Telecom Reseller / Technology Reseller News

Doug Green, Publisher of Technology Reseller News, sat down with Larry O’Connor, Founder of Other World Computing (OWC), for a follow-up conversation focused on OWC’s latest product innovations and the company’s long-standing philosophy of helping customers get more life, performance, and reliability from their technology. OWC is an ASCDI member and has built a reputation for designing solutions that “just work,” allowing users to focus on their workflows rather than managing infrastructure.

O’Connor explained that OWC’s roots in memory and storage upgrades naturally evolved into leadership in Thunderbolt connectivity, direct-attached storage, and enterprise NAS platforms. Today, OWC technology is deeply embedded in professional media, creative, and enterprise environments, often powering workflows behind the scenes. “Our goal is to be the boring part,” O’Connor said, noting that once OWC products are installed, they fade into the background while consistently delivering performance.

A key focus of the discussion was OWC’s expanded Thunderbolt 5 lineup, including the new StudioStack, which combines high-performance NVMe and spinning storage with additional downstream Thunderbolt 5 ports. Designed for systems with limited expansion options, StudioStack effectively turns a single Thunderbolt port into a powerful external PCI-style expansion point, supporting high-resolution displays, additional storage, and peripherals without sacrificing performance.

O’Connor also highlighted OWC’s new dual 10-gigabit Thunderbolt network dock, built to address specialized but growing needs in media, broadcast, and enterprise workflows. With two fully independent 10GbE ports, the dock enables network segmentation, bonded throughput, and dedicated traffic paths—capabilities that previously required more complex and expensive setups. “It’s a game changer for customers who need predictable, high-bandwidth networking off a single cable,” he said.

The conversation concluded with an update on SoftRAID 8.6, OWC’s flagship software RAID solution, now enhanced for Windows 11 and the latest macOS. O’Connor emphasized SoftRAID’s unique cross-platform interoperability between Mac and Windows, along with its ability to segment drives into multiple RAID levels for optimized performance and longevity—capabilities not possible with traditional hardware RAID. These innovations reflect OWC’s continued commitment to performance, repairability, and long-term value across the technology lifecycle.

For more information, visit https://www.owc.com/.

In the final episode of this four-part series on Telco Days 2025, Doug Green, Publisher of Technology Reseller News, speaks with Greg Goodwin, Director of Business Development at Software Mind, about the company’s expanding role in global telecom innovation, the evolving MetaSwitch ecosystem, and the value of community-driven learning at Telco Days.

Goodwin, who leads Business Development for Software Mind’s telco division across the U.S. and the Americas, outlines how the company has grown to more than 1,800 specialists worldwide—including 200 telco-focused engineers—supporting service providers through OSS/BSS development, mobile applications, roaming solutions under its Amplitiv Telecommunications brand, and long-standing engineering expertise within the BroadWorks and Alianza ecosystems.

“We really want to be seen as a trusted advisor—anticipating where the market’s going so we can help our customers grow their business, cut costs, and stay ahead,” Goodwin explains, noting that Software Mind’s model is built on innovation, co-creation, and delivering measurable value.

Reflecting on the recent Alianza Navigate event, Goodwin describes renewed momentum among MetaSwitch customers as Alianza invests in new features and capabilities. “It was fantastic to hear the roadmap and see Alianza reinvesting in those MetaSwitch assets,” he says, emphasizing Software Mind’s commitment to supporting operators preparing their systems for the platform’s next generation of functionality.

When discussing long-term partnerships, Goodwin highlights Software Mind’s innovation-first approach, pointing to joint development opportunities where the company not only supplies engineering talent but co-creates new product features with partners. “Being seen as more than a technology provider—as a collaborator building the next generation of telco solutions—is core to how we work,” he adds.

As the conversation turns to Telco Days, Goodwin describes why the annual Software Mind–hosted event has become a powerful knowledge hub for service providers. Featuring insights from partners like Alianza, AWS and Microsoft, Telco Days brings together global SPs to explore security, AI transformation, modernization strategies, and the real-world challenges facing telecom operators today. All conference materials and videos will be available at SoftwareMind.com.

To learn more about Software Mind’s services, engineering capabilities, and Telco Days resources, visit https://softwaremind.com/.

In this special ASCDI edition of the Technology Reseller News podcast, Doug Green speaks with Larry O’Connor, Founder of Other World Computing (OWC), about the company’s long-standing role in extending the useful life of technology—and why repairability, reuse, and on-prem infrastructure matter more than ever.

O’Connor describes OWC not as a traditional technology vendor, but as a company focused on helping customers get more value, performance, and longevity from the technology they already own. From memory and storage upgrades to connectivity solutions, direct-attached devices, and network-attached storage platforms, OWC designs products that integrate easily into workflows and “just work,” allowing users to focus on outcomes rather than IT overhead.

That philosophy naturally extends into the ITAD and circular economy space. OWC has spent more than a decade supporting secure data destruction, recertification, upgrades, and reuse—particularly within the Apple ecosystem. O’Connor emphasizes that too much usable technology is prematurely retired, despite having significant second-life value. Through components, repair services, and resale channels, OWC works closely with ITAD partners to keep equipment productive and out of landfills.

The conversation also explores OWC’s strong advocacy for Right to Repair, including direct involvement in recent state-level legislation. O’Connor argues that repairability is essential not only for sustainability, but also for economic efficiency, workforce development, and even national readiness—pointing out the broader impact of proprietary restrictions across industries such as agriculture, transportation, and defense.

Looking ahead, O’Connor discusses the growing re-evaluation of cloud-only strategies, noting rising costs, data ownership concerns, and resilience risks. OWC continues to invest in high-performance on-prem and hybrid storage solutions, enabling organizations to retain control of their data while achieving cloud-like collaboration and sharing—often with better performance and lower long-term cost.

As an ASCDI member, OWC represents a bridge between hardware innovation, sustainability, ITAD collaboration, and practical infrastructure design. “We’ve been part of the circular economy long before it had a name,” O’Connor notes, underscoring OWC’s decades-long commitment to technology that lasts.

To learn more about Other World Computing, visit https://www.owc.com/.

“A customer paying $1,200 a month for a POTS line isn’t rare anymore — and even at that price, the service may shut off any day,” says Jake Jacoby, CEO of TELCLOUD. “We’re bringing back fixed, predictable pricing with future-proof technology.”

In this latest episode of the TELCLOUD POTS and Shots Podcast Series, Doug Green, Publisher of Technology Reseller News, reconnects with Jacoby to examine the dramatic shift from historically low-cost, regulated copper pricing to today’s volatile and often astronomical POTS rates. What was once a $15–$30 utility charge—kept low by FCC regulation and universal service requirements—has now become a specialty, loss-generating service that carriers are increasingly unwilling to maintain.

As Jacoby explains, deregulation opened the door for carriers to raise prices in an attempt to recover the cost of maintaining infrastructure that only 5–10% of customers still rely on. That shift has triggered startling monthly bills—$100, $500, even over $1,200 per line in some markets—and still does not guarantee continuity. “These high prices don’t mean the line will stay on,” Jacoby notes. “Carriers are still shutting off copper regardless of what customers pay.”

This is where TELCLOUD provides clarity and relief. By bridging legacy equipment requirements with modern wireless and fiber technologies, TELCLOUD allows resellers to deliver a fixed, predictable monthly service that is fully backward-compatible yet engineered for the future. TELCLOUD’s wholesale model empowers partners to restore stability for customers while protecting recurring revenue and eliminating the need for costly hardware replacements in elevators, fire panels, emergency phones, and other critical systems.

“We’re not just replacing copper — we’re improving it,” Jacoby adds. TELCLOUD’s platform delivers a modern IP backhaul, long-term service viability, and full compatibility with legacy analog interfaces, ensuring decades of reliability even as 5G, 6G, and satellite connectivity continue to evolve.

As the copper sunset accelerates—with billions of global lines still needing migration over the next three years—MSPs, carriers, and technology advisors are increasingly seeing POTS replacement as a once-in-a-generation opportunity that opens the door to broader modernization initiatives. TELCLOUD supports partners at every skill level, from full white-label arrangements to integrations with major carriers and CLECs.

The episode closes with the series’ signature Shots segment. Broadcasting live from Mexico—home to TELCLOUD’s 24/7 support center—Jacoby introduces a unique discovery: Don Ramón Punta Diamante Reposado, presented in a two-bottle gift box designed for sharing. A beautifully crafted tequila aged in oak and featuring elegant blue-glass accents, it reflects the artistry and heritage behind Mexico’s finest spirits.

The POTS and Shots series continues to blend education, opportunity, and culture — guiding partners through the telecom transformation while exploring the world’s best tequilas.

For more information, visit telcloud.com or call 844-900-2270.

At the Fall ’25 vCon in Washington, D.C., Doug Green, Publisher of Technology Reseller News, spoke with Jon Arnold, Principal of J Arnold & Associates, about why vCon matters, how it fits into the broader AI and communications landscape, and why legal frameworks around compliance and consent are as important as the technology itself. Arnold situates vCon—“virtual conversations”—as a response to a world where interactions are no longer just human-to-human, but also human-to-bot and bot-to-bot, generating vast amounts of conversational data that most organizations are not yet capturing or using effectively.

Arnold explains that vCon is not a product but a standard—much like SIP was for VoIP—designed to create an open, interoperable ecosystem for conversational data. By encapsulating both data and metadata from calls, chats, and other interactions into a secure, portable container, vCon can help enterprises manage and analyze conversations across multiple channels, platforms, and use cases. This, he notes, is critical for domains such as UC, customer service, and broader AI-driven applications where structured and unstructured conversational data is becoming a strategic asset.

A distinguishing feature of this event, Arnold observes, is the strong presence of legal and policy experts. With AI amplifying both innovation and risk, he underscores the centrality of compliance and consent. Without clear regulatory frameworks and governance, vCon-style capabilities could accelerate a slide toward a “surveillance society,” where every interaction is recorded and tracked without adequate safeguards. Getting lawyers and regulators involved early, Arnold suggests, improves the odds that vCon will scale in a way that balances innovation with consumer protection and trust.

On the question of monetization, Arnold draws parallels to the early days of hosted voice and UCaaS: the ecosystem is still forming, a few players are close to real revenue, and many potential use cases are only now being discovered. As with other major technology shifts, he expects some of the most valuable applications to emerge “off-label,” driven by users who find unexpected value once the tools are in their hands. With an open standard, an emerging community, and early traction among sponsors and innovators, Arnold sees strong potential for vCon to become a foundational layer in the next era of AI-enabled communications.

To learn more about Jon Arnold’s research and analysis, visit https://www.jarnoldassociates.com/.

In this Technology Reseller News podcast, Publisher Doug Green speaks with Roel Cortez, Senior Director, Sales–Telecom at C&D Technologies, about how AI-driven network growth is transforming power and energy storage requirements across telecom infrastructure. C&D Technologies—whose batteries and power systems are embedded throughout U.S. carrier networks—supports everything from large switching facilities to distributed inline amplifier (ILA) sites.

Cortez describes 2026 through two lenses: physical infrastructure and intelligence. He highlights continued investment in 5G SA and Advanced, aggressive fiber expansion to support data center connectivity, fast-growing fixed wireless, and emerging space-based connectivity. At the intelligence layer, operators are integrating AI to optimize and automate network operations. “Telecom operators are the backbone of digital society, but AI is changing the scale and speed they need to support,” Cortez notes.

AI’s workload demands are also reshaping optical transport and power engineering. Hyperscalers require extremely high capacity and low latency between data centers, pushing new collaboration with telecom operators—and new pressure on ILA designs. Traditional sites built for a few kilowatts per rack must now support configurations exceeding 100 kW per rack, along with new cooling strategies such as liquid cooling. Cortez points out the tension between hyperscalers’ “speed-to-market mindset” and operators’ traditional deployment pace, alongside challenges involving brownfield upgrades, greenfield design, and supply chain constraints.

As networks virtualize, Cortez emphasizes that intelligent energy storage is the next frontier for resilience. Three components of DC power plants—controllers, rectifiers, and distribution—are already smart and remotely managed. The remaining piece, batteries, is now evolving to match. “Everything in the network is becoming intelligent, and energy storage can’t be the exception anymore,” he says. With operators demanding richer telemetry and automated response capabilities, Cortez sees intelligent storage as essential to building flexible, self-aware, AI-ready telecom networks.

Learn more at https://www.cdtechno.com/.

Software Mind Telco Days 2025: On-demand online conference

For Telco Days 2025, Technology Reseller News Publisher Doug Green spoke with Paweł Czernicki, Senior Software Engineer FS TL Java at Software Mind, about one of the most transformative initiatives in Europe’s digital landscape — the European Digital Identity Wallet (EUDI Wallet).

Czernicki explained that the EUDI Wallet is a secure mobile application that allows European citizens to prove their identity and share verified information online. “It’s like your physical wallet going digital,” said Czernicki. “Inside you can store your ID card, driver’s license, education diploma, or even proof that you’re over 18 — all in one secure, mobile app.”

From a citizen’s perspective, the wallet offers simplicity, privacy, and control. “You decide what to share, with whom, and for how long,” he added. “It’s all about ownership of your data and reducing friction in daily interactions — from verifying your age online to logging into government or private services.”

For telecom operators, Czernicki highlighted a major opportunity. “Telecoms are already trusted identity verifiers,” he explained. “With EUDI, they can act as both issuers and verifiers of digital credentials — confirming identities securely without ever storing sensitive data.” This approach, known as selective disclosure, allows organizations to confirm a single fact (like age or residency) without accessing broader personal details.

Software Mind has participated in a large-scale EUDI pilot project, which Czernicki described as “proof that the technology works — even across borders and languages.” He noted that adoption will depend on user trust, education, and ease of use, but the rollout is coming quickly. “By late 2025, citizens will be able to log into e-government portals and sign official documents. By 2026 or 2027, we expect widespread adoption across both public and private sectors.”

Czernicki summarized the EUDI Wallet simply:  “The EUDI Wallet is Europe’s key to secure, user-controlled digital identity — a tool that makes online trust as simple and universal as showing your ID in real life.”

Learn more about Software Mind’s telecom and digital identity innovations at https://softwaremind.com/.

At the Fall ’25 vCon conference in Washington, D.C., Doug Green, Publisher of Technology Reseller News, sat down with Dan Petrie, CEO & President of SIPez, to talk about the origins, purpose, and practical future of vCon technology. Petrie, who co-authored the original vCon draft and brought it to the IETF in 2003, describes vCon as a “standard container for capturing conversations” across voice, video, messaging, email, web chat, and more—bringing structure and consistency to interaction data that has long been fragmented across proprietary platforms.

Drawing an analogy to Adobe’s breakthrough with PDF, Petrie explains that just as PDF standardized how documents are represented and shared regardless of word processor or device, vCon does the same for conversational data. By abstracting common elements like parties, metadata, transcripts, and even AI-generated analytics into a unified format, vCons allow enterprises to capture, store, and analyze interactions from call centers, UCaaS platforms, and messaging systems in a consistent way. This unlocks deeper analysis—such as customer sentiment, agent performance, product feedback, and workflow optimization—without having to wrestle with dozens of incompatible APIs.

Petrie stresses that vCon is especially valuable in an AI-driven world, where structured, well-labeled data is essential. “To get real value from AI, you need structured data,” he notes, pointing out that large language models like ChatGPT can only work on limited context windows and rely on upstream systems to extract, segment, and feed the right portions of conversation data. vCons provide that layer: a rich, extensible container that supports encryption, signing, redaction, amendments, and complex scenarios such as multi-leg call transfers and agent handoffs.

Much of Petrie’s advice is practical: don’t try to build everything from scratch. SIPez maintains open-source vCon projects (such as PyvCon) and also offers a commercial vCon recording and AI analysis solution for the NetSapiens platform, giving service providers and MSPs a faster on-ramp. As more vendors add vCon interfaces and as small and mid-sized providers adopt these tools, Petrie believes 2026 will be a pivotal year for MSPs and channel partners to start monetizing vCon-based analytics and services across horizontal markets—from healthcare to customer support and beyond.

To learn more about SIPez’s vCon tools, open-source projects, and consulting services, visit http://sipez.com/.

At the Fall ’25 vCon Conference in Washington, D.C., Doug Green, Publisher of Technology Reseller News, met with Mike Onslow, CTO of Clarity Voice, to discuss the company’s hands-on work with vCons, the rise of AI-driven communications, and the transformative potential of standardizing conversational data across platforms.

Onslow began by outlining Clarity Voice’s 20-year journey as a communications provider serving small and very small businesses with voice, video, messaging, and increasingly, AI-powered tools. “When the customer wins, we win,” he notes, highlighting a culture centered on customer success across specialized business verticals.

A major focus of the discussion was vCon, the emerging standard for representing conversations—described by Onslow as “a PDF for your conversations.” By standardizing call, message, and AI-generated analysis into a single interoperable format, vCons allow organizations to search, index, process, and share conversational data across platforms without reinventing the wheel. “Thomas calls vCons robot food,” Onslow says, noting that large AI models already understand the vCon structure because the specification predates ChatGPT.

Onslow shared lessons from Clarity Voice’s year-long practical deployment of vCons, including the need for strong data engineering and the importance of keeping raw recordings and raw vCons for future reprocessing as AI models evolve. He also emphasized the value of partnering with experts such as vConic and co-creator Thomas Howe to accelerate implementation, rather than tackling the open-source standard alone.

One of Onslow’s standout contributions at the event was his talk on using vCons for code review analysis. By transforming developer conversations inside pull requests into vCons, Clarity Voice built tools to detect burnout signals, identify subject-matter experts, and surface hidden collaboration patterns. The approach highlights the broader potential of vCons well beyond traditional UCaaS ecosystems—spanning healthcare, marketing, customer support, and any environment where interactions can be enriched with contextual data.

Reflecting on the week’s sessions, Onslow emphasized the value of the community emerging around vCon. “This community is the huge value,” he says. “We’re figuring out what doesn’t work and what does work—together.” He encourages newcomers to engage with the vCon Foundation to gain a smoother on-ramp into the technology and its ecosystem.

To learn more about Clarity Voice and its work with AI-powered communications and vCons, visit https://clarityvoice.com/.

At the Fall ’25 vCon Conference, Doug Green, Publisher of Technology Reseller News, sat down with Rebekah Johnson, Founder & CEO of Numeracle, for a timely and urgent discussion on the escalating global fraud crisis and the role identity must play in restoring trust to communications. Johnson, a long-time industry leader on identity assurance, shared insights from her panel on “the state of fraud,” which revealed troubling trends despite industry-wide mitigation efforts.

Johnson explains that while robocalls may be declining, fraud itself is surging due to increasingly sophisticated tactics and AI-enabled targeting. “Despite all these mitigation efforts, we actually have a declining situation, not an improving situation,” she notes. Bad actors are using fewer touchpoints and more advanced tools, turning communications channels into highly efficient conduits for financial theft, often to fund organized crime, trafficking, and even hostile state activities.

Central to Johnson’s message is the need to bring Know Your Customer (KYC) principles into communications—just as the banking industry has done for decades. Without verified identity, she argues, consumers remain vulnerable. “If you’re going to get access to communications… there should be a verification process to ensure you are who you say you are,” she says, emphasizing that transparency and verifiable identity are essential to helping consumers make safe choices.

Regulatory momentum is building: the FCC’s proposed rulemakings touch directly on identity delivery and KYC requirements. But Johnson warns that progress will hinge on implementation by carriers, who face technical burdens without clear financial incentives. Still, she sees identity adoption as inevitable—especially with AI now eroding human ability to distinguish real from synthetic interactions. AI itself, she says, will accelerate the need for digital credentials tied to trustworthy identity.

As the conversation turns to Numeracle’s mission, Johnson highlights the company’s role in protecting enterprise communication channels from being mislabeled as fraud or spam, enabling hospitals, universities, financial institutions, and brands to reach customers reliably. Numeracle also supports UCaaS and CPaaS providers seeking to protect customer reputations across the network.

Despite the alarming fraud statistics—estimated in the hundreds of billions—Johnson remains optimistic. “It’s not doomsday,” she says. “I’m excited about the future and the role our engineers will play in it.” To learn more about Numeracle’s identity and reputation protection services, visit https://www.numeracle.com/.