Welcome to PR Vibes™, created by Calysto Communications to provide you with key insights into the publications and events in the telecommunications industry. Today, we’re featuring an interview with J’Amy Stewart, CEO and co-founder of Infonetics Research. To help you better understand Infonetics Research’s focus, we asked J’Amy to share some of her insight on the firm and on the future of the communications industry. Enjoy!
Can you tell us a little about Infonetics Research and how it came about?
We are a market research and consulting firm focused on communications – data and telecom. We started the company in 1990 doing demand-side (survey) research on enterprise use and adoption of new networking technologies – drivers, barriers, needs, etc. Back then, it was 10M Ethernet versus 16M Token Ring, then on to 100M FDDI in 1991. We did a lot of work with start-ups defining and marketing new products. We got our start by taking over the rights to the demand-side research part of a company we were both with (“Infonetics”) that also did conferences and network testing.
At first it was just Michael Howard and me; then Larry Howard joined a year later . . . all in Michael’s garage. We filled the garage with telephones, desks, a network, and people – Jeff Wilson dates back to the garage days — and spilled over to houses for some early telecommuting, until we finally got our first “real” office in downtown San Jose. We all have a love for technology and people, and that has been consistent through the years.
How does Infonetics differentiate itself?
From the get-go, we’ve been focused on all things IP – initially on enterprise networking (LANs and WANs), then service provider networking. With our base in demand-side research and emerging technologies, we’ve expanded over the years to cover a wide breadth of wireless and wireline technologies and to offer additional types of research, including demand-side surveys, market size, market share, forecasts for equipment, services, and subscribers, and continuous research notes. We’ve made analyst longevity with the company a focus.
We built a collaborative environment — analysts provide support to each other by reviewing forecasts and analysis, collaborating on reports, and ongoing interaction to discuss new technologies, M&A, changing architectures, etc. Our analysts are backed by an amazing team of international market analysts and research analysts. Many people don’t see this team, but they provide critical support for the analysts, conducting research, building massive, detailed spreadsheets with embedded pivot tables, developing forecast tools.
Our approach to sizing and forecasting markets is a differentiator. We look at markets holistically, talking with players from the entire ecosystem: product manufacturers, service providers, enterprises, chip and component manufacturers, test and measurement companies, the investment community, and the channel. We gather data from these groups and other sources, like National Regulatory Agencies, OECD, etc. We don’t just look at the top 5-10 players of any market – we gather data from everyone we can. We combine this with empirical data from our enterprise and service provider surveys to build reliable forecasts and peg shifts in the market. Infonetics has been first to track and forecast many markets and shifts; for example, we were the first to forecast and track the VPN market in 1996, first to track the metro Ethernet market in early 2000s, and first to forecast the decline of SDH/SONET, to name a few.
Who are your target audience/key customer segments?
Our target audience/key customer segments are product manufacturers, chip and component manufacturers, the investment community, test and measurement companies and service providers.
How many analysts do you have in your company and what areas do they cover?
With the addition of Teresa Mastrangelo, who joined us in early December to expand our video coverage, we now have 10 industry analysts who together have an average of 18 years in telecom and eight years with Infonetics. Here’s our lineup:
Michael Howard, Principal Analyst and Co-Founder,Carrier and Data Center Networks; Stéphane Téral, Principal Analyst,Mobile and FMC Infrastructure; Jeff Wilson, Principal Analyst, Security; Jeff Heynen, Directing Analyst, Broadband Access; Shira Levine, Directing Analyst,Next Gen OSS and Policy; Matthias Machowinski, Directing Analyst, Enterprise Networking and Video; Teresa Mastrangelo, Directing Analyst, Cable, Satellite, and IPTV Video; Diane Myers, Directing Analyst, VoIP and IMS; Andrew Schmitt, Directing Analyst, Optical; and Richard Webb, Directing Analyst, WiMAX, Microwave, and Mobile Devices.
We divide up coverage by technology so each analyst has a global view of the market they cover, frequently traveling to conferences to meet with vendors and service providers in important regions, staying on top of what’s happening.
I drive the overall coverage for the company, so I don’t have a particular coverage area. I talk with companies across areas we currently cover and areas we’re looking to cover, and work with analysts as we take on new coverage.
You recently announced you are expanding both your video and broadband access reporting to include more in-depth coverage of market segments such as home networking, over-the-top video, and others, as well as are looking to expand your data center networking area. Can you offer any comments about what you are seeing in the industry that prompted these moves?
There is so much happening in the video space! How we watch TV is at such an interesting place right now, with so many options: we can download movies, view YouTube, play Pandora, etc. from a BluRay player, Internet-connected TV, or GoogleTV. We can stream content on demand from NetFlix on a PC, tablet, Wii, or Hulu. We can pay our cable or IPTV provider to see a recently released movie use time shifting and start-over functions, etc., and there’s mobile, too. There is so much to cover! We are thrilled Teresa has joined us to expand our coverage. On the broadband side, there’s smart grid, home video networks, and more regional granularity we’ll dive into as more fiber is deployed.
On the data center side, the industry is sorting out cloud networking and cloud computing, and there is a lot happening in the data center to speed up connections and increase efficiency. There’s a real trend for enterprises planning for and moving non-core applications and infrastructure to the “cloud,” and networks are changing to support this trend.
What do you see as the key technology/trends for the next 12 months?
We recently released our top trends for 2011:
1. Video, video, video . . . explosion of tablets, continued rise of smartphones, multiscreen video offerings . . . fixed and mobile . . . increasing traffic, causing bottlenecks and forcing operators to redesign and add intelligence to their networks.
2. Operators continue to focus on revenue: (1) move to charge for Megabytes per month (or the move to tiered rather than unlimited usage plans); (2) finding ways to easily add applications (3) searching for an M2M2C model with OTT providers, while dealing with acceleration in cord-cutting.
3. 2G upgrades quietly continue while 4G (liberally defined) is in the limelight; continued debate on how to use small cells, including femtos.
4. M2M: more devices connected, especially smart grid deployments powered by government funding and continued focus on energy issues.
5. Speed boosts continue on fixed broadband access networks as fiber is pushed closer to subscribers (VDSL2, Ethernet FTTH, GPON, EPON); cable operators expand their DOCSIS 3.0 footprint.
6. Changes in network design and product choices as we continue the move from TDM to
packet, including optical transport equipment, mobile backhaul, voice services, microwave, and access/aggregation networks. Carriers are rebooting their optical networks, installing new 40/100G networks on dark fiber, while adding Ethernet services and POTS equipment. And, carriers are distributing subscriber management in wireline (BRAS) and mobile networks (GGSNs), causing them to consider deploying IP/MPLS or MPLS-TP closer to users
7. Enterprises are adopting more cloud-based services, expecting to move non-core applications to the cloud once many issues are settled, particularly security; data center (DC) owners are moving toward next gen DCs; and telcos are entering the DC/cloud service arena to fill their customers’ demand.
8. Security threat events continue to drive security investments — from the mind-boggling complexity of Stuxnet, a worm designed to attack critical infrastructure, to the mundane effectiveness of Zeus, a 3-year-old Trojan that is still generating revenue for hackers today — the variety of threats in the wild keeps security at the top of IT budgets.
In Businessweek, you were quoted in a story about CEOs using Twitter. From your perspective, how has social media applications, such as Twitter, changed how you work?
Twitter is a nice additional form of communication for both our research and marketing teams. Our analysts interact with service providers and manufacturers, we alert clients and the press about new research, and we keep up with and add our own breaking news in the telecom sector. It’s a great way to build awareness and learn.
Over the course of your career at Infonetics, would you say there has there been any market trend/event that has surprised you?
Growing up in Silicon Valley, I’ve watched countless start-up companies come and go or make it big, survived several downturns, and witnessed many a “next big thing” either whimper and die or change the world. I try to learn “what went wrong” and “what went right” from these things. Nothing is entirely predictable, but this experience does help us navigate through the surprises. So, for example, during the Telecom Crash in the early 2000s, we kept all our analysts and expanded our research to cover new markets when other firms were shrinking or closing shop. We’ve expanded every year since then, and in the recent downturn we hired even more analysts and again significantly broadened our coverage. 2010 ended up being a tremendous year for us, with revenue up 27 percent. We like to capitalize on opportunities as they emerge, and we like to help our clients do the same.
Regarding trends, I was an early PalmPilot user (I love gadgets) and I was surprised at how long it took to get a good size, easy-to-use, fast, fun smartphone. Thank you, Apple.
On a personal note, can you tell us a bit about your hobbies/interests? Who has influenced you the most? Any good book recommendations?
One of the great things about the work we do is that it takes us all over the world. I love meeting our clients in Europe, Asia, and across North America. Where I can, I take time off to experience the area – like hiking the Great Wall from Simatai to Jinshingling, experiencing the West Wall in the Old City (Jerusalem), walking along the Seine and visiting the many museums in Paris, appreciating the history along the Freedom Trail in Boston, enjoying the food, wine, and art in Barcelona. Experiencing food, culture, history and art all over the world with friends, industry friends, and family is a big passion for me. I love talking with people on planes, in airports, on trains – I like getting little snapshots of people’s lives and getting into unexpected conversations. It gives me interesting perspectives that broaden my world.
Of the many people who influence my life, the biggest are my parents and maternal grandmother. We were brought up in a creative, entrepreneurial environment and were taught by example that we could be anything we wanted as long as we put in the mental and sweat equity it required. My maternal grandmother earned a college degree in the 1930s and went to flight school in her late teens, going as far as they would let a woman go at the time. She flew cargo planes domestically to support WWII efforts while our grandfather was flying overseas in the war. She made sure all her children and grandchildren could read at a very early age and has sent us books as gifts our entire lives. She is a smart, witty, good-humored but strong-willed woman whom I admire a lot.
I love to read, though I find it is difficult to parse out the time to finish the many books on my wish list. For fun, I love Mary Roach, a science writer whose books are always amusing, hilarious and well-researched. I recently read “Mandela’s Way: Fifteen Lessons on Live, Love, and Courage” by Richard Stengel, recommended by a good friend. Mandela is such an inspiring person; it was interesting to learn more of his story, his approaches to life, and the pursuit of his South African dream — it provided good points for self-reflection. I also recently read “Blink” by Malcolm Gladwell, another well-written and thought-provoking book.
I also love hiking, biking, and snowboarding – all easily accessible in the Bay Area. We have an amazing place here with all the trails, views, beaches, and proximity to Tahoe and wine country.
Any additional thoughts/words of wisdom you’d like to share?
Do what you love, love what you do. Learn from others, walk in the shoes of others, respect diversity. Keep things in perspective. Variety is the spice of life. Question things – just because something is done one way, doesn’t mean there isn’t a “better” way.
You can do anything you want if you put your mind to it and work hard to get it.