Panel: The Power of Precision: Why Time as a Service Matters#

Jos van Eycken - Adtran, Michael van Schaik - VSL, Jan van Boeschoten - AMS-IX, Erwin uit de Bos - Digital Realty, Miguel Regalado Querol - AMS-IX

• Why: Not something this PM would search for, but the panel composition is the tell: a national metrology institute (VSL), an optical/timing vendor (Adtran), a datacenter operator (Digital Realty), and an IX. That mix means the talk is about distributing precision timing (think PTP-class accuracy) as a commercial/managed service into datacenters — a small field today that grows as 5G, sensing, HFT, and distributed measurement workloads demand better than NTP.
• What: A panel arguing for "time as a service" — delivering precision timing as an offered service rather than something each operator builds. (No description published — from title and panel composition only.)
• How: Not stated. The mechanics to listen for: how precise timing survives last-mile distribution into a facility, how it's monitored and held to SLA, and what a DC operator (Digital Realty's presence) has to change to deliver it.
• Where applicable: Multi-tenant facilities and any operator whose customers need audited, accurate time; the metrology-institute involvement suggests a standards/traceability angle. Genuinely emerging — few places to hear this discussed. Title and panel-composition only; this is the program's best "glad I saw it" pick.