IP Convergence: Beyond VoIP, Beyond Cost Savings

I have always felt that Software engineering is an art. Anyone can write some code, but not everyone can develop a system that is flexible and maintainable .

Flexibility is important, as requirements tend to change and grow with use of a system and subsequent learning.

Maintenance is even more important in that you need have a cost effective way of achieving Flexibility , and not throwing parts of the system away and building upon proven parts of the system.

That is the art of Software on a hardware platform, and together they solve a problem and form a complex system onto itself. Expand this thinking into the definition of a Service Provider.

A service provider is a collection of complex systems - switches, routers, service provisioning , trouble ticketing, monitoring , billing as well as the people and centers that complete the service layer.

Service providers - like software engineering is an art - anyone can deploy a switch, anyone can expedite an order on the new switch. Not everyone can operationalize an offer that is both flexible and maintainable.

Flexibility is important as customer always want more and equipment vendors always deliver more features.

Maintenance is really important when it comes to a service fault that occurs at 3am during a long weekend.

A service is not something you can touch, it's the experience and customer satisfaction is its metric.

Advanced solutions are an art, anyone can propose a solution, not everyone can deliver one that meets customer needs while still being economically feasible.