Cloudcomputig

Operatorsareenthusiasticabouttheopportunities to earnmorerevenuebysellingsoftwareas

aservice or cloudcomputing to customers . Butwait

,

warnsGeorgeMalim: current IT andbilling

systemsmaynotbeup to thetaskof managing them

Operatorsmayneednewsystemsto manageSaaSandcloudservices

Steve Hughes ,

Coltthe terms'

OSS

andBSS'areout of context withthe

newservice deliverymodel

Cloudcomputing andsoftware-as-a-service

offeringspresentanattractivewayforoperators to

generaterevenuesbyprovidingsuchservices to

theirenterprisesubscribers .However

,

themanagementcomplexity of deliveringsuchservicesfallswelloutsidethescope of establishedOSS /

BSSsystems.Current systemsaren' t up to thejob .

" Cancurrentsystemsdeliver? " asksMartinCreaner

,

chairman of

theTMForum." Bydefinitiontoday ,

theanswerhas to beno.

I' d beverysurprised if theycouldbecause theyhaven' t been

designed to do it . Whenyoulookat

Amazonandhowit hasopened itssystem to theoutsideworld

, youcanseethat it hasbeen a hugechallenge ,

andtheirsystems thatarenotthatold. "

Tryandmapthat to DeutscheTelekom,

BTor

AT&T,

hewarns,

and "

rightacrossthebackofficetheyhavegothundreds of systemsandsome of thoseareabsolutelyancient "

.

SteveHughes ,

virtualisation andcloudcomputingspecialistforColt' s managed services

,

is morepositive .

" Thisis possible today . However it requires a

fairlyhighlevelof complexsystemsintegration to

achieve a cohesivecustomerservicedeliveryexperience

,

" hesays." Thechoice of callingthemBSSandOSS is

somewhatoutof

contextwiththisnewservicedeliverymodelasthere is noeasyway to separatethetwosets of functionalityascustomerserviceblursthelinebetweenthetwo. "

Serguei Beloussov,

chiefexecutive at Parallels,

whichprovidesautomationandoptimisationsoftwareto enablecarriers to provide infrastructureapplicationsandonlineservices to enterprises , agrees.

72GlobalTelecomsBusinessCEOandCFOGuide to OSS / BSS :September / October2009

Broaderoptions"

In ourcase,

it' s morethan traditionalOSS,

" hesays."

In cloudcomputingyouhave a muchbroaderset of

componentswith a muchbroaderset of optionssothemanagement stack is notjustfortheoperatorbut a

delegatedstack to include theoperator ,

thedistributor,

thereseller

,

theclientandtheenduser all of whichneedto havetheability to configurethesystemthemselves. "

Butdoesthatmeanyetanother, separatestack

has to beconstructed in isolationfromand,

later,

integrated intotheexistingOSS / BSS in order to runcloudandSaaSpropositions effectively?

Creanercertainlyhopesnot, althoughhedoes

acknowledgesomestandalonefunctionality is required."I don' t view it as a situation of creatingmore

islands of functionality ,

" heexplains .

"

It' s more a

case of upgrading a fewselectcrownjewelswithinthesystem .

However,

it won'tbecheapandthebusiness

casewillhave to becarefullyconstructed . Afterall,

there' s nopointinvesting $50million in systems to

support a servicethatmightgeneraterevenues of $3million in thefirstthreeyears. "

MelBale,

head of 21Capplication engineering at

BT,

sharesCreaner' s view .

"

It' s notnecessary to builda newstack in theOSS / BSSarchitecturebutsomenewfunctionality is required ,

forexample , dependingontheresiliencestrategiesadopted ,

" hesays." However

, moving to a SaaS or cloudmodeldoes

presentanopportunity to simplifysystemsandautomatemoreprocessessuchasordering , auto-recoveryandauto-scaling to meetSLAs. "

Beloussov seesmore of a needforadjunctsystems."

OperatorshaveOSSandBSS in placesotypicallyoursystemworksas a front to thosesystems ,

" headds.

Highreward

Creaneradvocates targetedinvestments;

" Theinvestmentneedsto bemade in makingsystems fit forpurpose ,

" headds .

" Rollout to newcustomersprobablywon'

t beanywherenearasfastasexpected and I thinkthesweetspotwillbeservicesthatrequire a relativelylowlevel of upgrade to balanceagainst a relativelyhighreward. "

Theservicesaren't theissue

,

it'stheplatforms

requiredforthem to runoneffectively .

"

SaaS is

takingoff,

"

saysCreaner .

" Infrastructureas a servicemakeshighlyprovable financialarguments . Platformsas a servicearethetrickyproposition.

"

Hughes at Coltalsoseesthecomplexity .

" Theareathat is of mostcomplexity is themulti-facetednature

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MartinCreaner,

TMForum : it won' t

becheapandthebusinesscasewill

have to becarefullyconstructed

PatrickBossert, Convergys : In the

telecoms BSS worldthedevilis

in the

functionality detail

of theserviceofferthatserviceprovidersaretrying to

bring to market,

" headds."

Combining thenetworkwithcomputingand

storageprovisioning addsa significantamount of workflowintotheprovisioningandmanagementcontrollayers.

" Eachvendor of each layerhasitsownapproachto

this,

" whichcomplicatestheissue "

,

henotes." Furthermore

, byhavingdifferentservicescontrollable bythecustomer

at different layers in theservice

provision ,

a capabilitymustbeput in place to caterforeitherautomatedcontrol or manual intervention

bythecustomerwhilekeepingtheplatformas a

singleset

of resources forallservices. "

Businessefficiency

ThecloudandSaaSdebate is doublesidedforoperators .

Wheretheycangeneraterevenuesbysellingsuchservicesdirectly to theircustomers or managingandbillingforthemonbehalf of thirdparties , theycanalsogenerateefficiencies in theirownbusinesses.

" You' d imaginethattheconcepts wouldhavedualattractions to operators ,

" Creanersays .

" But I believetieroneoperatorswillalwaysruntheirownsystems.Fortiertwoandtierthreeplayers I seeabsolutelynoreasonnot to godownthecloudandSaaSroad.

" Forinstance, outsourcing applicationstore

management to a providerthatrunsthewholethingonanoperator' s behalf

is somethingtheoperator is

comfortablewithbecause it' s a newbusiness,

" hesays." Theircomfort level

is higheronexternallyfacingelements

.In a perfectworld

, youcouldhavethree or

fourcloud-based billingsystemsandseveralservice

management or networkmanagementcapabilitiesprovidedthroughthecloudbutthereality is that I' m

Cloudcomputingnotsureoperatorswilleattheirownfoodfor a whileandmuchuptakebyoperatorswillrelyongreenfielddeployments. "

Others thinkoperatorsarealreadyengagedwhether theyrealise it or not.

"

Althoughcloudcomputingmaybeperceivedasa relatively newphenomenon ,

someprovidershavebeendeliveringservices thisway ,

in somecasesfor,

severalyears,

"

saysAndyWilson,

vicepresidentof

salesandmarketing atCTIGroup .

"

Arguably manyof theseplayershavealreadymoved to thiseffective

deliverywithoutevenrealising it.

"

Bale at BTfreelyadmitsthis :

" BTalreadyusessomeSaaS-based servicesprovidedbyothersinternally andsellsotherservicesasSaaSofferings . Wehavealsodevelopedvirtualisedandcloudcomputeplatforms foruseinternallyandofferings in themarketplace ,

" headds.

Segmentedmarket

PatrickBossert,

head ofmarketstrategy at Convergys ,

agreesbutseesgreatchallengesaheadasthemarkethassegmenteditself in threeways . Heseesbillingenablers to SaaSprovidersemerging alongsideSaaS

billingprovidersandSaaSmarketplacesandresellerssuchasAmazon

,

OracleandOrangeBusinessservices." Therearemanyin-the-cloudbillingoptions

availabletoday ,

"

saysBossert .

" Effectivedelivery reliesonoffersfromallthreesegmentsworkingtogetherasasolution .Most of themarketisn'

t therevet,

withmanyservicesprovidersofferingtheirownhostedsolutionratherthanoffering it truly in thecloudviaa marketplace .

" Onlywhenyoucombineallthreedoyouget a trulyeffectiveofferingthatcandeliver at

thesort of price-points thatmakeSaaSbilling a

differentiated market in itsownright."

Evenso,

vendorscan't providesuchserviceson a

whim,

" Effectivenessdependsonhowwellthesoftware is designed ,

" addsWilson .

"

Itmustcomplement

theworkings ofanoperator in itsgeneralday-to-day

existence .There is potentialforaspects of such

billingservices to beoffered in a SaaSdelivery , workingto a payperminutemodel.

" However,

in thismorefluidformatonemustensurethatdatabeingshared is securely lockeddownwhilst

beingtransported or deliveredonanad-hocbasis. "

Bossertalsoemphasisesthatthesheercomplexityof operatorbillingcan'

tbeignoredbySaaS

propositions .

" There' s nodoubtingthecapability of some of

thenewerSaaSbillers,

but in thetelecomsBSSworldthedevil is

in thefunctionalitydetail,

" hesays." Weaddover90features to ourcorebilling

product everyyear to giveourcustomers therichness of

functionalitytheirmarketingdepartmentsarelooking

for.TheSaaSofferingsarelikewindingtheclock

backby a decade. "

Baleseestwokeytechnologychallenges forservice

providers ;

" One is theimmaturity of some

technologyforOSSsystems ,

" hesays .

" Two is thelimitedavailability of enterprise-scaleapplications designed

torun in a cloud or SaaSenvironment.

Operationally ,

themainchallenge isto significantly

increasethelevel ofautomation

, particularlyaroundIT managementandservice-level managementsoas

to reapthebenefitscloud or SaaScanprovide."

-

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