I've arrived in Scottsdale Arizona for the Americas version of Connect 2006.
It's Phoenix, you expect it to be hot, but still..., 88 ºF (35 ºC) here versus 64 ºF (20 ºC) in Boston.
Good news: I've already had time to share a few beers with Rohit Chhabra, VP and principal advocate for the Communications Platforms Trade Association (CP-TA). CP-TA is trying to accelerate adoption of open communications platforms based on ATCA, SA Forum and related specifications by establishing interoperability certification programs for mainstream subsets of existing specifications. I've spent a lot of time, particularly in the 90s, on standards and industry consortium (MVIP, ECTF H.100 and then CompactPCI), so I understand and admire what Rohit is trying to do. It's also directly useful to NMS as we benefit from growth in the market for ATCA components. :-)
Too many people just assume that a standard implies interoperability - unfortunately it is far from the truth. Often standards are just too broad or too inclusive of niche technology interests to gain the targeted focus required for a particular application to be easily integrated from off the shelf components. The good work of the CPTA does not get enough attention in this landscape of buzzwords for the unthankful tasks of just making things more simple. Thanks for evangelizing their message.
-Todd Spraggins
Nortel (a founding sponsor of the CPTA)
Posted by: Todd Spraggins | October 04, 2006 at 09:37 AM