Back to school means different things to different folks. Parents of smaller children worry about letting their little ones go while high school parents sense a certain relief having them out of the house. Students may relate it to shopping, reconnecting with friends or going back to the salt mine… Personally, thinking about the place where we learned our ABCs has me thinking about the alphabet soup of acronyms and jargon which badge-carrying telecom workers throw-about –and how the list has been updated over time.
Underpinning the growing repertoire of TLAs (Three Letter Acronyms) and extended TLAs (anything with more than three letters) is the rapid rate of technological change. You almost have to be careful with the jargon you use, lest it date you. 1FB, ISDN PRI, Centrex, ATM and the SONET OC stack are by-and-large quaint relics in the storied halls of telecom history. While it’s hard to predict how fast (or even whether) a new technology will take hold, it’s a truism that newer and faster technologies will inevitably replace their predecessors. While it’s tempting to pretend older technologies will be around indefinitely, there’s always a tipping point at which manufacturers will end-of-life and end-of-support a key piece of hardware or software. And, when entropy sets in and things start to break, scouring the after-market and eBay for spares is not ideal. Not to mention, newer and more efficient technologies tend to be cheaper and deliver a better customer experience.
When a CLEC decided it was time to upgrade their network to Ethernet technology, they soon realized their already busy internal resources could not conduct a network migration in parallel to running daily operations. CORE Network Strategies deployed a project team, migrated legacy infrastructure enabling them to decommission or consolidate legacy network gear. This reduced the need to support old equipment, streamlined operations and helped them realize material savings.
Ready for a refresh?
Customer migrations are a necessary evil to deliver a positive customer experience, minimize outages and optimize costs. Whether it’s a system migration where service images need to be moved to the latest B/OSS a product upgrade or a technology refresh, the long-term impacts of delay (resulting from churn and operational expenses) often outweigh the deferred costs.
LET’S TALK!
Back-office organizations have competing priorities vying for their time. It is tempting to leave well enough alone. We have been working in telecommunications for over 20 years with companies large and small. We would love to help you ensure your business remains on solid footing.
