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.

Patrick Filkins is a Research Manager within IDC’s Network Infrastructure group covering IoT and Telecom Networks. Patrick’s research focus includes worldwide coverage of Mobile Network Infrastructure and the rapidly growing 5G ecosystem, including topics such as vRAN, Open RAN, 5G core, SDN/NFV, cloud-native networking, and the evolving Telco Cloud and Carrier MEC segments. In addition, Patrick contributes to IDC’s coverage of the intersection of public cloud and telecom network infrastructure, with a focus on telecom and enterprise network workloads deployed in the cloud. Patrick also leads IDC’s worldwide coverage of the enterprise cellular market, to include Private LTE/5G infrastructure, CBRS, and the LTE/5G router market.

In his additional role covering Edge IoT Infrastructure, he is responsible for market and technology trends, forecasts and competitive analysis related to the IoT network edge infrastructure, gateways, protocol strategies (e.g., 5G/Wi-Fi), including the LPWAN domain (NB-IoT, LTE-M, LoRaWAN, SigFox). While contributing to ongoing forecast and market share updates, he also contributes to custom projects for IDC’s Consulting practice.

Johna Till Johnson is CEO and Founder of Nemertes Research, where she sets research direction and works with strategic clients. Under her leadership, Nemertes has emerged as a leading trusted advisor to Fortune-50 and other world-class organizations. A widely regarded expert, Ms. Johnson currently serves as the content committee chair at the Wall St. Technology Association (WSTA), which provides technology guidance to some of the world’s largest and most sophisticated financial services firms. She regularly speaks at industry trade shows, conferences, and seminars, including Nemertes Navigator360, IDG’s FutureIT, ISC, and (WSTA). She writes regular columns on cybersecurity and IoT for TechTarget. Prior to founding Nemertes in 2002, Ms. Johnson served as chief technology officer (CTO) at Greenwich Technology Partners, a global consulting and engineering firm. Prior to that, she led the Global Networking Strategies Service business unit of META Group. Prior to that, as Senior Technology Editor she oversaw the lab-testing program at Data Communications magazine, providing testing and assessment of up to 16 emerging technologies per year. She also has designed and developed security, speech-synthesis, and free-space laser products at companies including Mosler Security Systems and Digitus Corp. Ms. Johnson holds a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering/computer science (BSEE/CS) from The Johns Hopkins University, has conducted graduate work in nuclear and particle physics at the University of Rochester, speaks three languages, and has published a science fiction novel. She is an avid urban kayaker and novice woodworker and candymaker.

Mike is a senior research analyst at S&P Global Market Intelligence leading the Observability and networking research segments. He focuses on understanding the competitive landscape of the segments he covers by understanding the competitors strategies and putting them into context. He has extensive experience in enterprise security and network infrastructure products as well as consulting with enterprise IT, equipment and software vendors, and service providers.

Mikes’s current interests in observability include the ways that metrics, events, logs and trace (MELT) data is analyzed and presented to the user via contextual visualizations; how MELT data is used to create and maintain dynamic application and infrastructure topologies; the application of machine learning and artificial intelligence to surface new insights; and observabilities role in optimizing manual and automated workflows and processes.

Mike’s current interests in networking focus on network automation in all its forms including software defined networking, scripting, and automation systems. Networking in support of cloud and microservices continues to be an important and vibrant competitive field.

Mike graduated from Syracuse University with a bachelor’s degree in Information Science and Technology.