Category: IT Leader

IT Leader provides insight and guidance on issues impacting information technology and telecommunications professionals, focusing on overall market trends, strategic issues, and advice on supplier activities.

Verizon: Do or DEI Another Day, The Sequel

by Guest Author, posted in Cloud Enable, Communicate, IT Leader, Mobilize
R. Pritchard

Summary Bullets:

• Any telco in the US making deals must be cognizant of the current administration’s efforts to destroy diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) commitments.

• Service providers have traditionally understood benefits of progressive DEI but now need to conceal efforts from a dogmatic set of regulators for long-term strategic benefit.

Verizon has become the latest telecoms service provider to abandon its DEI programs under pressure from the US administration (please also see: T-Mobile USA: Do or DEI to Close Lumos Deal? – IT Connection, April 7, 2025). The move follows alleged demands from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in exchange for its approval of the $20 billion acquisition of fiber broadband provider Frontier Communications and reflects a broader response across US corporations to the policies of the current administration.

Continue reading “Verizon: Do or DEI Another Day, The Sequel” →

Verizon: Do or DEI Another Day, The Sequel

by Rob Pritchard, posted in Cloud Enable, Communicate, IT Leader, Mobilize
R. Pritchard

Summary Bullets:

• Any telco in the US making deals must be cognizant of the current administration’s efforts to destroy diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) commitments.

• Service providers have traditionally understood benefits of progressive DEI but now need to conceal efforts from a dogmatic set of regulators for long-term strategic benefit.

Verizon has become the latest telecoms service provider to abandon its DEI programs under pressure from the US administration (please also see: T-Mobile USA: Do or DEI to Close Lumos Deal? – IT Connection, April 7, 2025). The move follows alleged demands from the FCC in exchange for its approval of the $20 billion acquisition of fiber broadband provider Frontier Communications and reflects a broader response across US corporations to the policies of the current administration.

Continue reading “Verizon: Do or DEI Another Day, The Sequel” →

8×8 is Sending a Mixed Message to the Market

by Gregg Willsky, posted in Communicate, IT Leader
G. Willsky

Summary Bullets:

• Recent enhancements to the 8×8 platform are intrinsic to a foundational pivot the company has taken.

• The pivot masks the true scope of capabilities 8×8 provides and risks confusing the market.

8×8 has been very busy recently with new rounds of enhancements to its platform that strengthen the customer experience. A sample of more noteworthy features includes: an AI assistant for composing chat messages; the ability for employees outside the contact center to engage with customers via digital channels; the introduction of JourneyIQ which gives businesses the capability to optimize the customer journey across all channels, departments, and touchpoints; and the announcement of AI Orchestrator which enables interaction between bots from different vendors and supports hand-offs between bots and human agents.

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Orange Partners with Camusat to Address Scope 3 Sustainability Challenge

by Rob Pritchard, posted in Big Data, Cloud Enable, IT Leader
R. Pritchard

Summary Bullets:

• Orange and Camusat are looking jointly to decarbonize the impact of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions on telecoms infrastructure.

• Reducing Scope 3 (indirect) GHG emissions is a complex and substantial challenge as it accounts for over 80% of total emissions for Orange.

Orange is joining forces with Camusat to accelerate the decarbonization of its telecoms infrastructure in what it claims to be ‘a first-of-its-kind agreement’ that commits its suppliers to reducing GHG emissions. The plan sets measurable targets for the reduction of CO2eq for the products and services Camusat provides to Orange. Co2eq stands for ‘carbon dioxide equivalent,’ a measure of global warming potential that converts amounts of other gases to the equivalent amount of carbon dioxide.

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Ripple Effect: How US Tariffs Will Indirectly Impact ASEAN Telecom Enterprises

by Alfie Amir, posted in IT Leader
A. Amir

US tariff policies are quite fluid and variable. This GlobalData report is intended to help clients understand the general impact, threats, and opportunities within the Technology and Telecom sector, even as implementation timelines and market-specific levies may change.

Summary Bullets:

• The US tariffs have minimal direct impacts on the ASEAN enterprise telecom sector as businesses are mainly domestic.

• However, there could be moderate indirect impacts, especially from lower spending in several key sectors such as manufacturing.

The US government’s announcement on new tariffs last week has already shaken the global economy. Within a couple of days from the announcement, S&P 500 companies saw a total of $5 trillion loss in stock market value. Governments, central banks and companies across the world are also assessing the mid and long-term impacts on the economy and businesses; and developing mitigation plans.

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T-Mobile USA: Do or DEI to Close Lumos Deal?

by Rob Pritchard, posted in IT Leader
R. Pritchard

Summary Bullets:

• There can be no denying that the Trump presidency will have a lasting impact on many aspects of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) strategies.

• Regional variations will extend, and service providers will need to accept, a level of pragmatism in their approach even when still committed to the principles.

On April 1, 2025, T-Mobile and EQT announced the successful close of their joint venture to acquire fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) provider Lumos. The deal has been positioned as marking “a major milestone in T-Mobile’s broadband growth” and builds on the Un-carrier’s success in delivering best-in-class connectivity.

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Facing an Exodus of Healthcare Workers, Providers Turn to AI but are Overlooking Important Strategic Elements

by Amy Larsen DeCarlo, posted in IT Leader
Amy Larsen DeCarlo – Principal Analyst, Security and Data Center Services

Summary Bullets:

  • With the demographic that represents the biggest healthcare consumer spiking at the same time hundreds of thousands of healthcare workers are leaving the sector in droves, the industry is looking to artificial intelligence (AI).
  • An Accenture survey of healthcare provider executives found that while most are piloting AI projects, the ad hoc approaches many are taking may find them coming up short of their full potential.

There is a perfect storm hitting the healthcare industry. The population of 60- to 90-year-olds, the largest users of healthcare services, is projected to spike by 45% over the course of the next 20 years. This comes as a post-pandemic flight of healthcare workers is happening. The National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN) projects that 900,000 nurses in the US will leave their positions by 2027.

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GenAI Startup CoreWeave Goes Public Amid Tumultuous IPO

by Beatriz Valle, posted in Big Data, Cloud Enable, IT Leader
B. Valle

Summary Bullets:

• CoreWeave’s IPO was the first time an AI startup went public since the beginning of the generative AI (GenAI) boom.

• The IPO market has been very slow against the backdrop of an increasingly volatile geopolitical environment.

The data center operator CoreWeave made headlines as it went public last week. Its IPO, initially estimated to reach up to $32 billion, went down to $23 billion in the days prior to its stock market debut. CoreWeave rents out computing power to big tech companies building out large language models (LLMs). The company relies heavily on two major customers: Microsoft and OpenAI. The latter, alongside Nvidia, is a stakeholder in CoreWeave.

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Digital Enterprises Need to Manage Their IT Assets More Effectively: This is Extending to GreenOps

by siowmeng, posted in Cloud Enable, IT Leader
S. Soh

Summary Bullets:

  • While there are many vendors offering observability, AI, and FinOps solutions, GreenOps can become another key pillar driven by mandatory regulatory compliance.
  • As enterprise businesses become more digitized, they need a more efficient approach and tools to manage the technology sprawl.

After years of digital transformation, enterprises are finding themselves reliant on technology to ensure smooth operations, from internal functions to customer engagement and supply chain management. Many enterprises across various industries will consider themselves as a technology company. While there are certainly business benefits, enterprises are also finding themselves operating an increasingly complex technology environment. This involves the use of cloud, including containers and microservices, multitude of applications, and the APIs weaving across applications and systems, as well as a wide variety of end points such as connected devices/machines. This complexity makes it harder for effective IT management and having a greater visibility across the entire digital environment.

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MWC25: ASEAN Enterprise Telecom Highlights

by Alfie Amir, posted in Communicate, Internet of Things, IT Leader
A. Amir

Summary Bullets:

• ASEAN telcos announced various partnerships and new initiatives, mainly in emerging areas such as AI, APIs, private networks, and industrial solutions.

• This can enable them to monetize their network infrastructure including 5G and increase operational efficiencies to drive their overall business margins.

Key Announcements by ASEAN Telcos
Mobile industry players including telcos have been using Mobile World Congress (MWC) as the global stage to announce their new partnerships and initiatives. Like previous years, 2025 saw several key announcements by ASEAN telcos.

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