For an industry so obsessed with decoupling, layering and software-ization, it seems ironic that many conversations about these end up at the very bottom: the silicon. Yes, the cloud is changing everything, but the speed of that impact is tied, ultimately and directly, right back to network capabilities. So in telecom, how should we calibrate the dependency between software and hardware? Where exactly do we draw the line? And how do we justify that decision? On the whole, Telecom has been fairly resistant (at least only grudgingly accepting) to the idea that software can replace sophisticated, dedicated hardware. Software is what engineers let their IT colleagues PoC away at, while they get on with the – as it were – heavy lifting of telecom. But there is a wary truce breaking out. Software-ization is an inexorable trend that cannot be reversed. First, software can unlock the capabilities of hardware/silicon. But even more fundamentally, there are some actions which are still most efficiently handled in silicon. The industry is starting to accept that it can be ok to retain targeted islands of hardware in cases where it is just going to be way better at dealing with the load. And that […]