Bell Labs Launches Consulting Division to Advise Industry on Path to Network of 2020

By Bell Labs On Mar 27, 2015

Bell Labs, the industrial research arm of Alcatel-Lucent, announces the launch of a discrete consulting division that is committed to apply deep, thoughtful analysis, hands-on experience and sophisticated techo-economic modelling tools to some of the key challenges facing the IT and communications networking industry today.

By combining economic acumen and deep technical expertise, particularly in new networking domains, Bell Labs is uniquely positioned to support service provider and vertical customers as they define their future network evolutions and strategies. In the next five years the technology industry will need to re-think how they build, deploy, and operate their network, while making the right technology and market decisions to thrive in the future and avoid being mired in a legacy past.

According to Bell Labs Consulting, analysis massive increases in overall network traffic and the types of devices connecting to the network will require new, innovative thinking and bold business plans. Some of these predictions include:

• Metro Video traffic will increase 9x by 2020.
• Data center and cloud will increase metro traffic by 6x by 2020.
• Global demand for content on mobile devices will drive 31x traffic growth by 2020; 56 percent of which will be covered by Wi-Fi.
• SDN can lead to 10X reduction in time to bring new sites onboard in enterprise communications networks.

The new Bell Labs Consulting group brings together a multi-disciplinary team of Bell Labs scientists, technologists, modelers and services and solutions experts to perform objective analyses and to provide actionable insights and recommendations, with expertise  in a wide-range of technical fields including: SDN, NFV, cloud, wireless, fixed access, optical networking and IP routing, new revenue models, and optimized operations as well as ‘vertical’ industries ranging from defense communications and private-sector networking to utilities and railways.

In addition to these baseline challenges, Bell Labs Consulting will also specialize in work surrounding five key transformational areas of focus:

• The Emergence of the New Enterprise
• The Rise of the Machine
• The Confluence of Networks
• The Move to the Edge Cloud
• The Era of Cognitive Operations

“Our industry is undergoing a transformational shift as we enter a new era, driven by thedigitization and connection of everything and everyone, and build converged networks that capable of handling the diverse and dynamic demand patterns,”  said Marcus Weldon, president of Bell Labs. “For customers this transformation from a physical to a complete digital delivery infrastructure for the future can be a minefield to navigate, in terms of understanding the right economic models, the key technologies, how they work together to create new solution capabilities, and the relative priority they should have in order to optimize the TCO and drive growth and profitability.  Our intent is to provide the decision framework, and the set of key innovations and sequencing of adoption that will help ensure they not only survive but prosper well into in the future.”

Bell Labs has appointed Cassidy Shield as the Managing Partner of the Bell Labs Consulting group. Cassidy most recently led marketing for Alcatel-Lucent’s software business, has held various General Management & Strategy roles with a focus on Broadband and Mobile Value Added Services, and previously worked as a consultant at Cap Gemini and PriceWaterhouseCoopers.

Related Articles: