SPONSORED: The migration to cloud native brings large-scale shifts for the communications service providers.

Jennifer Clark, Principal Analyst – Cloud Infrastructure & Edge Computing

January 17, 2022

4 Min Read
New report highlights cloud-native migration challenges

The migration to cloud native brings large-scale shifts for the communications service providers (CSPs), including:

  • The move to microservices

  • Standardized access to these microservices via API exposure

  • The integration of multiple operational layers and domains for application management

  • Automation across the application lifecycle through the use of DevOps

These are profound changes to the application development and management environment of the CSPs, and will be tackled with dedicated internal resources and expanded partnerships with telecommunication equipment vendors (TEMs), integrators and hyperscalers.

To gauge how carriers are planning and implementing cloud-native technology, and in collaboration with Juniper, Nokia and Red Hat, Heavy Reading asked 92 global telco service providers about their plans for transition to cloud native. In our report, "The Journey to Cloud Native," Heavy Reading analyzes the choices service providers are making along the road to cloud native and what challenges they are encountering along the way.

The prospect of cloud native: A little hazy, but clearing

Heavy Reading queried the survey pool about where they were experiencing the greatest challenge in deploying cloud native: the network, operations support systems (OSS), business support systems (BSS), or the enterprise (see Figure 1). Heavy Reading established earlier in the survey that cloud native will be deployed first for network workloads. Respondents plan to transition workloads to the OSS business areas next, then BSS, and lastly, the enterprise.

In almost all cases, respondents ranked the challenges in that same order: first network, then OSS, BSS, and enterprise. The only challenges that were considered more severe in an area other than the network were "in-house development and integration skills" and "development and integration tooling," where the OSS space was recognized as a greater challenge than the network. This is not surprising given that most Tier 1 carriers have dozens of OSS solutions in operation. They do much of any integration work between systems internally and some OSS systems are stand-alone – dedicated to siloed services.

Figure 1: The network space is seeing the most implementations and the most challenges n=92 Q: In which business areas are you experiencing significant challenges to going cloud native? Check all that apply. A larger version of this graphic is right here. (Source: Heavy Reading)

n=92
Q: In which business areas are you experiencing significant challenges to going cloud native? Check all that apply.
A larger version of this graphic is right here.
(Source: Heavy Reading)

Looking only at the survey results from respondents who have already deployed cloud native, (see figure 2), which is half of the respondent pool, there are significant differences compared to the rest of the survey base. In the network area, "tools to deploy and operate at scale" is a greater challenge by 11 percentage points compared to respondents planning to deploy cloud native in one to two years.

"Budget" in the OSS area plummets between those who have not yet deployed cloud native, (57% of respondents considering it a challenge), and those who have already deployed cloud native, (27% of the respondents finding it to be a concern).

Those who have already deployed cloud native also consider all of the challenges in the enterprise area to be greater than the survey base as a whole and all of the challenges in the BSS area to be less of a challenge. Their firsthand experience with implementing cloud native in the network area has opened their eyes to the challenges that await them in the enterprise space. However, they are more confident that they have the support needed, near term, for BSS tasks which include billing, revenue, and customer management.

Figure 2: Respondents that have Already Deployed Cloud Native are Less Concerned with BSS; More Concerned with Enterprise N= 45 n=45: only respondents that have already implemented Cloud Native Q: In which business areas are you experiencing significant challenges to going cloud native? Check all that apply. Click here for a larger version of this graphic. (Source: Heavy Reading)

n=45: only respondents that have already implemented Cloud Native
Q: In which business areas are you experiencing significant challenges to going cloud native? Check all that apply.
Click here for a larger version of this graphic.
(Source: Heavy Reading)

Read the full report for more cloud-native insights

Our findings are a good indication that CSPs today are committed to their journey to cloud native, but face challenges that will require expanded partnerships with the cloud-native ecosystem, including platform vendors, ISVs, TEMs and hyperscalers. To gain more in-depth details of service providers’ perspective on cloud-native migration, download and read the full report now.

— Jennifer Clark, Principal Analyst, Cloud Infrastructure and Edge Computing, Heavy Reading

This blog is sponsored by Heavy Reading.

About the Author(s)

Jennifer Clark

Principal Analyst – Cloud Infrastructure & Edge Computing

Jennifer Pigg Clark is Principal Analyst with Heavy Reading covering Cloud Infrastructure and Edge Computing. Clark provides actionable insight into service provider evolution, examining the challenges and opportunities facing network operators as they move towards 5G and IoT with an increasingly virtualized and cloud native infrastructure. Clark examines the solutions and technology reshaping the telco data center, technologies such as Edge Computing, Open Source, OpenStack, container networking, Network Orchestration, Software Defined Networks (SDN), Network Functions Virtualization (NFV), and SD-WAN. Clark started her industry research career with the Yankee Group, which was acquired by 451 Research in 2013. She held the role of Sr. Vice President at Yankee Group. Prior to joining Yankee Group, Clark was Manager of Network Planning and Strategy for Wang Laboratories'corporate data network. She began her career at Wang with responsibility for the domestic and international roll-out of Wang's packet network, connecting more than 250 locations in 14 countries. Before joining Wang, she was a member of the IT research and development division of Commercial Union Insurance Companies. Clark is a highly regarded speaker at industry seminars and conferences and is frequently cited by the commercial and trade press. She has been a guest lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management and is a member of the IEEE. She holds a B.A. degree from Mount Holyoke College.

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