VoIPWatch

What's Next for Wireless?

The wireless industry is constantly evolving. Every year, we see new technologies and trends emerge that have the potential to change the landscape of wireless forever. So, what's next for wireless? Here's what to watch:

1. eSIMs: Embedded SIM (eSIM) cards are the next generation of SIM cards. Unlike traditional SIM cards, which are physical cards that must be inserted into a device, eSIMs are embedded into devices and can be activated remotely. This means that users will no longer have to physically swap out their SIM cards when they want to change carriers. Instead, they'll be able to simply activate or deactivate their eSIM with their carrier of choice. This technology is already being used in some smartphones and smartwatches, and it's expected to become more prevalent in the coming year.

2. GIGS out of Germany, but with venture funding from around the globe, is building a platform to enable any business to offer eSIM & SIM enabled phone plans of any size on any network globally. Businesses can launch their own mobile service and monetize their audience, unlocking recurring revenue streams,

3. Helium: Helium is a new network architecture powered by the Helium Blockchain, The People’s Network represents a paradigm shift for decentralized wireless infrastructure. 

With all this going on the wireless industry is always changing, and 2023 is shaping up to be no different. We're already seeing new technologies emerging that have the potential to change the way we use wireless forever. So, what's next for wireless? Only time will tell!

 

 

All You Need to Know About eSIMs

Perhaps you've heard of eSIMs but aren't quite sure what they are or how they work. With all the traveling I've been doing lately, eSIMs have become more and more helpful, with the added benefit  that you won't lose a physical SIM. For me, I"ve got Verizon, T-Mobile and Google Fi active on various devices, all with eSIMs, which makes activating any of them when I'm back home, or roaming, really easy.

An eSIM is a "virtual" SIM card that is embedded in your device and can be activated without having to use a physical SIM card. This means that you can have multiple phone numbers on one device and switch between them as needed. iPhones, iPads, Google Pixel phones and other Android devices now offer the eSIM option, and if your smartphone or tablet is eSIM ready it's time to seriously think of making the switch.

eSIMs are becoming increasingly popular, particularly in the business world. That's because they offer a number of advantages over traditional SIM cards, including the ability to easily swap between service providers, add multiple phone numbers to one device, and save space by not having to carry around a physical SIM card that can get lost, or simply stop working.

If you're considering making the switch to an eSIM, then this blog post is for you. Here, we'll give you a rundown of everything you need to know about eSIMs, from how they work to the benefits they offer.

How do eSIMs Work?

An eSIM is a digital SIM that is built into your device. This means that you don't need to use a physical SIM card in order to activate it. When you want to change service providers or add a new phone number, all you need to do is scan a QR code or enter in a few details online—there's no need to go through the hassle of getting a new SIM card cut.

One of the advantages of having an eSIM is that it makes it very easy to change service providers. For example, let's say you're traveling overseas and want to use a local carrier in order to avoid roaming charges. With an eSIM, all you need to do is purchase a local data plan and activate it on your device—no need to go through the hassle of getting a new physical SIM card by leaving your hotel, finding a shop, and hoping you have the right ID to activate service.

Another advantage of eSIMs is that they allow you to have multiple phone numbers on one device. This can be useful if you want to keep your personal and professional life separate, or if you're traveling internationally and want to have a local number for each country you're visiting.

Finally, eSIMs offer the benefit of saving space as there's no need for a physical SIM card. And as more and more devices start to come with eSIM support built-in, it's likely that we'll see even more devices ditching the physical SIM card altogether in favor of an all-digital solution.

Benefits of using an eSIM

There are several benefits that come with using an eSIM instead of a physical SIM card. These include: ・The ability to easily change service providers ・The ability to add multiple phone numbers on one device ・The ability save space by not having to carry around a physical SIM card ・Better security as there's no need to worry about losing or damaging your SIM card ・Easier activation as there's no need to go through the process of getting a new SIM card cut

eSIMs are becoming increasingly popular due in part to the many benefits they offer over traditional physical SIM cards. If you're considering making the switch, then be sure to keep this information in mind. And if you have any questions about how eSIMs work or whether they're right for you, then don't hesitate to reach out—I'm always happy to help!

5G Delays May Be Good News. Here's Why

As we live through the new normal we need to reassess our plans. And when it comes to 5G there's a lot of room for reassessment. Here's why.

Already we're seeing reports that due to Covid-19 and impact on people and the economy globally, 5G rollouts may be slowed down. While the 5G conspiracy theorists will revel in the pause button being hit, that's not why this is good news. It's good news because all the plans for 5G rollout had to do with where people, and their mobile devices were, not where they are today and likely where they will more often be in the future.

Much like where fiber is being deployed, not where it's needed now, 5G was largely planned to go where the densest levels of usage were or where coverage gaps that needed filling were. Now with more work from home, schooling at home and just everything happening (or not happening) at home, the need to look at coverage maps, deployment schedules and locations of cell towers and micro-cells all changes. 

The tower companies and telcos though are not like small PT boats that can quickly turn in the sea. They operate more like battleships and destroyers. That means they don't shift around very easily, very well or most importantly, very quickly.

Lots of research went into where 5G is going to be deployed. Then there's securing the towers, erecting new ones, getting local approval, all before the merger of T-Mobile and Sprint throws a big monkey wrench as swaps of towers and the agreements that are already in place need to change hands and more.

 

 

In effect, the hitting the pause button allows the biggest enemy of a deployment, time, to reset. Now with new data being collected from LTE/4G usage, traffic patterns and online usage of cable, fiber and DSL connections, the telcos can rethink where they put 5G and when. 

This is important as more data keeps coming out everyday that working from home isn't any longer an aberration, but really the harbinger of things to come. By having the time to sift through the new data, the telcos can now move their uninstalled gear, and RAN (radio access networks) efforts to where the people are, not where they used to be.

Sure the business sectors and commercial corridors will need 5G, but with traffic counts way down, and people shopping more and more online, having groceries delivered and more, the rush to make sure the commercially dense areas are covered isn't any longer as important. Home is. That's where 5G needs to be.

SMS Short Codes Can Come Up Short

SMS has become a way many users communicate and in lots of use cases, such as multi-factor authentication, it becomes the way various businesses and services validate you to use another mode of communications, like a mobile app. Unfortunately, just as how Robocalling has infected our telephone world, where calls come in looking like they're from your neighbor when they're from someone impersonating Apple, Microsoft, the IRS or the Social Security Administration, SMS Short Codes, that are administered by the CTIA, have also fallen victim to SMS Spam.

And, when your bank, or airline's SMS supplier is caught having SPAM traffic coming through to one of the MNOs (Mobile Network Operators), unlike with robocalling where the calls keep coming, the MNOs simply turn off access to the offending supplier, and with it, all the traffic from legitimate SMS platforms stops too. And with it, they, and their customers who are already enrolled in a Text Marketing program for information, as a means to authenticate and communicate, get turned off too.

As a result, SMS Short Codes, are coming up short, and will likely be the next target for the FCC to tackle, after Shaken/Stir has had its day. The reason is customers and businesses rely on the messaging platform to deliver the good. And when they don't, without warning, problems can arise. The FCC is there to serve the public's interest, and to protect the licensees and operators too so don't be surprised if they tackle this growing problem too.

Want to Tango? Say Hello to the EVNO

We've all heard of the MVNO, the acronym for a mobile virtual network operator. They took a while to take off, and have had their ups and downs all over the globe. In some markets they have done well, in others not so well, and in the end, any have either shut down or simply been acquired as alternative brands for the established mobile network operators (MNO's).

Others like former client Truphone have morphed into a Global Mobile Network Operator (GMNO), combining core network access with global roaming and local numbers. GoogleFi operates similarly, but because it is so tightly woven to the Google core network and services it is really more of a single connectivity plane to all that is Google and the Internet. Nowhere is this more evident than on Google's own Android based Pixel smartphones. But, when you take a broader look at what both Google Fi and Truphone have done so far, they really have set the stage for the rise of a new category, the EVNO-the enterprise virtual network operator.

Recently Tango Networks announced their Kinetic Cloud Mobile X, something the company describes as the "first communications service that creates a private mobile network exclusively controlled by an enterprise for maximizing the productivity of its distributed workforce." If that doesn't have all the makings of an EVNO, I don't know what does.

Tango Networks is providing the enterprise market with total control from mobile and WiFi access to policy and full UCaaS functions, something pal Dean Bubley, the London based futurist and analyst says is "an early example of a wider trend." Beyond Tango, Bubley is expecting to see "continued convergence of MVNOs with enterprise comms and UCaaS, enabled by technologies such as eSIM and cloud-based mobile core networks."

From an enterprise perspective the mobility manager, or IT mobile lead, can now define the mobile experience for their entire staff, and even others who need to be connected to their core communications system using Tango's Kinetic Communications Platform. This goes well beyond simply providing calling, connectivity and access, as what  is doing is more akin to concepts like federation by allowing those who actually need access, even third parties related to the enterprise to have access, and even then, only permitting them do what they are permitted to do. That's a lot like sharing a file from Google G Suite inside and outside the company, as the platform makes voice, text, video and more accessible across the entire enterprise and just as reachable by their ecosystem partners.

While Truphone and Fi, start first with the SIM, Tango ends with that. The SIM, or eSIM at some point, is merely the key to the network lock, including over any form of mobile wireless or Wi-Fi for authentication. What makes this so very interesting is what Tango has done with the core UCaaS system, making the SBC the real traffic cop, and the softswitch more than just a glorified call director by moving the call control functionality from the mobile operator inside, to the enterprise itself.

Taken on face, this may seem immaterial, but have you ever tried to transfer a call from one mobile phone to another? It's almost impossible unless you're running the call over a data connection and have a UCaaS provider in the middle. That's a lot like what GoogleVoice does, and it's really basic stuff.

But in the Tango environment, they've made it is as easy as it is on a desk phone because the call control is inside the enterprise network's UCaaS system, making the mobile wireless network (or WiFi) no different than a cord or cable does for the handset on the office network.

This change to how Tango handles calls means even when a user is on a legacy 1XRTT network like Verizon's or Sprint's in the USA, the functions still work as if they were in their offica as Tango's native mobile network policy enforcement tools that have been embedded inside the Tier 1 carriers for going on a decade allow the phone to be a true extension to the UCaaS system. Granted, there may be some differences in how the service behaves depending on user device configurations and support for SIM connectivity, but the Mobile UC and policy enforcement tools work everywhere, with more fuctionality on 3G and 4G/LTE, all based upon the patented Tango technology.

In essence, each enterprise customer becomes their own mobile operator. This happens because Tango keeps the Kinetic Cloud Mobile-X radio and device agnostic, and operates just like Google Fi or Truphone, serving as a global MVNO with multiple carrier connectivity. This gives the enterprise the ability to route calls, messaging and data as well as apply local country numbering using the UCaaS switch and SBC by using the rules that have been established within the enterprise call control platform.

That's all why I'm calling Tango's Kinetic Cloud the first of its kind EVNO!!!

The Duck Text (Test) and How Banks Fail

A long time ago, in a land called Vonage, a customer's babysitter tried to call 911 and the call didn't reach the police. That and other incidents like that are from an era the growing business communications company would like to forget.

But just like Skype In and Out are as much like a real phone line to many, and as more cable companies have migrated from POTS lines to VoIP service,  we always said during the hey day era of VoIP that the "duck test" is the dividing line. For those who don't know what the duck test is, the old adage goes "if it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it's a duck."

Well in today's communications environment if it looks like a call it is a call. So why isn't a text, that is sent like a text and arrives like a text,  a text? You would think it was. Well that's not exactly true, especially if you're a IT person at a bank. 

I first discovered this a few years ago when Chase, one of the USA's leading banks wouldn't send a verification text to my Google Voice number which is tied back to Bandwidth, one of the larger providers of telephone numbers to the telecom community. Over time, other banks including Citibank and Wells Fargo have also followed suit, under the (ir)rationale belief that Bandwidth or Voxbone supply numbers that are all VoIP numbers, and that all VoIP numbers are used by fraudsters.

This is a disturbing trend, when a telephone number, that is linked to a paid account (in my case GSuite) vs. a free disposable account (i.e. Gmail only) is not considered a verifiable number.

From a consumer's perspective, a number is a number, or as in the Vonage case, the FCC eventually ruled that all VoIP providers needed to be compliant with reaching the Public Service Access Points (PSAPs). Today almost all of them are. For texting, companies like Bandwidth are far ahead of the banks when it comes to fraud detection, as are almost all of the VoIP providers as they are the first inch of telco fraud and for years have been putting in place ways to prevent it.

Things like Stir/Shaken are the first step, but as time goes on, we're going to need smarter banks, not dumber approaches to not harm the customer who is smarter. 

Side note-in many ways the banks "tone deafness" towards modern day SMS reminds me of their insistances of using Internet Explorer for online banking on a Mac-after it stopped working on the Apple computer or 12 years ago when asked about Vishing and their replies -- "oh what's that?" or " we don't want to discuss that" type of answers. Sometime customers do know more than them, as do the companies like Voxbone and Bandwidth that are on the front lines.

More on this after IT Expo!!

 

Amazon, Apple and Google Steal The Show at CES

The enemy of my enemy is my friend, and this week's CES is clearly showing how what was once the way companies did business, has changed, and at the same time, what's old is new again and companies who once fought with each other are finding new ways to be allies. For example, Apple stopped licensing in 1997. Now they're redefining licensing by making it easier for anyone to access their iTunes platform. That's called distribution. What's next? Letting anyone make an iPhone-I think NOT.

Taken on face so far, it's clear Apple, Google and Amazon are dominating CES. News about assistants being deployed by multiple brands, new features and uses of the AI backed functionality and most of all iTunes ending up on Samsung, Vizio, and other smart TV brands. That and pure word play on the famed "what goes on in Vegas, stays in Vegas" line tied to your privacy.

Looking more closely, neither Amazon, Apple nor Google has really introduced any new products themselves. No new iPhones or MacBooks. No new Homes, Hubs, Mini's or Pixelbooks and no new Echos were introduced. But all three are dominating the news and over time, your wallets directly and indirectly. In everyway possible, they have mastered the hardware channel at this year's CES and at the same time proved that "software really is eating the world."

But what about all the news about them you say?

Well, its all indeed smoke and mirrors, with the media jumping on the names of Apple, Amazon, and Google when in reality what we have is a roll-out of services. Yes, those same services Tim Cook talked about is what caused the ill-informed stock market types to think Apple was a bad stock to hold onto, who misunderstand Google's real motivations, and who have yet to really see Amazon for what they are.

Apple wants to be the brand you will always trust. Their single billboard in Las Vegas is all about keeping what's your's, your's. It's also the premium brand. It's Bentley and Ferrari. Everyone else is Mercedes Benz and Chevy. They want iTunes to be the lure to keep you an Apple user. By aligning with the TV brands, they are skipping ahead of Spotify, Amazon Music, and Pandora.  Musicians love Apple. The labels work with Apple. The motion picture and television industry co-exist with Apple. Pretty much everyone trusts Apple, and this week, Apple reminded everyone why.

Google wants to make it as easy as talking to collect as much information about you so you can have a better, and less expensive, but still, have an elegant ride. Android is their Mercury, their messenger and the Google Cloud is their playground.  For Google, it's all about developing and deploying services. Hardware is their razor. The services are the blades. Google now has more razor manufacturers than anyone all lining up to be their blades' retailers. 

Amazon is for every day. It's the shopping center, file cabinet, and switchboard. Amazon is Walmart's biggest fear. They sell Apple. Google. Samsung. Jeff Bezos is the most prominent arms merchant in the world and never has to fire a single shot. Amazon hardware is the Colt .45's of every man. But if you want a Sig (Google) or a Glock (Apple) he'll find a way to deliver one to you. 

All the interest around voice interfaces is really about the death of the keyboard and the calculator. Just as we traded our landlines for smartphones and our calculators for digital spreadsheets, we're being migratory. Like the birds which fly south for the winter, we're leaving one nest for another. Instead of typing we merely talk. 

But what's also interesting is how all three are avoiding being social media platforms. Instead, they have all chosen to leave that for Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.  That's smart thinking as the big three are really all about the customer. Consumer or enterprise. Social media is all about the interaction between people who in theory are friends (or not), and a means to amplify, extol and pontificate.

Who do I see as winners from CES?

1. Zapier-without question the more cloud-based services with open API's based on REST come to market, the more Zaps get created, the more opportunities Zapier has.
2. IFTTT-where Zapier has taken a cloud and software focus, IFTTT takes the hardware world and connects it to services. Both are able to be used with Google's Home Hub and Alexa, and not as much with Apple (yet).
3. Google as Gmail, Calendar, Tasks, Apps integrate with more smart assistants but comes with a caveat. Google need to connect the Assistant to their business accounts soon as you can already do that with Alexa and Echos. I consider this like the way SMS was a decade ago. It wasn't interoperable with every operator. Then one day, it was. Like that, so will Home Hub and G Suite for business start working.
4. Amazon - someone has to sell all the new hardware, and they've proven they are the best (place) to buy beating out Best Buy, Costco and eBay sellers for new, more because they deliver and this year literally will be.
5. Qualcomm and Intel-their chips are everywhere. NVidia and MediaTek too. But for these four the looming 5G is where their chips really start to be cashed in.

Oh, how 2019 is going to be an exciting year as friends, foes, allies alike dance with one another, while still looking to stick the knife in their rivals backs.

But with all the hoopla, one question has to be looming in everyone's mind.

Where have you gone, John Legere?

Why I Love My $79 Amazon Fire HD Tablet

I don't usually buy cheap. As a matter of fact, that's about as far from my behavior in tech gear as people who have known me will tell you. I've always bought (or overbought) the latest and greatest Apple gear. I would dive in and buy whatever was newest in Android, usually from Samsung, then OnePlus (I still do buy their gear for Android). I would almost always buy a Pixel from Google.

The rationale was simple, those brands build the best of the best, so paying more for it, meant I had the best. But when it comes to tablets, I haven't rushed out to buy a new iPad, as my iPad Pro 9.6 does all that I need. It's still is as fast as any iPad on the market, runs the apps I use, and can be my companion at dinner or when on the plane. But it's got one problem. Even at 10" with the case, it's just too big for me sometimes to tote around.

The iPad Mini is a better device for that, but price and performance wise, it's not justifiable anymore. It doesn't have the fastest processor, and it's not really a phone, even if I can add all the VoIP and Conferencing apps I use.  Even at $399 for a Wi-Fi only iPad Mini 4, it's over 4 times the cost of a tricked out; case carried, keyboard enhanced Amazon Fire HD 8.

But there's something else that has had me fall in love with the Amazon Fire HD 8. It's the audio and video quality when I cast to any Chromecast HD in the house.  It's fuller, richer and more robust than my iPad. Hands down. That and the facts that it's also so small and light and if it's damaged or stolen, I've lost all of $100 (case, keyboard included).

It's become my go-to jukebox to send music to my 4-year-old Samsung 43" SmartTV, and my two less than a year old TCL Roku 65" or 55" Toshiba Amazon Fire TV's that dot the house in different rooms. Each has Google Chromecast's or Android TVs, and even some have built-in Chromecast themselves. Video streams flawlessly. Audio hits the highs and lows, and by choosing the best quality, it's delivering the audio as good as any mobile device can.

When I take it with me on the go, I can tether to either my OnePlus 6T or iPhone 7. It connects quickly to Wi-Fi, and when I need to, I can always latch on to a Boingo powered hotspot.

Amazon's private label program for hardware doesn't end with the HD Fire for me. I also needed a soundbar to connect to my TV. While it's not the best on the market, it sure is good enough to do what I need, and priced at under $75.00 it sure fills the living room, enhancing the audio enough to keep me happy.

Here's the bottom line. Amazon's line of gear is value priced. Yes, you have trade-offs, but for where we've gone tech wise we don't need to buy only Apple to have what we need.

 

 

The CES Ramp Up

If you're a techie, a gadgeteer or an electronics junkie or simply someone who enjoys entertainment gear, CES is where the action is every January. It starts next week, and already, the ramp up is happening.

So next week, as the publicity machines crank up there will be lots of news surrounding what some will call "the next big thing," but in reality, it's not what's on the floor that's big. It's CES that is the "big thing" as it takes over the entire city of Las Vegas. It's where every brand fights for attention and where every attendee fights for a cab ride.

Already, rumors are floating around about this being the big show for Google (I disagree as I/O, and Next are where Google shows off). Apple never really does anything at CES except walk the floors, and Amazon, which has Re: Invent every November only needs to be there to support licensees. 

The mother of all trade shows is for the mega brands and the want to be brands to generate "heat" around their newest products. That's why CES has morphed into so much more than just "consumer electronics" and is why FoodTech, SportsTech, AutoTech, GreenTech, SeniorTech and BizTech are all there. CES creates new markets, builds awareness and is where the exhibiting companies are selling in.

And CES is about just that. SELLING IN. It is not about selling through. CES is where new products are seen, where meetings are held and where orders get written.

In many cases, the hype around the new products is so early that consumers salivate for the next big thing. It used to be TV and Stereo gear, but now it's about smart devices, smart homes, smart kitchen appliances-seriously, does anyone want dumb anything? 

This year marks the third year I'm skipping CES because, in this era of instant journalism, you can know all that's going on in more places more quickly by just using Google.

And that's why for Google, CES is really a big deal.

What's Ahead in 2019-AI, More Video, Better Customer Experiences

There is no question that AI and video are going to be more widely deployed in 2019, and beyond. You don't need to be a Gartner Analyst to be seeing and hearing what's ahead. As a matter of fact, as direct to customer approaches are more and more en vogue in every industry, not just in consumer products, all you need to be is on the mailing list of brands with a history of anticipating the future to know what they're focusing on next. 

Take Twilio. I'm on their mailing list as I have an account. I don't make much use of it, more to "play" and experiment with simple "consumer" level integrations with Zapier and IFTTT. However, what that gets me is their developer and marketing newsletters, and allows me to know "what's possible." That's why today when I received their post-Christmas drip campaign email from Twilio,  I took a look to see what they were up to.

Today's newsletter took the form of a series of short, well-penned announcements about a few new functions which over the past month the CPaaS (communications platform as a service) company has been rolling out. The marketer in me liked the breezy, as it was designed to have the reader click through for me. I liked the way it was presented and the topics, so I bit and clicked.

First is the network video quality API.

This is a function that anyone building group video calling or video conferencing would be interested in, as too often the network connectivity isn't up to carrying a solid video call. While the API today is built for the video calling supplier, the plan is to roll out an SDK to build the reporting into iOS and Android apps. That way the end user can see how good or how bad their connection is, and how well the conversation session will be.

 

The second item in the drip campaign was Twilio's approach to building Facebook Messenger's Chat bot via Autopilot, Twilio's beta AI platform offers what they say is a "declarative API" that also offers "NLU and ML to parse data, intent, and tasks from customer interactions out of the box." In a nutshell Twilio is connecting Messenger Chatbots to other services, starting with SMS, but there's no reason they can't interconnect to Slack or other messaging based services too.

Here's my take:

1. Twilio is using Facebook's universe of connected people to gain as much knowledge as fast as they can about people. The level of interactions, the size of the addressable audience using Messenger and the already text first nature of the participants, is a massive number. This experimental stage deployment helps Twilio build up an extensive lexicon, understand behavior and go from testbed to commercialization with data.
   
   
2. The Video Network Quality API is a trojan horse. What service provider doesn't want to be able to know how good or bad their delivery is to the person on the other end of the line, and be able to not take ownership of the problem by being able to say "oh it's not us, it's your _________" to the customer. Twilio will then be able to forge alliances and offer better solutions to those providers.

Given that I'm predicting that in 2019 we'll see many more brands embrace the idea of in-app AI, voice and video all as standard functions enabled by using WebRTC (ala what Uber is already doing) Twilo's message was well timed as it hit on all of those AI, Voice and Video.

With LTE becoming more ubiquitous and less congested, especially as 5G comes along, in the session path, voice and video in-app will no longer be a nice to have. Those features will be a must, as AI, location services and data science all take center stage with the idea of better customer service, product design (UI/UX) and customer experience (CX).

This likely adoption direction by companies large and small means Twilio's service, and that from the competition, will drive app enterprise decision makers and app developers to build a better service both for the deskbound, as well as the mobile-first worker. To do that means smarter tools, and these two are all about intelligence, not simply connecting the call.

Clearly Twilio won't be alone in offering tools like these even if they are just today in beta stage. Companies like Nexmo, Telesign (owned by Belgian giant BICS), client SignalWire and others will all be in the mix, carving out their own areas of specialty in the AI and video markets next year.

Look for apps like food delivery, medical, counseling, consulting, all to begin to go in-app vs. out of app as the tools to build and to manage, as well as to be more automated come on stream as we have only scratched the surface so far. Most of all, look for the contact centers and call centers to brace AI and Video, as calls move from chat, to voice to a face to face session, all within the app and the call.

The Rise and Fall of A Cloud Leader

Diane Greene at Google wasn't doing a bad job at all. As a matter of fact, she was leading the massive business, Google Cloud, and taking it in the right direction. But being second fiddle to Google Ad sales and then having to navigate around something new from Google every month is no easy task. The Google Graveyard is full of other so called failures, some of which were good ideas but not successful.

However, it was made harder by the internal competition between divisions and personal agendas of each divisional CEO. So when Google became Alphabet, and each company had to start to account for their usage of Google services and infrastructure vs. it all coming out of a shared pool, internecine rivalry and priorities had to take hold.

Google Cloud is every bit as good, or better than Azure or AWS. However, the difference is that at both Microsoft and Amazon their clouds are a priority, and a core part of their marketing and sales efforts. They don't fight against their cloud sales effort, they embrace it and make it something that everyone is aware of and actively supporting. For both companies, the route to the Enterprise starts now with the cloud as evidenced by MSFT's push of Office365 before they mounted a big drive for channel partners to sell Azure.

Google has a built-in Cloud customer base. It's every user of anything Google, and that starts with GSuite, YouTube and YouTubeTV. Those categories present a variety of sales and marketing opportunities to sell Cloud and cross-sell other Google services, and that includes using Ads as a loss leader. So while reports are that some of that was starting to happen, it couldn't happen soon enough.

At the start of the year, I presented concepts like that to the rep selling Google Next to me for a client. I proposed a series of cross-collateralized marketing promotion ideas that would have been of value to Google and my client. So while viewed by the rep as what was needed to make the event great, Google's Cloud team came back with basically a vanilla proposal, not for lack of interest but due to a lack of internal capacity to make things happen.

That's what's likely did in Diane Greene. Not what she and her team wanted to do, but what the company prevents from happening due to the way the business is structured, and how the corporaticians can win out over the bold and the brave.