Veteran Telecommunications Analyst Karl Whitelock Joins IDC

International Data Corporation (IDC) today announced that it has hired Karl Whitelock as Research Vice President, Communications Service Provider (Comms SP) - Operations & Monetization industry practice. With more than 25 years of experience in the communications industry, Whitelock brings strategic insight and global perspectives to the operations and monetization functions of communications service providers.

In his new role, Whitelock will be responsible for IDC’s global telecom operations and monetization strategies and market analysis, market share, and forecast research. In addition, he will provide network virtualization operations development insight and impact analysis of Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) and Software-Defined Networking (SDN) pertaining to the Comms SP operations and monetization functions. He will also provide market insight concerning the multi-partner (B2B2X) ecosystem enablement processes, solution delivery, and monetization as cloud-based solutions and monetization models for the Internet of Things (IoT) take hold.

Prior to joining IDC, Whitelock was the Global Director of Strategy for the Orchestration, Data Analytics & Monetization (ODAM) practice at Stratecast | Frost & Sullivan. In this role, his research focused on changing business and supplier models (B2B2C) and their impact on the operations and monetization functions. Whitelock was also one of the founders of Stratecast Partners where he established the Stratecast Global OSS/BSS Competitive Strategies practice. Before Stratecast, Whitelock held senior positions at Agilent Technologies, OSI, Anderson Consulting (now Accenture), and US West (now CenturyLink) covering solution strategy.

“With a massive 5G upgrade cycle just round the corner, the rapidly evolving communications service provider environment goes well beyond the network to include a blending of the full operations and monetization IT stack with the network itself,” said Rohit Mehra, vice president, Network Infrastructure at IDC. “As virtualization architectures and processes continue to mature at multiple levels, Karl brings a wealth of insight concerning the changing business and network operations requirements, which enhances IDC’s telecom infrastructure perspective on the communications marketplace. We are indeed pleased to welcome Karl to IDC.”

About IDC

International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets. With more than 1,100 analysts worldwide, IDC offers global, regional, and local expertise on technology and industry opportunities and trends in over 110 countries. IDC’s analysis and insight helps IT professionals, business executives, and the investment community to make fact-based technology decisions and to achieve their key business objectives. Founded in 1964, IDC is a wholly-owned subsidiary of International Data Group (IDG), the world’s leading media, data and marketing services company that activates and engages the most influential technology buyers. To learn more about IDC, please visit www.idc.com. Follow IDC on Twitter at @IDC and LinkedIn.