Take 5 with Craig Clausen

CEN Feature (Dec 1 2011) Take Five With

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   Craig Clausen is Executive Vice President and Principal Analyst at New Paradigm Resources Group, Inc. (NPRG). Since its founding in 1993, NPRG has monitored technology trends and market drivers shaping the telecommunications industry.  The company also publishes analytical reports and related research products, providing data, information and insights to assist clients in decision-making and market planning activities. CEN caught up with Craig for a quick Q&A and to get his take on the latest trends involving Carrier Ethernet.

    

   CEN: NPRG's tag line is "Examining the Disrupters Re-shaping the Communications Landscape" What has been disrupted recently and what has been Carrier Ethernet’s role in this process? 

   Craig: That’s a great question, because, in fact, if we look back just four years, it’s not an overstatement to say that everything has been disrupted and the fundamental ways in which we communicate have shifted dramatically, with voice communications waning in importance while electronic forms have moved into the forefront.  For example, we recently completed a downloadable report on Mobile Marketing and many are surprised to learn that texting in its current vibrant form has only been around for about five years. Yet, currently, we estimate that there are 7.5 billion texts sent each day.

   That’s a specific example of what we term a “communications disruption,” but there are others, as well. Social media tools are now in play and video is no longer considered a high-end service.  The expectation is that all current and future services have to be delivered to each and every end-user’s device, whether it’s a laptop or smart phone.  When you take all these changes in context, it shows just how drastically the communication world has been turned upside down. Of course, Carrier Ethernet is expected to not only keep up, but also drive ongoing development to deliver these services efficiently and be the fuel that sustains the fire, so to speak, especially on the wireless side dealing with the traffic deluge.

   CEN: NPRG recently published a research report on Next Generation Data Center Strategies for Service Providers. How do you foresee Carrier Ethernet being impacted by or contributing to the evolution of data centers?  

   Craig: Throughout the industry, Carrier Ethernet plays a critical role in sustaining trends and we’ve seen the rise and importance of data centers. They are becoming the heart of the network, much like central offices were seven or eight years ago. We see data centers overshadowing central offices in terms of importance in the near future. In effect, they will become the heart of the cloud and, much like the human body's arteries, Carrier Ethernet is the transport mechanism in this ecosystem and it needs to ensure data flow is regulated and maintained effectively and efficiently, and that the bandwidth can be expanded as needed to keep the network sustained.

   CEN: The lines that define the business for MSO's and Service Providers are fading, can you provide some insight on how you see things emerging. 

   Craig: We’ve tracked the cable industry from a broadband perspective for roughly 15 years. We've always understood that the cable and landline telecom providers come from two different worlds, yet the lines are blurring and each wants to - or perhaps has to - play in the other’s market. What we’ve seen lately is that MSOs are gaining a leg up on other providers in some regards. They have a growing infrastructure and possess a unique understanding of the importance of bandwidth delivery. Given their legacy, MSOs also tend to be more agile and have a more entrepreneurial spirit.

   MSOs are fast putting Carrier Ethernet as a central part of their strategy and deploying fiber is critical to their plans. While it can be an expensive proposition, they certainly are homing in on the lifeblood of the traditional carriers, which are their business users. Certainly, telcos have an infrastructure they are leveraging and emerging technologies are helping them to keep pace with the MSOs.  Ethernet-over-copper, for instance, has proven itself to be a very viable service and one that permits telcos to address mid-market bandwidth requirements without undertaking huge capital projects. The competition between these two sets of service providers is healthy for not only the industry, but our economy as a whole.

   CEN: NPRG has tracked the market for low latency services.  How important is this sector to the Carrier Ethernet services business?

   Craig: It’s going to be increasingly important. We started looking at low latency services in respect to financial applications, where executing a trade a millisecond faster brings a competitive edge. While recent demand for improvements in latency came from users who could measure the effects of lower latency in monetary terms, these lower latency services will percolate to other sets of users.  Carrier-grade Ethernet provide the platform for extending these services further.

   CEN: Do you have any hobbies or outside interests that reflect any similarities with Carrier Ethernet?

   Craig: My outside interests center around technology and, of course, my home life.  A project I took on this past year was to install Cat 5 cable throughout our house and then replace the phone jacks with Ethernet jacks in every room. Now we don’t have to rely exclusively on WiFi and we’ve got that pure Voice over IP. In effect, my home is all about Ethernet at this point and we couldn’t do without it. Of course, now I'd love to have symmetric and burstable bandwidth back to the cloud. Also, sometimes I wish my time or energy level was like a Carrier-grade Ethernet circuit – one that could be dialed up and expand as needed. In addressing life’s challenges, I'd like to turn it up when I need it and turn it down when I need to catch my breath.

   Final Thought

   Craig: As a trained economist, I view all these underlying technologies as allowing us to be more economically efficient in both our professional and personal lives. And, because we can track how much we rely and use these tools, people want to move to a “pay for what you use” model which goes hand in hand with Carrier Ethernet’s scalability in delivering the services that are driving us to be more productive and improving our time management skills. 

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