Telco s enterprise offerings for SMB s over cloud

Abstract

Over the past few years, Cloud computing has been one of the key technology trends driving the IT industry. Realizing the trend, OTT web service players like VMware, Amazon, Sales Force etc. are providing cloud solutions by integrating platforms and vendors supporting such solutions. Reduced capital expenditure, quicker time to market and reduced operating costs are some of the prime advantages provided by these solutions and thus rising SMB (Small and Medium Business) enterprises are one of the major users of the same. Currently these cloud solutions offer storage and computing facilities so that various applications can be run by the enterprises on a pay-per-need basis. But they remain secluded from the actual communication service provider, thus making the enterprises deal with multiple providers while taking a cloud solution. With the network-centric nature of the services used over the cloud, it is imperative that such services provide an end-to-end solution. This is where the Telco s come in and in fact possess a much higher capability of leveraging their existing infrastructure to provide such solutions themselves. Telco s have been traditionally seen as bit pipe providers. But not only do they have control on the data being sent across this pipe, they also possess decades of experience in providing security, managing the quality of service , providing extremely efficient fault monitoring, management and billing solutions (OSS/BSS). More importantly Telco s have the biggest advantage of being closest to the customers. These advantages, coupled with their investments in creating data centres, provide them with the ability to deliver the cloud technology as an end-to-end service. In addition, Telco s have been struggling with their margins lately and innovations have not been coming to the fore at a very high pace. They are under increased pressure from the cloud players since the customers adopting these solutions have high bandwidth requirements and at the same time the OTT cloud solution providers do not have a revenue sharing business model with the Telco s. Thus it s a great opportunity for Telco s to increase their presence and enter newer markets with innovative solutions and business models. Having said that, is it so obvious and easy for Telco s to move into the market? Can they leverage their strengths and experience to capitalize and sustain their business as cloud solution providers? What cloud services should the Telco s concentrate on (SaaS, PaaS, IaaS)? How can Telco s move higher up in the cloud value chain and will it really benefit them? How will they play out this game and what does the SMB market hold for them? What does this mean for all the players involved in the complete ecosystem (Telco s, OTT web service players and equipment vendors)? The project intends to understand this market and the Telco SMB offerings and there by analyze and answer the above questions. The methodology used would primarily comprise of survey of senior managers at Telco s, at network equipment manufacturers and at IT service providers who provide cloud solutions.