ALERT – Internet is full! – Or is it?

Now that I have your attention, had to share this great discussion with you that I heard on Belgian radio a month ago … yes that’s right, Belgian! J … The News Reporter was talking about how the world was coming to an end because the Internet was full and an expert on the topic suggested that without drastic action businesses and consumers alike would start to see they were no longer able to connect to the internet or for new businesses even worse might not be able to establish a web presence at all!

What am I talking about? Every device that connects to the Internet requires an IP address, sort of like a unique identifier so as when communicating with web pages and other web based services the end point your computer is contacting knows where to send the data back to that you are requesting. At the moment we are hearing more about how the Domain registries no longer have IP addresses to allocate out to new businesses seeking to establish a presence, instead suggesting they establish a smaller web presence or speak to a provider about a managed service where they can bundle IP address space with other services.

So why is this an issue, well simply put when we accelerated into the big bad world of the internet, everybody thought we would have more than enough time to manage the growth of IP enabled end points. Today we all register onto the Net with a platform known as IPv4, which has a pre-determined set of IP addresses based on variants of 255.255.255.255. However the acceleration of businesses requiring visibility on the internet (because let’s face it, if you don’t have a web presence these days as a business, then don’t bother starting a business!), the number of worldwide users which have exploded over the years and last but not least the rapid expansion of IP enabled mobile devices and services all requiring IP address space in order to manage. So we can all acknowledge there has clearly been an enormous increase in the demand for IP address space, but are we really full?

Much like the early days of the Olympics when we were told that all tickets were sold you can see empty seats (I know this was quickly resolved – before anyone thinks this is an article on that happy topic!), similarly is it for the Internet. Although we are told internet addresses are all used up, we have to ask the question, if that were the case then how is it we are still seeing the growth of businesses and additional mobile devices being added? Well if you look behind the curtains you will see that although Domain Co-ordinators have run out of IP addresses to allocate – or nearly, there are a large number of Telecom, IT and even businesses that have kept a large number of IP addresses “in case they need them later” to support the expansion of their businesses. Hence in reality we still have a large number of IP addresses which if released back into the pool could allow the various organizations to manage the allocation in the most optimal way. Similar to the way airlines over book flights, if you don’t turn up to use your seat it will be allocated to someone else.

Of course those familiar with discussions around IP addresses will know that the industry has come up with a solution to the problem in the form of IPv6, which among greater functionality and flexibility will meet the growing needs of our increasingly digital world in the form of considerably more IP address space. However I would challenge the industry to look at other industries where the assumption of simply adding more capacity will solve the problems of accessibility and continue to cope with the growing demands of volume – which usually results in only accelerating the problem. Ultimately a different approach is required, as occurs with all growth industries, it can no longer be about simply adding more.

We need a new model which allocates IP addresses based on actual demand (i.e. active utilization), every single device doesn’t need its unique IP address merely those that are active. Because IP addresses do not have a price they normally are not viewed as an incremental cost by businesses acquiring them. Unlike all other aspects of infrastructure that a business would have to pay for IP addresses are not one of them, if a business had to pay for them then all of a sudden we would see a more efficient utilization. I am not suggesting here that we turn IP addresses into a profit item, but merely to derive a value and change the approach to how they are utilized.

Perhaps one way to approach this would be to have any revenue made from the sale of IP addresses to go to an Innovation Forum targeted at introducing new solutions which will enable businesses and consumers to realize the ongoing benefits of the Internet and how it can contribute to collaboration, innovation and knowledge sharing.  The Internet is one thing which connects us all, and will be a crucial vehicle for businesses and consumers alike to engage with each other, but we must give it the breathing room to continue to evolve and treat it like any other asset – Simple! … Right?

This blog is dedicated to a friend who likes to keep things simple – hopefully this is simple enough! J

Transform, Transition and Augmentation – Bingo

The other day I was cleaning out some of my old presentations which I have delivered through the years and something occurred to me, our business models have truly evolved! Yes I know, that is such a surprise and like welcome back to reality Nathan! However stay with me for a little longer, historically people would talk about transformation in order to achieve the results the business was looking for so as to adapt to long term business or market changes. Then we saw a growing trend to look at transition as businesses realized that transformation could lead to either greater costs or significant business disruption especially during increasing periods of change. Now we have entered into a new era as businesses seek to maximize their existing assets and avoid expensive rip and replace strategies in the current market environment where the only constant seems to be change, an era which I have defined as “Augmentation”.

When we talked about Transformation we would traditionally jump to outsourcing as a means of execution, I mean transforming your business on your own seemed near impossible, but by outsourcing key functions that were not core to your business allowed you to focus on managing the change with the outsourcing partner providing the people and systems support. outsourcing is still an option that people consider but increasingly less as they look to alternative options providing greater controls on costs.

Over time though we realized that transformation became more complicated and less likely to succeed due to rapid globalization, market changes and increasingly complex supply chain and customer engagements. As such it seemed a “partner” providing managed services was best suited, providing a degree of flexibility to increase predictability in your operational cost and target certain synergies in IT and communications platforms. Managed services saw a rapid growth in demand and similar to outsourcing, managed services continue to be in demand albeit reduced as businesses again look to new options for supporting fluctuating business change.

The current era of augmentation has been driven by the advent of cloud computing an opportunity for businesses to find services which are more flexible with their business needs but equally helps to maximize their existing investments.  cloud computing has not realized its full potential as yet, but new providers are helping business to realize the benefits of cloud computing through services which augment with existing platforms providing greater flexibility and scalability than previously seen.

What makes this whole evolution exciting is the waves of change are shortening, to clarify the window of opportunity for outsourcing companies has clearly passed, as has the peak of opportunity for managed service providers and now the question is how long will cloud based service providers last for. I am not saying that outsourcing and managed services will cease to exist, however they are no longer the only solution(s), but merely a part of, or provide a supporting role to the challenge businesses are looking for a solution to.

So we are no longer looking to transform, nor transition, but today it is about augmentation to maximize existing assets - which in the current environment no major surprises there. However before you nod your head feeling comfortable you are on the right track, we are awaiting the next wave which will be focused on Business Process Evolution or BPE. This will be achieved through the traditional two pillars of IT and communications finally merging through the common element of virtualization. Hence the title ... Bingo! Although this sounds like a technology puzzle game there is so much change that the key is to be able to adapt to change, anticipate it and recognize that traditional ways of working will no longer suffice. The resulting change however, will provide businesses an opportunity to redefine their business objectives first and foremost with a choice of partners to deliver on the ICT execution of those objectives.

I know many managers will read this and consider this a visionary story … however consider for a moment the diversity of software and next gen providers leveraging standard interfaces to bridge these two pillars of IT and Comm’s together. Their lack of legacy is allowing the acceleration of these types of solutions which will result in businesses focusing on business outcomes with an integrated IT and Comm’s platform that will scale with their changing business needs, no outsourcing or long term managed service required.

So what should you take away from this article? This is a message to all those feeling comfortable bobbing on those legacy waves, now is the time to start thinking about what is required to adapt to the next set of waves, because these waves of change are coming faster and if you don’t anticipate the coming changes someone else may end up deciding the future of your business for you. With that get your bingo cards ready because the next 12 months you are going to hear a lot about these accelerating waves of change and you will need to have the right attitude to survive and hopefully even succeed.