Bell Labs shifts focus to cloud and networking products

March 18, 2013

Facing a rapidly evolving technology market, Bell Labs is paying more attention to projects that can bring it short-term gains, in areas such as software. "The biggest challenge we face is speed," said Bell Labs' president Gee Rittenhouse in an interview last week. "The challenge for Bell Laboratories is to be the best in the world, and solve the absolute hardest problems. But also doing it in a way that has relevance in this very fast pace, innovation market." Bell Labs is the research division of networking equipment supplier Alcatel-Lucent. Last month, the company appointed Rittenhouse as the new leader of the nearly 90-year-old famed research group, known for inventing the first transistor, along with a whole host of other technological innovations and discoveries. During his tenure, Rittenhouse plans to steer Bell Labs more toward software products related to networking and cloud computing. Product priorities "We want to still be the innovation arm of Alcatel-Lucent that continues to amaze and surprise people. But I think in order to do that we do have to change somewhat," he said. "As the industry moves toward dynamic networks, distributed systems, Bell Labs also has to move toward those directions." To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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