Viewpoint
With its roots in the 60s and 70s, when IBM came up with the revolutionary concept before even PCs were around, virtualization has been around for a while. It is only in the last ten years or so though that it has really started to take off with technologies like SDN and NFV coming to the force. Alongside this, we have seen the rise of cloud computing – with all three concepts being a must-have for telcos looking for more agile operations and reduced OpEx.
Indeed, many service providers have already deployed some or all of these technologies and are reaping the benefits – but are they missing a trick? While reduced OpEx is all well and good, additional revenue is what lies at the core of the most successful business plans and it is this which many Service Providers are yet to take advantage of, with the cloud era offering huge opportunities to expand their business landscape and optimize their revenue structures.
This opportunity comes from the increasing number of players entering the cloud arena, including governments, Internet service providers, telecom operators, and IT service providers. Telecom operators are in the best position to utilise cloud technology and build the IT architecture on which all of these services can run. In order to do this, market-driven and agile innovation will be required – both in the networks and in telcos’ business models.
From a technology point of view, this is relatively easy thanks to the advances made in NFV, SDN and cloudification, with the technologies enabling operators to quickly add new service features or launch new services with reduced time to market.
But technologies can only do so much and for operators to truly reap the rewards, their business models must also be transformed so that a horizontally unified service network layer can be created, avoiding further creation of the silos that communications-centric operations have led to in many cases. With this unified and enhanced service network layer, network resources, applications, business processes and more can be fully integrated, helping operators to gain new revenue from individual users, enterprises and cross-industry offerings.
Business Support Systems and Operation Support Systems should also be looked at due to the inevitable new marketing actions which are unlikely to be fully supported by traditional BSS/OSS. A light, flexible BSS/OSS will be required to go with the service network transformation so that operators can explore the new business potential. In addition, business-to-business (B2B) interfaces should be built and cross-industry projects integrated, opening up the telecom IT architecture to those businesses pushing forward cloud-based services.
Of course, while this sounds fairly straightforward on paper, the process will be much more complex – which is exactly why Huawei, in conjunction with the UN Broadband Commission, will host its third annual Ultra-Broadband Forum in Frankfurt, Germany, from Thursday, September 29 to Friday, September 30. In addition to the line-up of speakers which will explore the future of cloud, Huawei will also exhibit its suite of solutions for the cloud era, enabling telcos to take full advantage of the business opportunities it will bring
