Preparing for Cisco Live! in San Diego

Posted: June 8th, 2012 | Author: Leila Heijola | Filed under: Events | Tags: , , , , , | 1 Comment »

As we look forward to the upcoming summer holidays, we remain busier than ever here at Comptel.  Just in the coming week, we have a flurry of activity planned including preparing for our annual Comptel User Group in Copenhagen and sending a team of Comptelians to the other side of the globe for Cisco Live! in San Diego.

With the aim of helping our customers deliver innovative lifestyle services flexibly and economically, we’ll be showcasing some key products at Cisco Live! that do just that. Focusing on Cisco Intelligent Automation for Cloud (CIAC ) and the Virtualised Multi-tenant Data Center (VMDC), attendees can come to Comptel’s booth (#444) and see the Comptel Virtualisation Charging Solution for Cloud – developed to align and support both technologies.

Since I cannot attend Cisco Live!, I really envy all of the attendees who have a wonderful opportunity to see the world famous Mythbusters Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman on stage. In addition to the show happenings, there are also several opportunities to network with peers during extracurricular activities. Hope to get some live footage from San Diego!


Comptel Prepares for Cisco Live! in London

Posted: January 27th, 2012 | Author: Leila Heijola | Filed under: Events | Tags: , , , , | No Comments »

Next week, the Comptel team is again heading to Cisco Live! in London, and we expect cloud to be a popular point of discussion at the show. Cloud services offer great revenue potential for communications service providers (CSPs), but harnessing that potential requires a comprehensive platform dedicated to a very different kind of business.

Our staff will be on hand to demonstrate how the Comptel Virtualization Charging Solution (VCS) for Cloud is tailored toward this new business model. It re-uses many of Comptel’s existing mediation and charging components that are already deployed with various CSPs worldwide, and enables them to create advanced and flexible charging models in a cloud context (e.g. Software-as-a-Service, Infrastructure-as-a-Service and Storage-as-a-Service).

The VCS acts as the mediation layer between a CSP’s cloud environment and billing system by collecting usage statistics of virtual machines managed via e.g. Vcenter, Xen or Hper-V, and then processing network bandwidth data from e.g. Nexus routers and rating the data according to active subscriptions, and finally delivering rated items for billing-based specified time intervals. We like to call this “concept to cash”.

If you’d like to talk with us about cloud services’ impact on BSS/OSS, how CSPs can best manage their network assets for managing cloud services and our VCS solution, come to the Comptel booth (#E3)—you’ll find us just next to the Cisco Industrial Network Solutions demo area. (Some of the demo areas have less technical names such as Bloodhound—unrelated to K-9s, Bloodhound SSC is the ultimate land speed record car!)

One other fun fact: After Cisco Live! in London is complete, the conference venue, ExCeL London, will play a big role in the 2012 Summer Olympics and Paralympics, serving as the host to seven and six events (or 80 and 74 medals) respectively. As my peer Andrew Gavin wrote during the FIFA World Cup in 2010, the network infrastructure must have greater capacity than those of previous sporting events based on the anticipated increase in traffic demand. This will be key to ensuring a high customer experience for the global audience the Olympics will bring to London. Cisco will be supplying the routing, switching, firewalls and IP telephony to approximately 100 venues across the U.K. to support the summer games, and they will be showcasing that during Cisco Live.

We hope to see you at the event!


Viva Las Vegas! Comptel Goes to Cisco Live!

Posted: July 12th, 2011 | Author: Leila Heijola | Filed under: Events | Tags: , , , , | No Comments »

Comptel is attending Cisco Live!, taking place 10-14 July in Las Vegas. In 2010, our partner’s U.S. event had 12,700 registrants; this year, Cisco is expecting to have more IT and communications professionals travel to Las Vegas (four of which will be from Comptel) than ever before.

For those of us not attending the actual show, we can always follow the event virtually. In 2010, the virtual event had more than 4000 visitors—it will be interesting to see if these figures will surpass those of last year as well.

Whether in Las Vegas or in front of their computers, attendees can choose from more than 500 technical sessions or attend several keynote sessions, the first of which CEO John Chambers will lead today. Then tomorrow, two dynamic ladies, CTO Padmasree Warrior and CIO Rebecca Jacoby, will take the stage and give their views on Cisco’s technology vision, including the impact on Cisco’s IT and business strategy.

Comptel is exhibiting (booth #2080—next to the Cisco Live! Lounge), and is available to demonstrate our fulfillment and cloud chargeback (based on Comptel Convergent Mediation) solutions, which are key to our Cisco partnership.

If Cisco Live!’s technical sessions, keynotes or World of Solutions expo hall, as well as the event’s evening entertainment, are not enough, and you are not keen on gambling, why not dive with the sharks! Dive-certified Mandalay Bay guests will now have the opportunity to scuba dive in the 1.3 million gallon, 22-foot deep Shipwreck Exhibit, surrounded by sharks, rays, sawfish, green sea turtles and schools of fish. Viva Las Vegas!


Cisco Live! London, 31 January to 3 February

Posted: January 31st, 2011 | Author: Leila Heijola | Filed under: Events | Tags: , , , | 2 Comments »

I am attending the Cisco Live! event in London this week. For the first time in three years, the event is organised in London rather than Barcelona. Upon my arrival to ICC London ExCel today to set up our booth and demos, I found that the venue is showcasing Cisco’s technology and offering the “ultimate venue experience” by running on top of Cisco Catalyst® 6500 series, which supports data, wireless local area network, VoIP and IPTV services.

Some interesting things to note about the event as it gets underway:

  • This year’s World of Solutions Expo has more than 100 exhibitors registered—compared to 64 last year and 53 in 2009. There should be a lot more traffic in the exhibition hall—even before the show starts.
  • It is expected that nearly 4,000 IT professionals will attend this year’s Cisco Live! from 31 January to 3 February, along with 2,000 participating virtually.
  • Cisco Live! is featuring hundreds of workshops—from breakout sessions to networking activities—relating to communications networks and service providers. And Cisco’s CEO John Chambers will present the keynote speech Tuesday morning.

Comptel is exhibiting (booth #E31) and demonstrating our fulfillment and cloud chargeback (based on Comptel Convergent Mediation) solutions, which are key to our Cisco partnership.