Hello Members,

i) A momentous week for us. We confirmed to the MEF leadership our MEF-Ethernet Academy Partnership http://lnkd.in/b8ZCJMm, the first ever. Also, we became Layer 123’s first ever “Community Partner”, http://lnkd.in/bxKUWXP.

So two pivotal milestones for the Group and for each of you. It is my hope that every member will take pride in this achievement, and take the time to benefit from these partnerships, while contributing to the advancement of our industry as a whole.

ii) As a reminder, complete recordings of the ONF (Open Networking Foundations) Workshop from the SDN OpenFlow APAC Congress are now viewable here http://www.layer123.com/sdn-apac-onf-webcast/. So, please do take the time to take advantage of this, and feel free to share your opinions and comments on the thread here http://lnkd.in/bxCJnQR.

iii) Talking of SDN, how would the world look if we had software-defined networking control M2M (machine-to-machine) communication? That’s enough to make my mind spin! But, don’t despair, you have a chance to learn more about the Internet-of-Things at the Internet-of-Things World in Silicon Valley *next week* (June 18-19), which I reminded you about here http://lnkd.in/bNWAXBB. In that post, you will find a short listing of the key sessions, and get a glimpse of the breadth and scope of this event.

Clearly, with a value of $19 Trillion in the next few years, this isn’t your mama’s Internet, and with drones now approved by the US government, M2M will take on a new meaning. So, this is one pie you’ll want to take a bite out of. 🙂 (And, with Medtronics’s plans to implant a chip in each of us, http://bit.ly/SSrGqU, who knows you may even soon be part of the M2M eco-system!)

iv) In other news this week:

— Bo Gowan’s post and John Hawkin’s question bring up some good points http://lnkd.in/dRbkuBH. Ethernet’s growing year-on-year, but prices are declining continuously – what does that mean for sustainability and profitability?
Is that what you’re seeing in your part of the world? Why? What do you think is the reason? And, what can the industry do to turn this around?
(Maybe your want a piece of the $19 Trillion pie above, before you can start chewing on this question :-)).

— Ray Sharma’s post on how the German football team will be getting match insights and analytics via SAP’s software, is actually a hint of a massive underlying deeper trend that is soon to sweep our industry – analytics (combine that with big data, and you have a new challenge).
How can operators, especially Carrier Ethernet providers, use analytics? How could that be used to enhance services for enterprises? What are your thoughts? Share them here http://lnkd.in/byYin3h.

— Seems it was a week of announcements, with some distributed NFV POC’s in the works http://lnkd.in/bpX6JUp (thanks Nir Cohen), vendors like Ciena making new product announcements http://lnkd.in/dPYkxce (thanks Ray Le Maistre), and cable operators like COX getting CE 2.0 savvy http://lnkd.in/dCRRPGx (thanks Mark Lemm).

v) Finally, don’t forget the Ethernet network synchronization webinar on June 19th, Thursday, by our member Michael Bangert, here http://bit.ly/1oVZcc9.

Looking forward to your participation in the Group, and hope every one of you will take advantage of the new partnerships, and of the learning and insights you can gain here.

I encourage you to utilize your membership in the Group by your active participation and contribution, and, in that process, expand yourself professionally while also contributing to strengthening our industry!

And, feel free to write to me with your thoughts and/or ideas at any time at v.sharma@ieee.org or via LinkedIn.

Let’s continue to make this a Group where we have “All the CE Without the BS (TM)!”

As always, until next time, may the bits in your bytes and the bytes in your packets be profitable!

Best wishes,
Vishal