Ray,
Re: > > > ... one of the great advocates of IP over glass, Jim Crowe, of Level 3 seems to be admitting that the time until we have a pure IP network is farther down the road ... < < <
I think you're right. However, as your post states, Jim Crowe is one of the great IP over glass advocates, but he's not one of the great unthinking zealots. As both a believer in the eventual migration to a more fully IP network and as a Level 3 stockholder, I am very pleased with Jim Crowe's abilities as both a futurist and a realist. I don't think he's changed his ultimate outlook very much at all, except for timing.
I admire his ability to maintain the future goal, while maximizing his company's ability to survive and adapt to a continuously-updated assessment of reality. His ability to do that, in addition to coming from his own extensive personal capabilities, reflects directly from his Kiewit heritage. Kiewit's early adoption and continuous perfection of the "design-build" concept, which is the construction analog to Jim Crowe's network flexibility approach, not only is a great heritage in which he follows, but also happens to be one of the very significant WWII vintage contributions to the reasons why on this July 4 we are still able to celebrate our independence and our position as a world-leading country.
JMHO
Happy Fourth,
Steve
P.S. Stealing a very apt term from a recent Network Plus press release in announcing their (NPLS's) adoption of Lucent switches for their network buildout, Jim Crowe seems to be focusing in on a "smartest-build" philosophy. IMHO it will disappoint technical zealots and reward LVLT and its stockholders. |
