Posts Tagged ‘DPI’

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The End of the Internet as we know it: Streaming Live – the Super Bowl!

Wednesday, December 21st, 2011 by Cam Cullen

Yesterday, the NFL announced that it would be streaming the Super Bowl live to iPads, Verizon mobile phones and the NBC/NFL websites. In my mind, this marks a significant moment in the annals of streaming video as the potential turning point in the transition from traditional delayed broadcast video to live streaming. Sure, there have been plenty of live streams across the Internet (and not just pirated streams of sports events!). In fact, the NFL streams games every week and the past two Olympics have been streamed online. The NFL claims that 20,000-30,000 viewers watch their regular Sunday night streams, compared to 21,000,000 viewers of the broadcast version. However, the Super Bowl was watched by 111,000,000 viewers last year. NBC has upped the ante by promising excusive content and analysis for the streaming version, which is likely to result in people having both the streaming and broadcast versions active in their household at the same time – the big consumer most likely will be the iPad version.

 Why is this significant for the Internet? 

1)   The NFL and NBC have confidence in their ability to stream content to millions of simultaneous consumers around the world. Although the NFL is not a worldwide sport like soccer (football to the rest of the world!), people watch the Super Bowl worldwide. If this goes well, expect the World Cup final to get the same treatment in 2014.

2)   Broadband networks are expected to be able to handle the streaming load (To Be Determined!) across millions of subscribers. I expect broadband operators to be scrambling to ensure that their peering links with the CDN for this event is up to the task.

3)   The CDN delivering the live streaming is confident that it is up to the task for a live event. This is not a case where you can pre-position content to meet the expected demand.

4)   Latency issues between the live telecast and the streaming event are expected to be minimal. This one is interesting to me as I have seen many cases where a score is reported via Twitter before it happens on my TV screen – for many sports.

If this event succeeds and the NFL is able to claim that they are the first to stream such a significant event live, it will start a rush towards content owners for live events to monetize their properties. It will also potentially signal an aggravation of the problem for broadband operators, as it will give new meaning to “peak” hours.  Peak will now be whenever the event occurs – and not during the standard peak hour times. Some broadband networks will struggle with network congestion in this scenario, so it will be interesting to see which operators can deliver high-quality streams during this event.

Here at Procera, we have been seeing stress building on the Intelligent Policy Enforcement infrastructure; live video streaming will add a new dimension to it. In addition to the bandwidth stress, I would expect to see services pop up in this area – like zero-rated streaming, priority streaming (for a fee) – all of which will not only stress the infrastructure, but also the management and OSS layer for policy management and charging. With live events, this will be an even more acute problem for PCRF/PCEF/OCS/OFCS systems, as the sessions will start within a very short time, creating almost a “network outage”-type flood on the network.

We will be watching this event very closely. Stay tuned for our report after the event.

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“Do you want Facebook with that?”: The Challenges of Personalized Charging

Tuesday, December 6th, 2011 by Cam Cullen

The challenges of personalized charging or charging based on applications have generated a lot of discussion lately.  The key challenge in any type of service like this is the proper setting of expectations with the customer. There have been a few examples to date of mobile operators attempting to offer prioritized services (mainly gaming) or “enablement” services (i.e., Pay $5 and we will let you use Skype on our mobile broadband.), but application or even site-based charging will require even more techniques. Many GGSNs in the past have offered limited zero-rating capabilities for ringtone downloads, system updates, etc., based on IP addresses or a small number of URLs. There are many cases of IPE systems being used for charging today; however, many of them are volume- or time-based charging to offload existing charging systems, or were installed for future application-based charging use cases.

On the other hand, “application-based” charging or even “site-based” charging in today’s Internet environment brings all new challenges to the table. The biggest challenge is that the user experience on a site is very different than it used to be. Facebook, for example, is now also a container for YouTube videos, ads, games, and chat. YouTube can serve up videos in formats other than flash video for Apple devices.  To determine this the operator needs to understand the user experience, and will need to use tools from an IPE to ensure that the user experience is matched through the proper application of signatures, policies, and charging models.

Operators looking to offer new charging models need tools to ensure that the service that they offer matches the user expectations for a site. Operators need the ability to look at a customer’s connectivity in real-time to troubleshoot billing discrepancies, much less to test service ideas in their labs. They need systems that can use properties of applications or sites – for example, the ability to key off the referrer field in http. They need to be able to log user connections to specific sites to have forensic details for value-based or zero-rated charging. They need quickly updated signatures when new versions of applications come out, and the ability to retroactively zero-rate traffic (unknown or incorrectly identified) if a signature changes and is identified as incorrect.

Beyond the features required, another huge challenge for personalized charging looms – signaling load. This is potentially the biggest scaling challenge, and needs to be architected carefully from the beginning. When a user initially accesses the network, the network must be provisioned with the correct service plan for that user, which can require interaction between multiple systems for each service that the customer has purchased. If architected correctly, signaling load can be minimized, and only refreshed as necessary; but, this can also operate on an on-demand basis, which would cause transactions every time a new piece of content is accessed. The IPE, PCRF, and OCS/OFCS systems need to support tens of thousands of sessions per second in a mobile network of any size, and support for less than that will result in severe limitations for any operator that wants to offer mass market personalized charging plans. On the PCRF/OCS side, a new class of product (diameter routers) is designed to allow network signaling to scale. But, on the IPE front, the IPE solutions will need to scale independently, since they are doing both the heavy lifting for charging as well as the reporting.

Personalized charging is one of the most intriguing new services for broadband operators, but will require a system that can adapt rapidly to service changes and can be adjusted in real-time by the operator. It will need to scale on multiple fronts without losing performance or functionality, and certainly without losing accuracy – both for billing and for application identification.

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BBTM in London – The Buffet Is Closed!

Thursday, November 17th, 2011 by Jon Linden

I just got back from London and Informa’s third annual global Broadband Traffic Management (BBTM) conference, and guess what, the buffet is closed! Not the actual buffet at the conference, which in spite today’s state of the global economy, was bigger and tastier than ever – great job Royal Garden Hotel! No, I’m talking about the “all you can eat” broadband offering that used to be standard, that has become rare, and that was predicted dead in the coming year or two.

I love the crowded and intimate exhibition and networking area at BBTM where competitors and partners rub shoulders as they work hard to convince operator representatives about the uniqueness of their products. What I love even more, is when there’s an opportunity to debate hot topics with an audience.

So, I was full of expectation as I walked over to the Kensington Suite fifteen minutes ahead of the session to grab a seat at the podium. Soon I was joined by my fellow panelists from Mu (operator in UAE), Belgacom, Sandvine, Allot and Tekelec; and last but not least, our moderator for the day, Steven Hartley from Ovum.

The topic for the day was “Can Operators Manage the Transition Away From Unlimited Plans While Keeping Customers Happy?”, and the unanimous verdict was that unlimited “all you can eat” broadband offerings are doomed due to the disconnect between the income and the cost of producing them. But what will come in its place, and what are things to consider as operators head in this direction? Let me summarize my favorite parts of the panel discussion for those of you who didn’t have the opportunity to attend on-site:

  • The key is to package and communicate offers that are understandable. We’ve made bandwidth (speed) and volume (caps) industry standard for service tiers. Both of which are insanely bad – they’re introvert (cost-based), tech terms, and we can’t even guarantee a firm speed but a “best effort up to” number. And they’re not common knowledge since the majority of the population is not a computer engineer and familiar with gigabytes and gigabits – and they don’t understand the difference – which means that we must waste energy educating them. And we, the specialists, can’t even answer the most basic question, “what can I do with 5 Mbps that I can’t do with 2?”
  • Instead you should sell value-based offers. The difference in tiers should present a clear value to the customer. By making the benefits understandable and measurable, you manage expectation – and disappointment is always a question of expectation.
  • For example, if you use Facebook 90% of the time, you will be a happy customer if you have a perceived good user-experience when using Facebook, i.e. 90% of the time you use the service. And you will not have high expectations for the other 10% since that’s not what you primarily pay for. You might even be happily surprised just by the fact that it works. User experience is not a question of size, or speed in this case, just like restaurants don’t promote the size of the meal on the á la carte menu.
  • 3UK, who offer an unlimited data plan, attended the session from row one. I love what 3UK do because it’s extremely easy to understand – unlimited data traffic on your smartphone. As a consumer I find this very appealing. Anyone can understand this. But it’s an example of an “unlimited with restrictions” since it’s tied to one specific device.
  • This is also a good example of the constant change operators must embrace. The border between smartphones and computers will disappear, and the smartphone will be as bandwidth consuming as a laptop. By then the package must be redefined. But that’s fine. You will not package the eternal service package anymore since there are variables you can’t control. The “youth package” might push Facebook today, Spotify six months from now, and an application not yet developed in a year.
  • This makes the soft values like customer loyalty and a strong brand extremely crucial. You must create an Apple-like experience and relationship with your customers. The customers are probably Apple’s best sales team, and they associated themselves so much with the product that it becomes a lifestyle. In the broadband world this would be a service that the customer perceives as “good for his purposes”, at the right price, and he’ll actively argue for why he picked this service when talking to his friends.
  • Another Apple (for Apple) comparison is their ability to sell customers more and more Apple products – iPhone, MacBook, iPad and an AppleTV – that are interconnected. This is how you should sell services to your customers. And it’s also applicable to these specific Apple products since consumers don’t want an individual plan for each of the four, five IP-based devices they carry around. The plan might even extend itself to a group – a family, a company or a soccer team.

Even though we as consumers consider restriction to unlimited as something bad, I think that we all understand that there must be an underlying business rational. The quality of the buffet is rarely as good as the á la carte, or we would eat at the buffet all the time. As we change to accommodate today’s conditions, we might as well adjust so that it becomes understandable – even for laymen – and measurable so it can meet our expectations.

Time for lunch. The buffet is served. Enjoy it while you can!

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SCTE 2011: “Wow this stuff is Powerful”

Thursday, November 17th, 2011 by John DeLangie

As I get ready to leave SCTE 2011 in Atlanta, I am struck by the diverse collection of vendors ranging from custom tools, outside plant equipment companies and RF video enablement to IP video, high-speed IP transport vendors and Intelligent Policy Enforcement all focused on providing products and services to the Cable industry.

This years SCTE Expo Technology Spotlight “is focused on next generation video architecture and associated technologies that will be required and the challenges of adapting content from increasingly more diverse sources to increasingly more diverse devices, many of which are untethered.”  Sound familiar?  As the explosive demand for online content and the mobile device adoption continues at a record pace the need for high performance and scalable Intelligent Policy Enforcement solutions that provide accurate business analytics continues to expand.

The recent launch of Procera’s game changing PacketLogic Report Studio has been met with excitement and interest from current customers as well as prospects and even some competitors who have flocked to the booth to see the PacketLogic solution demo and the PacketLogic Report Studio’s powerful reports first hand.  It’s been an action packed few days filled with customer meetings and compelling product demos.  I can’t count how many times I’ve heard the words “Wow this stuff is powerful”.

The PacketLogic Report Studio Business-ready Analytics solution enhances business intelligence analytics with custom visualizations making it easy to move from data to insight to action, and to provide all key stakeholders with the actionable information they need. It provides a holistic view of customer experience in a format that can be read and comprehended seamlessly as well as performs predictive intelligence analysis.   Report Studio can help MSOs understand the impacts OTT video, social media networking, online gaming, network congestion as well as device usage.

As we are wrapping up another successful conference and Expo you can be sure to see Procera at next year’s conference and many more as our continuing commitment to the Cable market is as strong as ever.

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PacketLogic Report Studio: Information is Cheap, Lack of Knowledge is Expensive

Monday, November 14th, 2011 by Cam Cullen

I was reading an interview with George Dyson, and during the interview, he made a comment that really caught my attention. He was speaking of the volumes of data that many people have to deal with, and his comment was “Information is cheap, meaning is expensive”. The comment resonated for me, as it encapsulated the headline of a new product from Procera called PacketLogicTM Report Studio.

Two of the biggest challenges that network operators face is 1) information overload, and 2) lack of relevant information. There are plenty of Internet trends reports that can tell you what is happening on networks around the world, but NONE of them tell you what is really happening on your network. Most Intelligent Policy Enforcement solutions can generate many canned reports, and even place them on pretty web pages, but they are all statically configured templates and reports. Most network operators can tell you down to the byte how much traffic is on their network, but that information does not allow you to plan new service offerings. It can also mislead you into thinking that you need to add more capacity to your network, but it may be that the excess bandwidth is being taken up by applications that you should not spend money to enable.

A perfect example of this is the recent push for “Facebook for Free” plans. This is a great marketing plan, as it resonates with the “hyper-connected” crowd. However, in studies that we have done in North America, operators considering Facebook for Free plans should know that Facebook sites have 5x the number of connections AND incoming traffic and users spend as much as 10x active time on Facebook in a day than the next most popular site. For a fixed line operator, this is probably not a big issue. For a mobile operator, it means that the subscriber will be connected for a far longer time to their network (dramatically increasing the attach percentage for the subscriber), and using almost as much bandwidth as streaming video sites. Although this still may be a great service offering, the operator needs to be able to evaluate the business and technical issues with this service specific to their business model – based on the ACTUAL devices, locations, and service plans that they have in use in their network (not a canned report based on industry averages).

PacketLogic Report Studio is a leap forward in that it allows operators to easily create these reports with the fine-grained information that is available to them with the PacketLogic Solution. I recently contributed an article to Wireless Week at http://www.wirelessweek.com/Articles/2011/11/Technology-Darwinism-Goes-Mobile-Wireless-Networks/, and the concluding line for the report sums up nicely what I think the issue for network operators is going forward.

“Mobile operators that lack this knowledge will struggle to launch new services. They will become followers, not industry leaders. In a market where only the strong survive and the rest of the players are consumed, not using business-ready network intelligence will put a mobile operator at risk of being the modern day equivalent of the dodo.”

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Social Media Networking and Video Optimization – Show me the money!!!

Tuesday, October 4th, 2011 by Hiran Thacker

What is the first thing you look out for when you wake up in the morning? Yes, it’s your smartphone or your tablet!!! I do too. To check Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ updates, any new photos or videos tagged on Facebook, and of course email (not necessarily in that order).  It’s a way of life to be connected 24×7 in real time checking stock quotes, sports scores, playing angry birds online or even who won the Oscars or who walked with whom on the red carpet when you are on the road or getting bored in a meeting.  All made possible because of your smart devices. Well all that is passé, with real time video streaming, you can even catch up on your favorite TV shows, movies, real time world events and news streaming whichever part of the world you are in.

Social media networking has fired up Internet traffic as well as viewership of content that, and that has already had a significant impact on Internet growth. U.S. Web surfers spent 53.5 billion minutes on Facebook in May 2011, according to Nielsen’s third-quarter report on the state of social media. Rich media has become a dominant form of content integrating social media networking (tagging of digital content like pictures and videos posted) with online video streaming driving video growth as well. By 2012 Online Video will capture over half of consumer Internet traffic. Online video streaming sites like Netflix (predominantly in North America, but spreading worldwide slowly), Hulu, YouTube, are extensively accessed globally for news, sporting events, entertainment, movies, television shows, home videos, etc. Explosion in data traffic due to early adoption of 4G/LTE and 3G in emerging markets globally adds to critical challenge of monitoring subscribers’ online video streaming which many a times causes unnecessary bandwidth consumption.

Content Monetization

Service providers, mobile network operators and universities face the unprecedented challenge of keeping up with the demand of increasing bandwidth usage required for high resolution content, but without the traffic contributing to any return on investment or new revenue streams. Currently, broadband operators do not receive any incremental revenue from the deluge of video streaming traffic, even though they are spending heavily to support the growth of that traffic, keeping Quality of Experience high, but attempting to keep operating expenses low.  Online streaming sites delivering television and movies are blamed for causing a decline in revenue to cable MSOs.

However, when online video QoE suffers, subscribers often look to their service providers to improve performance—even when the network isn’t to blame for degraded quality of experience.  How do the operators make money from OTT video apps???  One option is to generate new revenue streams based on quantifying the QoE per device, per network location, duration of video content accessed and implementation of adaptive bit rate technologies.  This will provide a new opportunity for operators to introduce tiered charging plans for applications accessed based on the Quality of Service promised and offer subscriber usage patterns to content providers and advertisers. According to a recent CIMI survey content monetization was earmarked as the top revenue generation priority for network operators globally in 2011.

Enhancing the User Experience

IPE technology analyzes the applications running over the broadband network, empowering the operator to offer optimized video content delivery as well as to increase the efficiency of the network resources. Video trans-rating and bit rate buffer throttling can then easily be implemented, both of which positively enhance the user experience without degrading the quality of the video stream, but delivering tremendous cost and bandwidth savings to the operator. Bit rate throttling for example, estimates the video content in the buffer of the device and enables sharing of bandwidth of concurrent video sessions more effectively, and ensures that if the user terminates the video prematurely, the buffered content is not wasted.

Procera’s Packetlogic Intelligent Policy Enforcement enables a rich array of policies for downloading and streaming video to be identified and enforced within the operator’s network, identify and manage different kinds of applications/protocols accessed using content awareness, ensuring optimal performance of the network for all subscribers as well as enhanced user experience created by real time network analytics and easy to use dashboards. The ability to manage bandwidth at a granular level, and a deep classification of real-time content, enables operators to provide application-based offload as well as create unique and differentiated services.

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Time To Celebrate!

Friday, September 23rd, 2011 by Jon Linden

10 years!?! I won’t say it feels like yesterday, because a lot of hard work has gone into it, but it doesn’t feel like it’s been 10 years since we launched the very first edition of PacketLogic. I suppose that means we’ve had a lot of fun on the way.

The not so glamorous introduction took place at the NetworksTelecom trade show in Stockholm, September 24, 2001, in a 10×10 booth with a projector and a bowl of candy. I think few, besides us staffing the booth, thought they were looking at what was to become the world’s leading intelligent policy enforcer that several Tier-1 operators rely on for creating and delivering better broadband services to their customers.

“If it can do half of what you say, then I can sell it” was my bold answer when asked if I could bring PacketLogic to market. Already at the time PacketLogic exceeded expectations, and I had to stand by my promise.

So we brought it to market, we broke new ground, we created a brand new product segment, we redefined that segment, and we were selling to small reference accounts to eventually gain credibility with larger customers – every step taught us something new. All this time and all these activities have made us experts in our field. Procera has, no doubt, the highest concentration of experience and knowledge in intelligent networking to be found anywhere in the world. This makes me very proud of what we’ve achieved, and it’s evidence to what can be accomplished through focus on doing what you do best.

One of my mentors once taught me that “giving is getting”. We, Procera, get a lot of input, feedback and ideas from our customers, and we get it by giving them a lot in return. We’ve made “being customer centric” a mission instead of a cliché. And our biggest gift has always been a better and an ever-improving product that is properly designed with relevant features that scale with customer requirements. Technical excellence has become our trademark.

This is why we feel secure in our strong position in the intelligent networking space. Many have tried to replicate us or catch up, and many have failed. It’s not easy to make up for ten years of product development and customer interaction. The future looks bright as there are so many potential applications for how to use our state-of-the-art technology. I’m very excited about my new role as Chief Strategy Officer where I get the luxury to focus on Procera’s long-term strategy and what vendors, resellers, integrators and customers to partner with.

I would like to extend a great big thank you to our customers, partners and investors who have believed in us, worked with us, and stuck with us over the years. April 21 of this year was a big day for us, we were invited to ring the Opening Bell at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). This was probably the best possible recognition of what we’ve accomplished since five guys were sitting in a terrible office hacking away on their keyboards 10 years ago. But I’m looking at this recognition as great half-time entertainment as we kick off a new phase of the company.

I’m glad that we still have two founders, Alexander and Peter, with me in the company as we celebrate this anniversary. We’ll certainly celebrate, and we invite you all to join us. I promise to address you again in ten years with a new Procera snapshot and a reminder of how time flies. It probably won’t be in a written blog since it’ll be long gone dead and replaced by some other cool online service. Some cool service that I don’t know today what it’ll be, but I’m sure we’ll be among the first to know since we keep our ear to the ground, and our customers tells us what’s happening. So, cheers and hurray! Happy 10 year anniversary Procera!

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Procera Network’s World IPv6 Day Report

Friday, June 10th, 2011 by Cam Cullen

Procera participated with a number of our customers in the World IPv6 day, which occurred on 8 June 2011. World IPv6 Day was a global-scale test flight of IPv6 sponsored by the Internet Society. The primary goal of the event was to motivate organizations across the industry — Internet service providers, hardware makers, operating system vendors and web companies — to prepare their networks and associated IP services for IPv6 connectivity and to ensure a successful transition as IPv4 address space runs out. Many web companies and other industry players enabled IPv6 on their main websites for a 24 hour period (and many will maintain their IPv6 presence going forward.

Procera has been monitoring IPv6 deployments for some of our customers for months, and have been watching the trends on IPv6 networks in anticipation of this event. There has been a steady (although low volume) amount of IPv6 traffic on most consumer broadband networks for quite a long time, namely driven by the ability of applications like uTorrent to utilize IPv6 over Teredo (if the OS supports IPv6) to improve the ability of the application to hide from detection and complicate tracking.

We have put together a report on the happenings and some conclusions on what we witnessed on World IPv6 Day, and as a peek at the report, here are the highlights:

World IPv6 Day Highlights:

  • World IPv6 day did not spike the total volume of IPv6 traffic overall, but more native IPv6 traffic was active on consumer broadband networks
  • Native IPv6 users were most likely to browse the web or consume streaming video
  • Google properties experienced the most traffic on consumer broadband networks, driven mainly by streaming video traffic.
  • Netflix over IPv6 also made appearances across North America
  • Teredo traffic still overwhelms native IPv6 on consumer broadband networks
  • Peer-to-Peer File sharing is still the most common application running on IPv6 (using Teredo tunnelling)

Although World IPv6 Day can be considered a success in that it demonstrated that IPv6 content is available and present, the infrastructure and consumer push to IPv6 still has a long way to go. Until IPv6 becomes the default mode of operation, and something that consumers do not have to seek out on their own initiative, it is likely that IPv6 will remain a niche protocol in consumer broadband networks. However, service providers and content providers that participated have shown that IPv6 is viable, and a massive, world-wide concerted effort went into priming these networks to operate using IPv6 for the first time, and once the consumer, device, and network side of the problem is addressed, the content providers appear to be ready to deliver.

The World IPv6 Day Report can be found here:
World IPv6 Day Report – A Look at IPv6 Trends

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Taking PacketLogic to School…

Tuesday, March 29th, 2011 by Cam Cullen

Over the past twelve months, Procera has experienced great successes in the Higher Education market across the globe. Although there are a number of contributing factors to this achievement, a few reasons have really begun to stand out in our minds as to why we have been so successful in this space.

Higher Education institutions around the world have quickly realized that their networks are a critical component in their success, ensuring that the bandwidth is managed properly and that the students have access to the resources that they need to succeed in the classroom is critical. The cost of this bandwidth can quickly spiral out of control, as students will use every bit of available bandwidth – “Just because it is there”. Since all applications do not have the same performance or latency requirements from the network, it makes sense to ensure that real-time applications (VOIP, conferencing, video, etc.) have the necessary bandwidth needed to operate effectively, and congestion on the Internet link is very common. The available bandwidth to universities has dramatically increased over the past few years, to the point where many require not just 1Gbps of network performance, but even up to 10Gbps of capacity of traffic management, and they have outgrown their existing traffic management solutions.

In the United States, there is even a mandate called the Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) that instructs Higher Education institutions to take action to help control illegal file sharing. Procera has helped many higher education institutions comply with the HEOA by helping them effectively combat the unauthorized distribution of copyrighted materials by allowing them to control the use of file sharing technologies on their network – typically a huge contributor to network congestion and bandwidth usage. It has also saved many University CIOs from receiving letters from the MPAA and RIAA about the copyright violations occurring on their network, not to mention helped pare back their overhead by reducing the number of DMCA take-down notices they receive

From our perspective, Higher Education institutions are the breeding ground for new and exciting applications. Being installed in as many of these networks as possible keeps us at the forefront of application trends, as we have seen the use of streaming video, social networking applications, and VOIP/IM applications from around the world skyrocket in these environments, and they continue to keep our signature database ahead of competitors that do not have the same exposure and responsiveness to the Higher Education customer base. We have also benefited from these customers’ deployments as they are often more sophisticated in their use of policies to control bandwidth than even some service providers, so they give PacketLogic a good workout and ensure that our solutions maintain performance and visibility under even heavy loads. We have also experienced good feedback on our implementations of IPv6, which are becoming more and more critical to research universities and international consortiums, as IPv6 has become more prevalent on Internet2 links. We strongly believe that IPv6 will become more critical to networks around the world, and are working to provide the leading IPv6-aware traffic management solution on the market.

Besides, how can you have an “Intelligent” enforcement solution without going to school every once in awhile? We learn something new every day at Procera, and it is often our education customers that teach us that lesson.

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Cloudy with a Chance of Internet Showers

Monday, March 14th, 2011 by Cam Cullen

The Cloud” has been a hot topic in the technology space for some time now, with the term becoming so mainline that many companies are using it as a tagline in mainstream advertising (ala Microsoft with their “To the cloud!” campaign). With “The Cloud”, the thinking goes; I can just have my data readily available for access, regardless of my device, location, or access technology. I can always access my pictures (everyone certainly wants to see my pictures of my family vacation!), my documents or spreadsheets, check my balance in my checking account, and my contact database.

Great idea! But what if the cloud is not accessible? Or your access to the cloud is so bad that it might as well be offline?

The concept of the cloud is a great security blanket. It’s like never having to worry about leaving your keys locked in your car or forgetting your wallet when you need it the most. Information is always available, and you can call it up on a moment’s notice. I had a personal experience with the beauty of the cloud this weekend, when I was in New York City that kind of drove home how expectations have changed with respect to access to the Internet. I took the train to NYC, using the on-board Wi-Fi to do work during the ride. I was, you see, trying to access the cloud so that I could have access to salesforce.com, as welI as participate in an online chat conference with some colleagues. I decided on the train as my mode of transport due to the availability of Internet Access and planned to get work done on the train ride. However, the connection was so bad and overloaded, that getting any online work done became impossible. However, the cloud did not fail me completely, as I also have an Android phone, and I can use that phone as a mobile hotspot, which since it supports an HSPA connection, is highly effective in emergency cases, and I was able to complete what I needed to get done (although just barely in a few cases, as occasionally I would drop into 3G or even EDGE areas where access slowed to a crawl.

I have seen and heard of many cases of consumers behaving in a business role (think travelers or telecommuters) that have suffered due to their connectivity and as a result, their companies and businesses have suffered. I know that many companies would be willing (even eager) if they could pay HIGHER amounts for broadband access for some of their employees to ensure that the latest sales forecasts, material orders, or even POs could be placed. Or in the case that I described above, to use more data in emergency cases and pay a bundled daily usage charge (or a reduced rate data package). If I am tethering my phone to my PC, some of the mobile data packages available today are woefully inadequate for even a single day’s work and email (It feels as if I get 1G of data in just email alone some days, much less add web browsing where some pages are 1MB alone – I am looking at you Yahoo with your front page), and a 250MB per month allowance is not sufficient.

Even in the US, where a lot of attention is being paid to tiered services and usage-based pricing models, allowances are made for “managed” services. More options should exist for data plans targeted towards mobile business professionals, as since the bills for these services are subsidized by corporations, the user is not acting as a consumer when they purchase the plan. I have always believed that even flat rate access can be tiered, and I know that if my company could pay to make sure that I had better access for my business traffic as part of my service plan they would be willing to. For example:

  • Prioritize my VPN traffic (even if it requires IP address destination-based rules)
  • Prioritize traffic to SF.com
  • Prioritize IM (which is critical for me to communicate quickly, succinctly, and cheaply with colleagues around the world)
  • Prioritize email access to my corporate server
  • Prioritize access to my file drop-box service (which I sometimes need to use to transfer large presentations, documents, or software versions).
  • And maybe most importantly – GIVE ME A BETTER RATE FOR ROAMING DATA!

Although I would use more bandwidth in the above case, this is offset by a willingness to pay more for this access on an ongoing basis (or as the last point makes, on a per usage basis for roaming). Roaming access to the cloud is completely unacceptable (especially overseas), as often just opening up email exceeds the $50 limit that is set in most countries for user notification.

As broadband providers are consistently looking for ways to generate more revenue, I suggest looking to the business user and offering us plans that would enhance our Quality of Experience – not just with quality access to the internet, but also quality of billing experience. Many users are very willing to pay more for access, and the opportunity is there for you to take advantage of that by offering plans that deliver.

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