Does it profit an O-RAN to win the globe but lose its core, ask telco CIOs?
The global Telecom Cloud Market will surge forward in the new five years driven by waves of pandemics, policy and panic buyings, says a new report by Fortune Business Insights. Purchasing has created a problem for mobile operators, say the study.
Smartphone users and surging demand for inventive OTT platforms have fuelled raging demand for advanced telecom cloud services from mobile operators all over the world, it says. The Telecom Market Size dossier examined the response by telecoms in categories of enterprise, service model, industry and region. It profiles telcos such as Verizon and BT, equipment makers Ericsson, Nokia and ZTE, software providers like VMware and service providers such as Orange Business Services.
It’s an ill wind..
The study argues that the Covid pandemic forced changes on the industry in response to lockdowns and a mass migration of the workforce. It defines the response, the telecom cloud, as a data centre resource that can efficiently launch and manage a mobile phone network, exploiting the agility it owes to its Virtual Network Functions (VNFs).
According Ericsson’s data, there are 3.5 billion smartphone users across the globe, a 9.3 per cent increase on 2019. This population explosion can only be met by an equally pacy rise in telecom cloud adoption in order to create a foundation of advanced data solutions from which legions of agile apps can be launched, say the report.
You do the OTT and you turn about
“The growing adoption of the OTT platform is another factor that is likely to boost the global telecom cloud market growth during the forecast period. For instance, the cloud platform allows the OTT providers to efficiently migrate, copy and regenerate content to cater to the growing consumer demand globally,” says the report.
North America will remain dominant, says North American owned Fortune. “This dominance is attributable to the increased spending by the companies on developing advanced IT infrastructure that will boost the adoption of efficient telecom cloud solutions in the region between 2020 and 2027,” says the report. Europe is expected to showcase considerable growth backed by the increasing focus on deploying 5G to expedite network services.
Faust impressions are lasting
The report avoids giving any figures and it does not answer the biggest talking point among telecoms CIOs: should you accept an express ride to the cloud from a hyperscaler? Is this a telecoms version of the Faustian pact? BT’s chief architect Neil McRae has described telco cloud devotees as suckers.
T-Mobile’s president of technology Neville Ray has also come out strongly against trusting a third-party cloud computing provider with its network operations, according to Light Reading
Don’t panic, stay in control
There is no need to panic according to Konstantin Besfamylnyi, director of telecom and media at telco software engineering partner Intellias. “Communication service providers don’t [need to] rush impetuously [if they] carefully weigh the pros and cons of each decision to reengineer an enterprise app, service enabler or network function for a cloud,” said Besfamylnyi.
“Workloads that are truly mission-critical will likely stay on-prem or will eventually reside in a hybrid cloud – an environment that combines the on-premises data centre with a public cloud, allowing data and critical apps to be shared between them.”