Johna Til Johnson: Eye on the Carriers

About those 'Net capacity issues: There's more

Johna Till Johnson — 2008-12-04T00:00:00Z

A little over a year ago, my colleagues and I modeled current and projected Internet capacity and anticipated demand to see if the curves ever crossed. The short answer: Yes, sometime before 2012, access (though not core) capacity would no longer be enough to serve demand.

What's an ISP? (That's not a trick question)

Johna Till Johnson — 2008-11-24T00:00:00Z

As President-elect Barack Obama begins fleshing out his agenda, one promising sign is that he considers Internet infrastructure to be key, judging from both his stated goals and the caliber of people he's asking to advise him on policy.

Communications personalities: Vive la difference!

Johna Till Johnson — 2008-11-20T00:00:00Z

One of my favorite advertising campaigns is the one from HSBC that spotlights how differently people can view the same things. You've probably seen it: Two photos side by side, each with a comment — then the same two photos, comments reversed.

Service-level agreements no longer enough

Johna Till Johnson — 2008-11-13T00:00:00Z

Longtime readers know I’m a fanatic about service-level agreements. I regularly advise clients about SLA best practices, negotiation and enforcement strategies. And we talk often about how to develop service-level management and monitoring infrastructure that ensures that carriers live up to their promises.

Tales of the multitasking mind

Johna Till Johnson — 2008-11-04T00:00:00Z

I've been thinking a lot about multitasking lately. Well, actually, I've been thinking about multitasking in 10-second segments, sandwiched in between replying to one of the several instant messages on my screen, writing this column, wrapping up a statistical analysis, and answering the door for the Mexican food delivery.

Ways to recession-proof your WAN

Johna Till Johnson — 2008-10-30T00:00:00Z

When it comes to the overall economic situation, there’s good news and bad news. The good news is that the economic crisis shows all signs of subsiding into a garden-variety recession, rather than spiraling into a catastrophic crash. The bad news? Even a garden-variety recession can be pretty grim. Unless you're in one of those rare industries that thrives in recessions, that means it's batten-down-the-hatches time. In anticipation of the grimness, here are some tips for keeping your WAN spending under control.

Young workers today are fundamentally different? Nonsense.

Johna Till Johnson — 2008-10-22T00:00:00Z

It's trendy these days to describe the so-called "millennial" generation as somehow fundamentally different, especially in their almost instinctive use of technology.

A glimpse of the (networked) future

Johna Till Johnson — 2008-10-15T00:00:00Z

Charles Stross' vision of how networking -- the human kind and machine kind -- evolves is thought-provoking. His ideas on privacy and identity authentication alone are worth the price of admission. Like most great science fiction writers, he illustrates his ideas with real humans that you truly care about -- even as he's pushing the outer boundaries of what it means to be "human."

Telecom planning in a time of turmoil

Johna Till Johnson — 2008-10-09T00:00:00Z

It's gotten pretty hard to miss the financial news lately: September was the worst month for stocks in years, and October looks to surpass it. Despite the U.S. government's massive $800-billion bailout, the U.S. economy is still roiling, and Europe's is doing even worse.

How IPv6 is like the U.S. financial crisis

Johna Till Johnson — 2008-10-01T00:00:00Z

Not long ago, the powers-that-be detected an impending crisis. To resolve it, they rushed into action crafting a proposal that represented an unprecedented upheaval of existing infrastructure. On the grounds that "something needed to be done" to avert the crisis, they brushed aside objections that the upheaval was too convulsive and might nonetheless fail to address the underlying issues that had created the crisis in the first place. The financial bailout proposed by the Treasury Department? No. I'm talking about the creation of IPv6.