Outside of what traditional carriers require from equipment vendors, the big Internet content providers -- like Google, Amazon, Facebook and LinkedIn -- are forcing equipment providers to rethink the features and functionality they bring to the market.
Content providers assume that there will be network failures and plan their architectures around that premise, so they don’t require the traditional Five 9s (99.999%), availability carrier-class guarantees typically demanded in specific optical networking gear.
“Content providers are causing a huge disruption in the optical networking space,” Griliches said. “The thinking and the approach [content providers] are bringing to the marketplace has been refreshing. I think service providers will now realize that a lot of the requirements they’ve been putting on vendors aren’t that necessary and that what content providers are saying and doing might just be something to emulate and follow, not make fun of anymore."
Beth Schultz is an IT writer and editor based in Chicago
This article originally appeared on SearchTelecom.com