Stan Druckenmiller about the Endgame – Is the best really behind us?

There are lots of observant people around who on the one hand are delighted about the strength of the US economy and the (stubborn) health of the US equity market, but on the other hand point to a number of facts that in normal times would give rise to concerns. Now fortunately it seems, we don’t live in normal times any more, hence, we can largely ignore the ‘statistics-relevant-in-normal-times’. Shall we? Continue reading

Open Fog Computing and Mobile Edge Cloud Gain Momentum

On 19th November 2015, Cisco, ARM, Dell, Intel, Microsoft and Princeton University have launched the Open Fog consortium with the goal to realise the full potential of the Internet of Things. On the other hand, the telecoms industry has been working since late 2014 on mobile edge computing. Also, edge cloud is seen by several vendors of telecoms infrastructure as a key component of 5th generation wireless systems. To add to the confusion, other renowned institutes like Carnegie Mellon University have promoted Cloudlets as a means to enable a new generation of edge cloud computing applications. What’s going on? How are things related?  Continue reading

LWM2M – M2M The Lighter Way

If you went these days to ‘google’ for LWM2M, you would find something that is called a new technical protocol specification.  It is abbreviated LWM2M which stands for Lightweight M2M – Machine to Machine the lighter way. What’s that all about? Why does it show up here and there already on Google? Continue reading

2013, a Further Year of Revolution in the M2M Business

The Machine-to-Machine industry is on its way to revolutionise the world. Every year, we are getting closer to the Internet of Things. The commercial potential is enormous. There will be more “machines” and “things” connected to controlling and managing applications than PCs and cellular phones combined. The forecasts for 2015-20 go into the double-digit billions of devices. The promises from M2M for “M2M consumers” are very interesting as they are often related to cost savings, particularly Opex, and better customer service. Where are we today and what’s next? Continue reading

Secret Sauce? Marketing Telco Network APIs To Developers

Telecoms network API exposure to software developers looks like a straightforward game in some cases and like an eternal struggle in others. The market opportunity is sized to be in the billions of dollars. Network operators are torn between going it alone, inspired by vertical ecosystems some Internet players were able to create and thereby following the mantra of differentiation, or teaming up with others for the sake of reach and economies of scale. Telefonica’s BlueVia has made some noise recently with Telenor joining the BlueVia initiative in Oct 2012. What’s happening in the industry? Continue reading

Will HTTP 2.0 Revolutionise Business and the Web?

HTTP 2.0? Ever heard before? It’s a new version of the HTTP protocol being worked on by Internet engineers, specifically now with major input in 2012 from Google and Microsoft. Every time you are browsing the Web, the chosen Internet address likely shows http:// in the address bar. Most likely this is HTTP version 1.1 in use. What sort of revolution is to be expected from the new version? When? What’s the innovation that’s supposed to come along with it? We shed some light on this. Continue reading

Software Developer Guidelines from the Mobile Telecoms Industry? Worth a Look

The first announcement came in Feb 2012, at the industry conference Mobile World Congress: The industry association GSMA has been working on software development guidelines for smartphone applications. This work is continuing. Does it mean that mobile network operators are now aiming at becoming software development consultancies? Not exactly.  There is a more significant rationale behind this. Continue reading

About REST and REST APIs on the Web and in Mobile Telecoms

There has been a lot of buzz in the mobile telecoms industry about a new era, characterised by the emergence of RESTful application programming interfaces (APIs). What is REST in the first place, where are we in the process, has it made a difference, why are RESTful APIs supposedly better than the ones which are not full of rest? Continue reading

In Memory of Greg Smith and Goldman Sachs

In case you missed this story, please visit the link to The New York Times article: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/14/opinion/why-i-am-leaving-goldman-sachs.html.
Greg Smith is leaving the investment bank after many years, revealing what the investment bankers do with their clients: nicely or not so nicely dealing with them and from time to time calling them “muppets” and more…,well, they stop short of eating them, of course. Nobody eats clients. Not even in fiction. Continue reading