Bell Labs launches consulting division, sets focus on SDN, cloud, IP routing trends

Alcatel-Lucent's (NYSE: ALU) Bell Labs unit has launched a new consulting division that it says will focus on advising the IT and broader communications networking industry as it prepares to deal with upcoming network challenges that will emerge in the year 2020.

A key focus of the consulting division is to help enterprises and service providers rethink how they build, deploy and operate their networks, with an eye on how they can take advantage of technologies that can help them break ties with the limitations of the legacy past.

Heading up the group will be Alcatel-Lucent's own Cassidy Shield, who will serve as managing partner. Shield most recently led marketing for Alcatel-Lucent's software business. He also worked as a consultant at Cap Gemini and PriceWaterhouseCoopers.

There are a number of main trends that Bell Labs Consulting analysis has cited that will affect these entities.

The division forecast that metro video traffic will increase nine-fold by 2020, data center and cloud will increase metro traffic six-fold, and global demand for content on mobile devices will drive traffic growth 31-fold, with 56 percent covered by Wi-Fi. At the same time, SDN will help service providers and enterprises see a ten-fold reduction in time to bring new sites onboard in enterprise communications networks.

This new group will consist of a multi-disciplinary team of scientists, technologists, modelers and services and system experts with expertise in a range of technical fields. These fields will include: 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, Bell Labs Consulting will 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 and the Era of Cognitive Operations.

For more:
- see the release

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