CEM Set for Centre Stage? #CSPCX #BSSOSS

It’s that time of year when forecasts are made and one theme that has popped up in several articles is that of Customer Experience Management. 2012, it seems, is going to be the year when the CEM bandwagon accelerates. But CEM encompasses two elements – experience of the network; that is, how it performs; and contact with the service provider; that is, how the provider deals with the customer and handles that interaction.

Network performance is always a challenge. Operators must constantly be vigilant, ensuring that traffic flows smoothly and without disruption. But to achieve this is no simple task. Operators are reliant on Deep Packet Inspection capabilities to monitor traffic and generate essential data. Is traffic flowing at the desired rate? Are latency, jitter and other key metrics being maintained at the appropriate levels? Can the network cope with peaks and troughs, caused by irregular usage patterns?

Today’s DPI solutions risk being overwhelmed by the sheer volume of data traversing the network. Traditional, CPU-based solutions lack the scale and performance to cope with the huge surge in user traffic and the high-speed links that are now migrating to 40Gb/s and beyond. That’s why dedicated hardware is required.

By performing packet-processing, the core task of DPI applications, hardware-based solutions can ensure that all traffic is inspected with no packet loss. Instead of flooding CPU-based equipment, hardware solutions can scale to meet growth in traffic and ensure that DPI functions can be performed consistently and reliably. And this is essential – to deliver on CEM promises, the network must be able to provide the information operators need to ensure smooth operation.

Both elements of CEM are important and both present challenges, but ensuring that the network performs as expected is fundamental. Operators need the confidence that scalable, hardware-based packet processing engines can provide if CEM is really going to take off this year.