Orange Business Services is pursuing a global Telco Cloud strategy with major hubs now in 45 cities worldwide and soon expanding to the hundreds. Capabilities will include advanced services powered by Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) nodes, as well as hosting cloud-based solutions from multiple vendors.
Here is an overview from Franck Morales, Vice President, Evolution Platform, Orange Business Services.
Join us on a 1-mile walk around central San Jose, California to discuss some of the big trends around Telco Cloud and Edge while enjoying the scenery.
Telstra and Microsoft announced a five-year agreement that significantly expands their existing strategic partnership.
The arrangement is believed to be one of the largest partnerships Microsoft has established with a telecommunications provider globally.
Telstra to become Microsoft’s largest supplier of its network capacity requirements on terrestrial fibre in Australia. Microsoft will become an anchor tenant on Telstra’s new ultra-fast intercity fibre network.
Some other key aims:
Microsoft will also explore boosting its capacity on Telstra’s leading Asia-Pacific subsea cable network.
The organisations will also continue to co-develop products that reimagine familiar experiences and merge the network and the cloud to create new offers. For example, Telstra and Microsoft recently co-developed Branch Offload, Australia’s first 5G-enabled edge computing solution for enterprises. The solution blends Telstra’s 5G and fixed connectivity with Microsoft Azure Stack Edge for edge computing, secure edge, SD-WAN and service orchestration, and is delivered by Telstra Purple.
Telstra CEO Andrew Penn comments: “Our strategic partnership with Microsoft is on a scale not seen before in Australia, and it will be Australian businesses who will benefit at a time when the urgency to digitise and transform their operations has never been greater.”
“Digital technology is foundational to the resilience and differentiation of every organisation,” said Satya Nadella, Chairman and CEO, Microsoft. “Our partnership brings together Telstra’s leadership in network connectivity with the breadth and depth of the Microsoft Cloud to address key challenges, including hybrid work and sustainability, and support Australia’s growth.”
https://www.telstra.com.au/aboutus/media/media-releases/telstra-and-microsoft-sign-five-year-agreement
Telenor and AWS announced a collaboration agreement focused on new 5G and edge services.
The companies plan joint go-to-market activities in select industries—such as manufacturing, supply chain and logistics, and automotive.
Telenor, which becomes a member of the AWS Partner Network, plans to scale its cloud footprint while innovating to develop new services that use a combination of the most advanced and secure cloud technologies from AWS.
Working with AWS, Telenor has already implemented an entire mobile core, running in the cloud, for Vimla—Telenor’s virtual mobile network operator brand in Sweden. Vimla uses a wide range of AWS services, including Amazon ElastiCache, AWS Lambda, AWS Transit Gateway, and others . The new cloud-based mobile core at Vimla is developed and managed as-a-service by Working Group Two, a company incubated by Telenor.
“Working with AWS, we are continuing to advance and modernise the telecommunications industry—digitalising and expanding our offerings beyond connectivity. Together, we are building on our individual strengths and scaling secure, robust, and advanced cloud services, alongside the latest networking technology, for our customers much faster than we could ever do before. Our shared ambition is to use scalable and flexible building blocks from AWS to continuously raise the bar for what’s possible,” says Sigve Brekke, President and CEO of Telenor Group.
“Telenor is pushing the boundaries of innovation by running their Vimla core on AWS. Cloud technology is allowing Telenor to scale their network in a way that was not possible before and is allowing them to experiment and develop new experiences for customers to keep them engaged, entertained, and online. We are pleased to collaborate with Telenor as they continue to expand this innovative work to other parts of their business,” says Adam Selipsky, CEO of AWS.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced a new managed service that helps enterprises set up and scale private 5G mobile networks using license-free CBRS spectrum.
Customers of the forthcoming AWS Private 5G service will be able to use the AWS console to specify where they want to build a mobile network and the network capacity needed for their devices. AWS will then deliver and maintain the small cell radio units, servers, 5G core and radio access network (RAN) software, and subscriber identity modules (SIM cards) required to set up a private 5G network and connect devices. AWS Private 5G automates the setup and deployment of the network and scales capacity on demand to support additional devices and increased network traffic. Pricing is based on network capacity and throughput. There are no upfront fees or per-device costs.
“Many of our customers want to leverage the power of 5G to establish their own private networks on premises, but they tell us that the current approaches make it time-consuming, difficult, and expensive to set up and deploy private networks,” said David Brown, Vice President, EC2 at AWS. “With AWS Private 5G, we’re extending hybrid infrastructure to customers’ 5G networks to make it simple, quick, and inexpensive to set up a private 5G network. Customers can start small and scale on-demand, pay as they go, and monitor and manage their network from the AWS console.”
https://aws.amazon.com/private5g/?nc2=h_ql_re_nw
AT&T will power its mobile network on Microsoft's Azure for Operators cloud starting with the 5G and migrating existing and future workloads over time. Microsoft will assume responsibility for both software development and deployment of AT&T’s Network Cloud immediately and bring AT&T’s existing network cloud to Azure over the next three years. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Under an expanded strategic alliance between the firms, AT&T will continue to operate its network and retain its customer relationships. Microsoft is acquiring AT&T’s Network Cloud platform, which has been running the 5G core since AT&T launched 5G in 2018. In addition, Microsoft will gain access to AT&T’s intellectual property and technical expertise to grow its telecom flagship offering, Azure for Operators. AT&T's engineering team for Network Cloud will be transferred to Microsoft.
AT&T said that by adopting to Microsoft’s hybrid and hyperscale infrastructure it will substantially reduce engineering and development costs.
“AT&T has one of the world’s most powerful global backbone networks serving hundreds of millions of subscribers. Our Network Cloud team has proved that running a network in the cloud drives speed, security, cost improvements and innovation. Microsoft’s decision to acquire these assets is a testament to AT&T’s leadership in network virtualization, culture of innovation, and realization of a telco-grade cloud stack,” said Andre Fuetsch, executive vice president and chief technology officer, AT&T. “The next step is making this capability accessible to operators around the world and ensuring it has the resources behind it to continue to evolve and improve. And do it securely. Microsoft’s cloud expertise and global reach make them the perfect fit for this next phase.”
Microsoft said the deal builds on its 2020 acquisitions of Affirmed Networks and Metaswitch Networks.
“With Azure, operators can provide a more flexible and scalable service model, save infrastructure cost, and use AI to automate operations and differentiate customer offerings,” said Jason Zander, executive vice president Azure, Microsoft. “Through our collaboration with AT&T, Microsoft will expand its telecom portfolio to support operators with a carrier-grade cloud that provides seamless experiences across Microsoft’s cloud and the operator’s network.”
Google Cloud and Intel agreed to develop telco cloud reference architectures and integrated solutions for communication service providers to accelerate 5G deployment across multiple network and edge locations.
The partnership is focused on:
“Communications service providers can adopt cloud-native technologies to harness the potential of 5G both as a connectivity solution and as a business services platform to deliver applications to the network edge,” said Shailesh Shukla, vice president and general manager of networking at Google Cloud. “Expanding on our work with the telecommunications industry, we are excited to work with Intel to help customers plan, test and deploy the technology and infrastructure needed to accelerate the delivery of cloud-native 5G for consumer and enterprise use cases.”
Intel said the collaboration marks another important step forward in its journey to help transform the 5G network with a software-defined, agile and scalable infrastructure.
“The next wave of network transformation is fueled by 5G and is driving a rapid transition to cloud-native technologies. As communications service providers build out their 5G network infrastructure, our efforts with Google and the broader ecosystem will help them deliver agile, scalable solutions for emerging 5G and edge use cases,” said Dan Rodriguez, corporate vice president and general manager of the Network Platforms Group at Intel.
Google Cloud said it is working closely with Intel in three main areas: accelerating the ability of communications service providers to deploy their Virtualized RAN (vRAN) and Open Radio Access Network (ORAN) solutions by providing next-generation infrastructure and hardware, launching new lab environments to help communications service providers innovate on cloud-native 5G, and making it easier for them to deliver business applications to the network edge.
Regarding 5G vRAN deployments, the architecture will leverage Google Cloud’s global infrastructure and capabilities alongside Intel’s FlexRAN reference software; Intel’s cloud-native Open Network Edge Service Software (OpenNESS) deployment model and best practices applicable to Anthos; Intel’s Data Plane Development Kit (DPDK) and hardware infrastructure based on Intel Xeon processors; and New reference architecture and solutions to accelerate 5G vRAN with Anthos, an application platform.
In addition, Google Cloud will jointly launch a Network Functions Validation lab and collaborate with Intel to support vendors in testing, optimizing, and validating their core network functions running on Google Cloud’s Anthos for Telecom platform.
Google Cloud and Nokia announced a global, strategic partnership focused on cloud-native solutions for communications service providers (CSPs), including a cloud-native 5G Core and a network edge for business services.
Under this partnership, Google Cloud and Nokia will work closely to validate, optimize and evolve cloud-native network functions, and the two companies will also co-innovate new solutions that will help CSPs deliver 5G connectivity and services at scale.
Nokia is supplying its voice core, cloud packet core, network exposure function, data management, signaling, and 5G core. This includes Nokia’s IMPACT IoT Connected Device Platform, which enables automated, zero-touch activation and allows for remote management of IoT devices, as well as Nokia’s Converged Charging solution provides real-time rating and charging capabilities
Google Cloud’s Anthos for Telecom will serve as the platform for deploying applications, enabling CSPs to build an ecosystem of services that are deployable anywhere, from the edge of the network, to public clouds, private clouds and carrier networks. By delivering cloud-native applications at the edge, businesses can benefit from lower latency and reduce the need for costly, on-site infrastructure, enabling them to transform their businesses in industries such as smart retail, connected manufacturing and digital consumer experiences.
George Nazi, VP, Telco, Media & Entertainment Industry Solutions at Google Cloud, said: “Communications service providers have a tremendous opportunity ahead of them to support businesses’ digital transformations at the network edge through both 5G connectivity and cloud-native applications and capabilities. Doing so requires modernized infrastructure, built for a cloud-native 5G core, and we’re proud to partner with Nokia to help the telecommunications industry expand and support these customers.”
Ron Haberman, CTO of Cloud and Network Services at Nokia, said: “In the past five years, the telecom industry has evolved from physical appliances to virtual network functions and now cloud-native solutions. Nokia is excited to work with Google Cloud in service of our customers, both CSPs and enterprise, to provide choice and freedom to run workloads on premise and in the public cloud. Cloud-native network functions and automation will enable new agility and use-cases in the 5G era.”
In a news release, Neil McRae, Chief Architect at BT Group, and Alex Choi, SVP, Strategy and Technology Innovation at Deutsche Telekom, voiced their support for the Google-Nokia partnership.
by Danielle Royston, Founder, TelcoDR
A telco will figure out how to really use the public cloud and save 50% on its IT costs – or more
How will it happen? It'll move a ton of software to the cloud and prove: 1) it works; 2) it’ll save a ton of money (the company that embraces the software of the public cloud will see a 50% savings on IT costs); 3) life is sweet! (And way sweeter than it ever was before. I’m talking about taking the oldest, suckiest, super unsexy legacy applications and refactoring them for 90% savings.)
Who’ll be the bold telco? Definitely not a company in the US. Sorry America. It’ll likely be based in Asia, which has moved on from dumb private cloud, and we’ve already seen examples of successful moves to public cloud in this region (take a bow, M1).
In 2021 we might be going back to 1981-style boldness, but it’ll be a huge move forward for modernizing the telco industry. A bold telco will successfully transition to the public cloud and show everyone else how it’s done. Note to everyone else: be prepared, this change will require all hands on deck.
Telcos will take the wrong approach – and fail
Alongside public cloud success, we’ll also witness public cloud failure in 2021. Without a proper understanding of the cloud ecosystem – and what ‘cloud native’ means: see my 2020 round-up above – telcos will foot some spectacular fuck-ups. On that note: if you want to avoid being that telco, look for my blog in January where I’ll clarify cloud language and explain how each part of the telco business can benefit.
Back to those failures though. It’s common sense to move to the public cloud, but there are still so many misconceptions that telcos will get bound in. It’s not just about infrastructure and IT, for instance. It requires a top-down, organization-wide cultural change. It requires clear communication.
Wrong moves will result in failure. Or, if not complete failure, then a load of back-tracking, additional costs and tails between legs. No one wants to hear ‘I told you so.’ Bank of America probably didn’t. For almost a decade, the institution was adamant that ignoring public cloud and obsessing about its vanity project (aka, building its own private cloud) was the way to go. It wasn’t. In 2019, Brian Moynihan, BofA chairman of the board and CEO, admitted that although it had been pursuing private cloud – and spending on private cloud – third-party cloud providers are 25-30% "cheaper.” It then teamed with IBM to develop a public-cloud computing service for banks.
There’s also the cautionary tale of Verizon, a company that thought it was a great idea to spend $1.4 billion on data center provider Terremark. It later realized it couldn’t compete with the might of the hyperscalers and dumped the business on Equinix.
People will fall for IBM’s #fakecloud
You thought the claws of Oracle were bad? In 2021, you’ll see it’s IBM that has the real talons.
In November IBM launched its cloud-for-telco play. Unfortunately for telco – and bad luck for buyers – Big Blue launched a big crock of shit. This is not cloud. It was fake news. It’s #fakecloud. In 2021 we’ll see the results from the poor suckers who’ve invested and we’ll hopefully see a greater realization that a hybrid strategy and a half-assed move to the cloud will never work.
At launch, IBM tried to persuade telco to keep things on-premise. If you do move to the BFCs, then IBM can manage it all for you. What they didn’t mention was that this would happen at a cost, and it’d be a massive waste of time. Telcos that fell for this trap last year will be adding five more years to their public cloud journey, by which time they’ll be way behind competitors that saved time and money, and whose customers love the service they offer.
Be wary of IBM, my telco children. Do not fall for the trap!
OpenRAN will explode
The tail end of 2020 saw OpenRAN start to bubble rapidly to the surface of telco conversations. In 2021, it’s gonna explode. Vendors: be afraid, be very afraid. Ericsson’s revenue will slip even further through its fingers – something it already admitted last year, when CEO Börje Ekholm said he expected OpenRAN market developments to “impact revenues” from 2023 onwards.
Other vendors will hemorrhage revenue as telcos realize that there is (finally!) an alternative to overpriced infrastructure and vendor lock-in. They’ll get choice, at last, picking and choosing best-of-breed elements from whomever the hell they want! More features will be driven into software. Networks will be easier and cheaper to maintain, easier and cheaper to upgrade. Spend on RAN will go from historic levels of around 90% of total spend to 50XX%. It might not be next year, but the development and industry excitement around disaggregated network components will certainly define the trajectory of telcos’ decision making next year.
Pioneers like Rakuten will gain column inches and market share next year. It’s no wonder: Rakuten claims operators can reduce capex CAPEX by 40% with its telco-in-a-box network. Vodafone has also been staking its claim in the OpenRAN space: last November it announced it would be deploying OpenRAN technology at 2,600 mobile sites across Wales and the South West of England.
Experimentation is the name of the game here. There might be failures along the way, but telcos will be less afraid of dipping their toe in the OpenRAN water. This will gear them up for taking a plunge in the public cloud ocean down the line.
There’ll always be another G
You can’t move nowadays without being bombarded with something about a ‘G.’ Clearly people believe the hype – 5G networks will cover an estimated one billion people by the end of the year, attracting 220 million subscriptions, according to Ericsson. And it’s not all about faster speeds and greater capacity … research suggests 5G is 90% more energy efficient than legacy mobile infrastructure.
Telcos are set to ramp-up 5G investment in 2021, according to Fitch Ratings, which has warned there will be increased pressure on credit metrics for most worldwide. Free cash flow, it says, will be constrained over the next three years. But if telcos believe they can monetize all 5G capex by simply boosting customer experience, that’s just not possible. Instead, they should focus on bringing new forms of life into reality with the help of 5G – I’m thinking best-in-class remote work, e-learning and virtual services.
That capex pressure will only increase with demands for more connections, higher speeds, greater capacity. Telcos simply can’t afford NOT to move to the public cloud, helping them to further enrich their offerings, as well as cut time and costs with reduced latency. Only the foolish would add to that capex pressure by building their own cloud – remove that headache by using the BFCs!
Amdocsreached a new multi-year, strategic agreement with Amazon Web Services to deliver integrated, cloud-native Business Support Systems (BSS) offerings for communications service providers (CSPs).
Amdocs and AWS will offer CSPs access to a cloud-native, open and dynamic portfolio of digital services that gives them faster time to market and higher agility to meet the evolving needs of customers. As part of the deal, AWS will be Amdocs’ preferred cloud provider for Amdocs’ internal IT transformation to enable new operating models, reduced operating costs, and help transform their business in the cloud. This agreement expands on existing work between AWS and Amdocs to enable Amdocs’ BSS and service automation portfolio to run natively on AWS.
“AWS and Amdocs are laser focused on accelerating the journey to the cloud for CSP’s around the world. Leveraging our combined global scale, cloud capabilities and industry leading products, we have created a unique carrier-grade cloud portfolio that addresses the needs of every customer,” said Shuky Sheffer, President and Chief Executive Officer of Amdocs Management Limited. “As we see the increased adoption of 5G, IoT and edge technologies powering and monetizing both consumer and enterprise experiences, we are excited to collaborate with AWS to drive industry growth through innovation and business agility on the cloud.”
“Together, Amdocs and AWS are providing the world’s largest telecommunications providers with a full portfolio of cloud services to help them reduce costs, innovate faster, and deliver business-critical communication services with the utmost flexibility, reliability and scalability,” said Andy Jassy, Chief Executive Officer of Amazon Web Services, Inc. “By integrating AWS and Amdocs’ business operations and cloud-native solutions, CSPs now have the ability to create new revenue streams, speed up the introduction of new cloud-based services and enhance the customer experience through machine learning.”
