Stephen Collins is Principal Consultant at 1024tm, a boutique consulting firm that serves
leading-edge networking, telecom and cloud infrastructure companies across multiple
segments of the enterprise IT and service provider markets. His clients range from startups to
billion-dollar businesses, with projects typically involving a mix of business and product
strategy, go-to-market planning, thought leadership, product marketing, business development
and sales enablement.
Stephen has a proven track record of successfully introducing innovative products into highly
competitive, rapidly growing markets, and he brings clients four decades of operational
experience in a wide range of executive, product management, engineering, consulting,
industry analyst and advisory roles, working primarily with communications equipment
manufacturers and telecom software vendors.
In recent years, as a result of numerous client engagements, Stephen has developed a
specialization in network visibility, Big Data analytics, full-stack observability and the application
of AI and machine learning to drive network automation and service orchestration in complex,
mission-critical service provider and enterprise IT infrastructure. He has applied this expertise
to a diverse range of projects in 5G network analytics (NWDAF), Open RAN Intelligent Controller
(RIC) xApps and rApps, SD-WAN infrastructure, Internet visibility and cloud-native infrastructure
observability.
Stephen was hired out of college by AT&T Bell Labs, where he worked in software development
on T-carrier data communications systems. Leaving in search of a startup opportunity, he joined
multi-protocol router pioneer Wellfleet Communications as a founding engineer, where he
spent a hyperactive decade in the rapid expansion of the global internetworking market.
Stephen then went on to co-found Spring Tide Networks, which developed an innovative IP
service switch for service provider networks, culminating in an acquisition by Lucent
Technologies for $1.5 billion.
As VP of marketing at Sonus Networks and later at Acme Packet, Stephen gained experience in
service provider VoIP. At Tatara Systems, he was active in the formative years of the small cells
market. At Active Broadband Networks, he was involved in applying software-defined
networking to the development of a Broadband Network Gateway (BNG) router based on a
white box switching platform.
Stephen has been a frequent blog contributor and speaker at industry conferences, and he has
authored numerous articles for industry trade publications. He holds an M.S. in Computer,
Information and Control engineering from the University of Michigan and a B.S. in Computer
Systems Engineering, Summa Cum Laude, from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Nick Lippis is an authority on corporate computer networking. He has designed some for the largest computer networks in the world. He has advised many Global 2000 firms on network strategy, architecture, equipment, services and implementation including Hughes Aerospace, Barclays Bank, Kaiser Permanente, Eastman Kodak Company, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), Liberty Mutual, Schering-Plough, Sprint, WorldCom, Cisco Systems, Nortel Networks and a wide range of other equipment suppliers and service providers.

Mr. Lippis is uniquely positioned to comment, analyze and observe computer networking industry trends and developments.