Networks are rapidly changing and to gain and retain competitive advantage communications service providers (CSPs) need to focus on migrating their business support systems (BSS) and operational support systems (OSS) to the cloud. However, CSPs are adopting different cloud migration strategies for this transition, some of which could hinder their digital transformation initiatives, and place them at a distinct competitive disadvantage, says Ari Banerjee, senior VP of strategy at Netcracker Technology.
While there is clear direction towards cloud migration (both telco cloud and public cloud), the journey is slow and varies greatly across operators. Recently TM Forum, in conjunction with Netcracker, conducted a global survey of 160 respondents across 70 CSPs to gain insights into their perceptions around cloud transformation. A key factor in operators’ measured approach to migration was found in that a whopping three out of four respondents disclosed that less than 15% of their IT workloads have moved to the cloud. Althoughthe reasons varied, three justifications were prominently cited.
First, many CSPs still encounter problems making a business case for migrating applications to the cloud. Second, the “lift and shift” approach to cloud adoption has held back migration, as it yielded virtually no benefits. And finally, cloud maturity varies across telecoms operators, where smaller CSPs and ones located in regions with less cloud maturity are lagging behind their counterparts. Even though most CSPs continue to take a pragmatic approach, cloud migration strategies and levels of commitment are rapidly changing.
Cloud migration: The discussion is shifting
Initially, CSPs did a “lift and shift” of certain BSS functions to public the cloud, leaving the rest as well as some OSS and online charging systems (OCS) functions, that integrate directly to the network, within the telco cloud. While “lift and shift” provides a certain level of benefits, including faster cloud migration with no changes to the IT application, they are more limited than taking a cloud native strategy.
As a result, manyCSPs are increasingly opting for cloud native approaches to unlock the real benefits of cloud adoption. By building or redesigning BSS/OSS applications to natively run on cloud, CSPs can upgrade specific components rather than the entire, and take advantage of software-as-a-service (SaaS) commercial models with evergreen upgrades to gain real business benefits. The availability of IT as a service (ITaaS) platforms facilitated a change in this approach, even for functions that integrate directly to the network, are containerised, or virtualised – providing more options and benefits. Cloud native evangelists primarily CDOs, CIOs, and CTOs are the driving force behind the cloud native push, and as more Tier 1 operators commit to a cloud native approach, best practices will be developed, aiding Tier 2 and Tier 3 CSPs on their cloud migration journey.
When developing a cloud migration strategy, operators should look into transforming and retiring some of their legacy workloads, simplifying the architecture, and moving to cloud native to realise exponentially more options and advantages.
Which cloud migration approach?
When evaluating cloud migration, there are many factors to take into consideration such as security, control, and cost. Whilst public cloud is becoming more popular with CSPs, with many initially opting for a single supplier, CSPs are still keen, at least into the foreseeable future, to maintain some of their IT applications on their own cloud platform. The TM Forum survey revealed that a hybrid public and private cloud approach was the most popular, with 66% of respondents voting for this model.
Some clear advantages of running cloud-native IT workloads on public cloud include instant access to on-demand scaling, common CI/CD (continuous integration/continuous delivery and continuous deployment) pipelines, simpler disaster recovery, and new SaaS delivery models. All whilst achieving significant cost savings.
However, many countries have strict rules around regulation, General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and data sovereignty, making it difficult for operators to move all their applications to a public cloud. For these reasons, a hybrid cloud migration approach is the most viable option for most CSPs. Essentially, when determining where apps and functions should reside, workload requirements should be a key determining factor. And any IT cloud-native workload must accommodate both platforms.
Customer-facing IT applications, including revenue management, sales, customer management, marketing, and e-commerce are migrating the fastest to cloud. And any new applications, such as converged charging for 5G, start with cloud on day one. Unlike customer-facing apps, legacy and back-end applications don’t require the flexibility and scalability provided by the cloud, making them secondary in cloud migration strategies.
Monetising the 5G network
BSS/OSS cloud migration is a complicated and time-consuming endeavour that entails many considerations such as the CSPs’ strategic vision, support from partners and suppliers, and having the right skills in place. However, if operators need to hire network engineers to manually configure services, slices, and private networks, monetisation of 5G will remain out of reach.
Realising the full potential of 5G requires networks, services, and slices to be dynamic and rapidly deployable, scale on-demand, continuously optimised to meet service level agreements (SLAs), and have the ability to resolve issues without impacting services. To attain 5G monetisation goals, service orchestration must provide a real-time end-to-end view across all technology and cloud domains. To make this a reality, CSP frontrunners are developing partnerships with cloud service platform providers and digital transformation solutions and services vendors to define and develop roadmaps that will accelerate their digital transformation.
While cloud migration continues to be a lengthy and laborious undertaking, CSPs understand that to gain competitive advantage they must be first to market with new offerings, deliver the customised solutions customers want, and generate new revenue streams from 5G capabilities and vertical industry opportunities. However, gaining competitive advantage relies on expediting digital transformation initiatives, which has led many CSPs to form trusted alliances with partners and suppliers. The opportunities presented by 5G and slicing are virtually endless. 5G, cloud, and edge technologies have the potential to transform industrial and service sectors, providing CSPs with the opportunity to diversify and capture markets previously out of reach.
The author is Ari Banerjee, senior VP of strategy at Netcracker Technology.
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