VanillaPlus Magazine Q1 2021: The shape of the transformed CSP is starting to emerge

In this issue:

• TALKING HEADS: VMware’s Shekar Ayyar and Kaniz Mahdi tell George Malim why CSPs can be the next cloud leaders, rather than just partners in the multi-cloud value chain
• O-RAN ANALYST REPORT: Appledore Research’s Francis Haysom details why the future RAN is open in our specially-commissioned 7-page analyst authored report.
• MULTI-CLOUD REPORT: George Malim asks whether multi-cloud means CSPs can monetise beyond infrastructure? (VM WARE)
• INTERVIEW: Viavi Solutions’ Paul Gowans tells George Malim why assurance and analytics are ready to play a fundamental role in open RAN and 5G core enablement. (VIAVI)
• AUTOMATED ACCESS PRICING: James Grant describes how automated access pricing is making self-serve real-time global connectivity a reality.
• IoT BIG DATA: Richard Stevenson reveals the importance of geospatial information to IoT big data analytics.
• CASE STUDY: How to become a digital service provider unicorn.

 

Editor’s Comment:

Telecoms transformation has taken up its position as part of the wider digital transformation that is revolutionising not just telecoms but business in general. This enormous effort contains the components listed above and a subset of highly specific capabilities that includes but isn’t limited to network slicing, network functions virtualisation, small cells, artificial intelligence, machine learning and software-defined everything. I’ve certainly spent more than the last decade grappling with many of these and explaining the potential benefits. New thinking that extends across disciplines has introduced new areas of expertise and many careers have been made in these subjects. However, as the grunt work of creating each has continued, it has been easy to forget the destination of having these new capabilities work with and feed each other. That’s where the real value lies – the open radio access network (RAN) connecting the multi-access edge compute (MEC) capability with the cloud (of which there are many types) and onwards to data analytics to deliver near real-time insights on which virtualised systems can act automatically. CSPs, thanks to their efforts, have more than one finger in each of these technological pies and, still thanks to their network supremacy, can occupy a uniquely unifying role. If you think of the future digital world as being built like a ship in a bottle, all the pieces have been painstakingly created and put into position in the bottle. Now to create the finished product, someone needs to pull the string to make the masts rise and the sails unfurl. Traditionally, the string-puller in this scenario would not have been a CSP but, as this issue of VanillaPlus details, there’s no reason why, this time, it can’t be them performing and being rewarded for being the orchestrators of the multi- cloud, software-defined hyper-connected world. Of course, even that isn’t the final destination, or the finished product and the transformation continues.   George Malim Managing Editor  

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