happening Friday morning. For those of you attending the ITExpo, I'm hosting this get-together sponsored by the governments of Ontario and Canada. I've been part of these breakfasts before, and it's a great way to network with up and coming Canadian tech startups in a relaxed environment.

I've posted about this before, and as of today, about half the available spots are taken for guests. If you'd like to attend, or review the agenda, drop me a line, and I'll send you the invite, which includes how to RSVP.