Nokia (News - Alert) has come a long way in advancing the field of next generation communications. Though much of this move was focused on company survival after the smartphone revolution gutted its mobile device business, it has paid off in grand style. The company can even consider getting more into mobile devices once more. Now, a new plan to acquire Deepfield will lend still more capability to Nokia's position in the next generation communications market.
With Deepfield in its fold, Nokia will get access to a slate of big data analytics tools that work in real time, which helps drive Nokia's offerings in network and service automation. It's also possible to add a layer of distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack protection to current systems thanks to the new analytics able to better identify such forms of hostile traffic.
Though cloud applications are an increasing part of the landscape—reports note these apps make up over 60 percent of network traffic right now—most of the providers of these technologies don't have much insight into what applications are running on the network, and the accompanying impact this has on users.
As more demand on the network is set to arrive in short order thanks to further cloud adoption, the rise of software-defined networking (SDN) and network functions virtualization (NFV) systems and other such tools, we need a better means to address demand on the network. Visibility is an important point in such planning, and that kind of visibility requires big data analytics capability.
Deepfield founder and CEO Craig Labovitz commented “We are very pleased to join Nokia, a like-minded global leader in IP networking with shared values in network innovation. I look forward to leveraging the strength of Nokia's world-class customer, sales and support footprint to take our Deepfield technology worldwide. This will also give us a solid foundation from which to accelerate the creation of new value - both in the Deepfield portfolio, and in joint areas such as telemetry and automation.”
This should prove a welcome development for anyone who has a major network presence going on, and further improve Nokia's standing as a next generation communications provider. Visibility on the network is the first big step toward identifying problems and eliminating them from the network, which means a better end-user experience and a lot of added value. Nokia's basically taking the networks we're working with right now and making these better as a result. That's good news all around, especially for Nokia, who is rapidly making itself an indispensable part of the network operations market.
Big data analytics should mean a big help for Nokia, and its acquisition of Deepfield should prove a great purchase in the end.
Edited by Alicia Young