By Jon Collins

As a first take, the 2018 AWS Re:Invent conference event held in Las Vegas seemed to be slicker, even though bigger, than previous years. While conference sessions were far too distributed across multiple hotels to feed a coherent view, the big-barn expo exuded a feeling of knowing what it was about. Even the smallest vendors had stands which went beyond the lowest-common-denominator quick-assembly cube, suggesting either (a) the organisers had put more thought into it or (b) the vendors were better-established and (therefore) had more money. All in all, it felt less of a bun fight — more space between stands, less urgency to get from one place to another.

It would be too much of an extrapolation to suggest this reflects the state of the cloud marketplace in general, and AWS in particular; however, it does serve as a useful backdrop upon which to paint a picture of an industry maturing beyond its “look at us, over here, we are different!” roots. From the sessions held for analysts, a couple of notably aligned moments stand out: the first involving use of the H-word, met with a smattering of laughter as an AWS representative spoke of embracing (my word) hybrid architectures and deploying (in the form of AWS Snowball Edge) capabilities inside the enterprise boundary.

The second, also met with more of an accepting shrug than anything, was a presentation by Keith Jarrett, AWS’ worldwide lead on cloud economics, which accepted, nay endorsed the fact that AWS’ cloud models wouldn’t always be the cheapest option for everything. Any thoughts of “ah-HA! Got you!” were almost immediately overtaken by, “Well, of course, how could it be?” — unless someone has also invented the perpetual motion machine or some other magical device. At a risk of repeating the obvious, there is no silver bullet/single solution/one-model-to-rule-them all in technology, never has been and never will be. Keith went on to present a series of KPIs around value creation, rather than pure cost.

So, with maturity comes the circumspection of understanding one’s place in the world, what one brings to the party, and therefore a level of differentiation based on competence, not capability: in a nutshell, it’s not about “use cloud” but, “if you want to use cloud-based services, work with us as we do it better than anyone else.” We saw this across the AWS portfolio, for example through the repeated theme of ‘frameworks’ — AWS has one AI (as presented by Swami Sivasubramanian, VP, Amazon Machine Learning), one for IoT (thank you Dirk Didascalou, VP, AWS IoT), one for more general cloud adoption (hat-tip Dave McCann, VP, AWS Marketplace and Todd Weatherby, VP, AWS Professional Services).

It all makes sense — if the platform is (increasingly) a commodity, the differentiator becomes how it is used. We see this over and again: now that Kubernetes is (becoming) the de facto target for containerised applications for example, to say “we do Kubernetes” is no longer interesting. Nor for that matter are the frameworks, from a business perspective — illustrated by the current trend away from DevOps being an end in itself and towards governance models and tooling such as Value Stream Management. Most important are whether organisations can innovate and deliver faster, harness opportunities, deliver new customer experiences and generate business value, more effectively with one provider or another.

This is all good news for the enterprise, as the terminology and philosophical underpinnings of cloud computing increasingly align with the more traditional thinking pervading our largest organisations. Across the past ten years, it has been enough to ‘do’ cloud, or ‘do’ open source in order to create competitive advantage: indeed, upstart organisations (the usual suspects of AirBnB, Uber, indeed Amazon et al) have built their businesses on the basis of rapid time-to-value. Simply put, older companies, with all their meetings, legacy systems and indeed thinking, have not been able to deliver as quickly as businesses without all that baggage.

Indeed, they still can’t. But them old companies are still there, for a number of reasons. First that the new breed have largely tackled the customer-facing elements of business, but there’s only so much of that to go around. It is completely unsurprising that Amazon is opening (albeit automated) shops, and that Uber (together with Toyota) is investing in (driverless) car fleets: someone has to do the infrastructure stuff. Meanwhile, not all customer-oriented business can be done on an ad-hoc basis. Take Healthcare for example, which (thank goodness) has not thrown itself gaily into adopting the heck-why-not-throw-away-the-old-rules-and-see-what-happens business models of the platform economy.

And indeed, while big old businesses are still big and old, and therefore unable to act quite so responsively as the youngsters, three things are happening: not only are they getting better at that whole innovation thing — or indeed, learning how to align new models of innovation with their own approaches, but also, the younger companies are having to learn that they can’t get away with avoiding complexity for ever. And in parallel, as we have already seen, technology providers such as AWS are maturing to fit the evolving needs and capabilities of both sides. It’s not just the big players: at Re:Invent I was also able to talk to both organisations in Amazon’s partner ecosystem and their customers, notably a conversation with that quite popular gaming company Fortnite about both AWS and MongoDB.

Where does this leave us? First that AWS is establishing itself not as a cloud player but as a technology provider, and rightly so, moving away from a false debate based on cost and towards one based on value. Second, AWS recognises that it cannot go it alone, nor does it need to (historically echoing of Microsoft’s attempts to play the better together card, which worked to an extent but could never be the whole answer). Third, that this reflects a more general maturing of the industry’s relationship with business, as attention moves beyond the platform and towards how to get the most out of it in what, frankly, a highly complex and constantly evolving world.

Whatever happens, complexity of all types will continue to constrain our ability to maximise the value we can get from technology. While technological complexity may appear to be a Gordian knot, it is more a Hydra — cut off one head and many more grow back. Understanding this and trying to tame and align as a platform, rather than looking to restrict and present one model above all, holds the key to unlocking future innovation for businesses of all sizes.

Read more here:: gigaom.com/feed/

Clear CEO Gal Hochberg discusses Clear’s Bandwidth on Demand PoC (Proof of Concept) at MEF18 in Los Angeles in Oct. 2018, which was launched with seven carriers and one other technology provider. The PoC was awarded the Silver Prize, and it demonstrates how blockchain-based settlement and clearing for bandwidth-on-demand services can help telcos commercialize next-generation products (VR, cloud, IoT and more!).

Read more here:: www.lightreading.com/rss_simple.asp?f_n=1249&f_sty=News%20Wire&f_ln=IPv6+-+Latest+News+Wire

By Erin Scherer

It’s the most wonderful time of the year– ARIN Bits time! In this edition, we provide information about our recent ARIN election results, bid farewell to two of our staff members, introduce current policy proposals under discussion, share tips from our Registration Services and Financial Services departments, and so much more! Missed last quarter’s edition? You can find all past editions on our ARIN Bits page.

Farewell, Nate and Cathy!

Please join us in bidding Nate Davis and Cathy Handley farewell and congratulations as they begin retirement this month. Nate Davis, ARIN’s Chief Operating Officer, has been with us for 14 years and Cathy Handley, Senior Director of Government Affairs and Public Policy, has been with us for ten years. We wish them all the best in retirement and thank them for their years of service to the ARIN region.

And the winners are…

Thank you to everyone who voted in the 2018 ARIN Elections. The results of the election were announced on 15 October but in case you missed them, take a look now.

Congratulations to those elected to serve on the ARIN Board of Trustees, Advisory Council and NRO Number Council!

Join us for ARIN 43 in beautiful Barbados!

We’re accepting applications for our Fellowship Program to attend ARIN 43 in Bridgetown, Barbados from 7-10 April 2019. Apply for a fellowship now through 5:00 PM EST on Wednesday, 16 January 2019.

ARIN 43 Fellowships may also include registration and hotel accommodations for CaribNOG 17, which will be held following ARIN’s meeting in the same location from 11-12 April 2019. Learn more about CaribNOG.

Registration for ARIN 43 is now open, so secure your spot to join us!

We have a few policy proposals under discussion, including:

Pending Board of Trustees Review:

• ARIN-2018-1: Allow Inter-regional ASN Transfers
• ARIN-2018-3: Remove Reallocation Requirements for Residential Market Assignments
• ARIN-2018-4: Clarification on Temporary Sub-Assignments
• NRPM Cleanup (formerly ARIN-prop-255)
• Modify 8.3 and 8.4 for Clarity (formerly ARIN-prop-256)

Recommended Draft Policies:

• ARIN-2017-12: Require New POC Validation Upon Reassignment
• ARIN-2018-2: Clarification to ISP Initial Allocation

Draft Policies:

• ARIN-2018-5: Disallow Third-party Organization Record Creation
• ARIN-2018-6: Clarify reassignment requirements in 4.2.3.7.1

You can find the status of current policy discussions on our Draft Policies and Proposals page and subscribe to ARIN-PPML (Public Policy Mailing List) to voice your opinions. Membership is not required to participate!

Future of Technology Summit (FTSUMMIT) – 10-12 February 2019

John Curran will be speaking at the Future of Technology Summit in Washington, D.C., an event dedicated to exploring how technology is on track to fundamentally change what our work looks like in the next five to ten years, and what decision makers must do now to be prepared. John will discuss what’s in store for the future of the Internet as the very way we connect to it is changing.

Our Featured Policy Requirement

Direct assignments from ARIN to End-User organizations (NRPM 6.5.8)

Did you know that End-user organizations can easily qualify for an initial IPv6 assignment? Under current policy, most organizations will qualify for their first IPv6 assignment of a /48. Larger blocks are issued on the nibble boundary (/44, /40, etc), and are justified by the number of sites the organization has in their network. Have any questions? Give our Registration Services team a call at 703.227.0660 or submit an Ask ARIN ticket from within your ARIN Online account.

A tip from our Registration Services Department

“How long will my ticket take to be completed?” We get that question a lot. ARIN staff reviews and responds to all tickets and correspondence in the order they are received. We endeavor to reply within two business days. The overall duration of a ticket will vary depending on how much correspondence is required for your particular ticket.

Here are some tips that may help expedite the completion of your ticket:

• Ensure you thoroughly review and respond to all items asked of you by ARIN staff within the ticket
• Ensure any necessary documents are attached to your ticket
• If you have any questions, you may want to give us a call at the Help Desk for a quick conversation. Once all your questions have been answered, be sure to provide your written response within the ticket.
• You can check the status of a ticket and review all correspondence within a ticket in the Tickets and Messages section of your ARIN Online account. You may want to check on a ticket to ensure ARIN staff is not waiting for a response from you on that ticket.

A tip from our Financial Services Department

How to Cancel and Return Resource(s) to ARIN

When your organization no longer needs and/or does not want to pay to renew the Internet number resources directly registered to your organization, those resources can be proactively returned to ARIN.

Returning IPv4 Addresses, IPv6 Addresses, or ASNs (Internet Number Resources)

If you would like to return the Internet number resources, the following steps are necessary to validate that is the true intention of your company and that the person submitting the request has authority to act on the company’s behalf to transact the return.

1. Log in to ARIN Online and create a ticket via Ask ARIN, stating that you have Internet number resources you would like to return. If you don’t have an ARIN Online account, you may create one by going to our Account Setup page.

2. Please provide your Organization ID (Org ID) and list each IPv4 address block, IPv6 address block, or ASN you would like to return.

3. Please include a signed and notarized document from an officer of your organization with an acknowledgment of their return. This document must include that he/she:

• Authorizes the return of the resources to ARIN,
• Permanently releases all registration rights to the resources, and
• States his/her understanding that once the registration rights to the resources are relinquished, they cannot be later reinstated.Get involved with us in 2019

4. An analyst will work with you to secure the return of the resources.

Get involved with us in 2019!

Since the new year is upon us and it’s the perfect time for a fresh start, consider making 2019 the year you get more involved with us! There are so many ways to be a part of what we do, some of which you may not even be aware. Here are a few ideas:

• Don’t be shy – submit a policy proposal! Learn all about the Policy Development Process.
• Attend ARIN 43 in Barbados or ARIN 44 in Austin, TX. Visit our Meetings Page to learn more. Check out our excellent remote participation if you can’t be with us in person.
• Run for a spot on the 2020 Advisory Council or Board of Trustees. Learn about our Elections process.
• Be a guest blogger for TeamARIN or share your experience deploying IPv6 for our case studies page. Contact us to get started!
• Volunteer to serve on a committee when you see a call go out.
• Submit a suggestion via the ARIN Consultation and Suggestion Process.

Want more information about any of these ideas? Email us at info@arin.net.

Check out these Customer and Member stats! (As of 30 Nov 2018)

• 38,140 total customer organizations, including 5,893 member organizations
• 815 8.3 Transfers and 141 8.4 Transfers completed YTD 2018
• 8.4 Transfers completed YTD 2018: 64 to APNIC, 61 to RIPE NCC, 11 from APNIC, 5 from RIPE NCC
• 58.7% of members have an IPv6 block

Is IPv6 on your list of New Year’s resolutions? We can help you get started.

• Dedicated IPv4 block to facilitate IPv6 Deployment – under this policy, ARIN set aside a contiguous /10 IPv4 block for allocations and assignments justified by immediate IPv6 deployment requirements. This block is subject to a minimum size allocation of /28 and a maximum size allocation of /24.
• List of IPv6 Training Consultants
• Software Developers Guide to Writing and Migrating Network Applications for Use on IPv6 Networks
• IPv6 Number Planning

Catch up on our recent posts:

• Why are you thankful for IPv6?
• Keeping Up with Changing Campus IT Networks – IPv6 for Higher Ed
• Post-Lunch Thoughts: ARIN Lunch by the Numbers
• IPv6 for Governments and Enterprises: Impact and Implementation in 12 Steps
• An IPv6 Journey Two Decades in the Making
• Reexamining How We Build and Operate Networks

The post ARIN Bits: December 2018 appeared first on Team ARIN.

Read more here:: teamarin.net/feed/

By Mitch Wagner GE is spinning off its $1.2B industrial IoT business, and selling its majority stake in ServiceMax, as the floundering industrial giant looks to right the ship.

Read more here:: www.lightreading.com/rss_simple.asp?f_n=1249&f_sty=News%20Wire&f_ln=IPv6+-+Latest+News+Wire

By Phil Harvey Cisco’s SVP/GM of Service Provider Network Systems Sumeet Arora explains how Cisco is helping service providers build and automate their infrastructure in preparation for 5G to drive new revenue-generating services such as mobile broadband, enterprise, IoT and security.

Read more here:: www.lightreading.com/rss_simple.asp?f_n=1249&f_sty=News%20Wire&f_ln=IPv6+-+Latest+News+Wire