Transparency of Change Management
The recent global outage of many computer systems due to a faulty software update should be a stark reminder of complex and interconnected computing architectures that have developed over the past 30-40 years.
It is this complexity and the management of software-based systems that I think the critical communications industry should be mindful of as it continues its evolution to mobile broadband based capability.
There are many ways of articulating the evolution of software-based systems. One way of highlighting this evolution is through the following five generational steps.
Generation 1: Hardware + software (tightly coupled operating system and application software)
Generation 2: Hardware + Operating System + Application Software
Generation 3: Hardware + Firmware/BIOS + Operating System + Application Software
Generation 4: Hardware + Firmware/BIOS + Operating System + Libraries + Application Software
Generation 5: Hardware + Firmware/BIOS + Host Operating Software + Virtualisation Stack (including Hypervisor and Virtual Machine software components) + Operating System + Libraries + Application Software
The various components within software-based systems require regular maintenance to ensure that integrity, efficiency, and security are consistently maintained. The current dominance of virtualisation and cloud-based architectures in telecommunications deployments has significantly increased complexity compared to telecommunications systems of 10-20 years ago. Land Mobile Radio (LMR) systems still employ earlier software architectures and therefore current outsource processes and practices may not be as relevant for mobile broadband based solutions.
We know telecommunications vendors like us to consider their solutions as a “black box”, but I believe that to support critical communications the critical communications industry needs to have transparency and visibility to both the processes and timing of all maintenance practices within their “black box”.
I would recommend that any market activity should remember the recent outages and ensure that transparency of change management and system change processes are specifically called out.