April / May 2015 Volume 17 Issue 2 ISSN 1745-1736 ■ ANALYST REPORT Analysys Mason reports on NFV's advance to commercialisation ■ TALKING HEADS Luke Taylor says new markets mean new risks for CSPs ■ BIG DATA ANALYTICS NFV Virtualisation technology What's the virtual reality for CSPs? isn't complex, everything surrounding it is PLUS: InfoVista acquires Ipanema for app performance management ■ Telefónica appoints NEC as global integrator for SMB cloud services ■ WeDo launches latest version of RAID ■ T-Mobile Austria chooses Openet online charging ■ Comptel extends POST Technologies relationship into 18th year ■ VanillaPlus TMF Live! 2015 preview ■ Read the latest news, opinion, blogs and features at www.vanillaplus.com THE GLOBAL VOICE FOR B/OSS YOU MAKE MONEY WHERE OTHERS DARE NOT TREAD You use telecom-specific analytics to know what customers want and advanced Service Enablement to create and deliver it, fast. You can manage the cloud and virtual network in real time. You swiftly roll out networks with accelerated plan-to-provision. You let partners use your component-based catalog to build on your assets and increase your revenues. You are an Agile Operator, powered by the Ericsson Agility Suite. And you are changing what’s possible in telecom. YOU ARE THE AGILE OPERATOR ericsson.com/ossbss @EricssonOSSBSS CONTENTS IN THIS ISSUE 4 EDITOR’S COMMENT George Malim wonders if we’re going too far in our attitudes to automation and virtualisation Luke Taylor warns that new 5 INDUSTRY NEWS What’s the virtual reality? markets and new services InfoVista buys Ipanema, RootMetrics sold to IHS to provide network analytics increase revenue and fraud risks 6 PRODUCT NEWS Oracle enhances RODOD for streamlined B2B order delivery, WeDo goes beyond revenue and fraud data with new version of RAID 8 MARKET NEWS 23 13 NEC scores global integrator deal with Telefónica, DigitalRoute survey predicts more collaboration between CSPs and OTT providers 10 CONTRACT NEWS 42 Openet wins T-Mobile Austria online charging contract, POST Technologies NFV continues Comptel relationship into 18th year DEPLOYMENT 11 THE CONTRACT HOT LIST The latest vendor deals listed 12 PEOPLE NEWS Who’s on the move 13 TALKING HEADS Neural Technologies’ Luke Taylor explains why new services and new 46 markets leave CSPs open to greater revenue management and fraud risks 16 EXPERT OPINION ORCHESTRATION Linda Austin and Chris Yeadon continue their series of articles on Experience-Based Pricing 18 NEWS ANALYSIS Jeremy Cowan takes a deeper look at the planned merger between Nokia and Alcatel-Lucent 20 EXPERT OPINION George Fraser explores the challenges for CSPs in becoming DSPs – digital service providers 55 23 VANILLAPLUS NFV INSIGHT TMF LIVE! PREVIEW Our VanillaPlus NFV Insight report starts here with 28 pages exploring how NFV is moving from theoretical ideals into real commercial deployment. The Insight contains a VanillaPlus-commissioned report from analyst firm AnalysysMason and includes features and interviews to help you understand how NFV is being deployed and the likely timeframe for mainstream virtualisation roll-outs 55 TMF LIVE! 2015 PREVIEW This year’s event has been re-shaped into six channels. We guide you through how the event has changed and what to expect in Nice, France on 1-4 June this year. 58 DIARY Where to go and what to see CLOCKING OFF! 60 CLOCKING OFF! Nick Booth is surprised so many functions are still performed using 60 spreadsheets but asks where’s the harm if everyone likes them VANILLAPLUS MAGAZINE I APRIL / MAY 2015 3 COMMENT Humans will not be virtualised out of existence We’re in a world of increasing automation, virtualisation and artificial intelligence. The focus on virtualisation technologies provides a real opportunity for communications service providers (CSPs) to increase automation in their networks and radically cut their costs of operation by eliminating manual processes and function-specific hardware. The question, though, is where to draw the line? elf-organising or optimising networks always driven their own vehicle. Virtualisation and are certainly attractive but could it get automation then are not just too scary for CSPs, which after all Similarly for CSPs, the idea of letting the system replacements for the are network guys, to let the systems run the business is a step too far. A middle traditional role of network take over? How far is too far when it ground will emerge and it probably will resemble operations. They’ll remove S comes to sitting back and letting the airline pilots. Modern planes are set up to take off, many of the routine technology and systems decide what capacity to fly to their destination and land themselves but aspects, they’ll even be provision where? Very soon, the technology will the pilots are always present, ready to step in if an able to alert about issues be there to do this but there’s an understandable anomaly or a failure occurs. more accurately and psychological barrier to relinquishing control. predictively but they won’t George Malim, editor, VanillaPlus In self-driving cars, the driver will face the same run the show. In our day-to-day lives we look at the concept of responsibility so the promise of not having to be the self-driving car as an appealing idea. It would vigilant won’t come to fruition. No one’s going to In the network, as in the car or the aeroplane, a be great to have the car drive you home after a tailgate a lorry on a freeway while watching a human will be sitting in the driving seat. tough day’s work but the reality of sitting in the movie, trusting a machine to hit the brake and in driver’s seat watching a movie while the car telecoms no one’s going to trust the systems to Enjoy the magazine conducts you through traffic at speed might be run the business, only checking that everything is just too frightening for the generations that have running well once in a while. George Malim What’s on www.vanillaplus.com this month EDITORIAL ADVISORS Highlights on www.vanillaplus.com this month include a slew of new content in our NFV Hub. Jeremy Cowan, the editorial director of VanillaPlus, continues his series of article on how to avoid NFV deployment pains and we present videos with Lucas Skoczkowski, the chief executive of Redknee and Sue Spradley, the senior vice president of Network and Service Enablement at JDSU. Elsewhere, Steve Newton, the chief executive of Aria Networks, fresh from winning deals with Apple and Facebook, is the subject of our executive snapshot and our series of Troubleticket Louis Hall, chief executive, David Heaps, senior vice opinion article continues with Stuart Brown the director of customer experience at Teleware asking Cerillion Technologies president, strategy, CSG whether customer centricity is part of your business’s DNA? International EDITOR BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR PUBLISHED BY George Malim Cherisse Jameson WeKnow Media Ltd. Tel: +44 (0) 1225 319 566 Tel: +44 (0) 1732 807410 Suite 138, 70 Churchill Square, Kings Hill, [email protected] West Malling, Kent ME19 4YU, UK [email protected] Tel: +44 (0) 1732 807411 DIRECTOR OF STRATEGIC PLANNING EDITORIAL DIRECTOR & PUBLISHER Charlie Bisnar DISTRIBUTION Jeremy Cowan Tel: +44 (0) 1732 807411 UK Postings Ltd Tel: +44 (0) 1420 588638 [email protected] Tel: +44 (0) 8456 444137 Simon Muderack, senior vice Chris Yeadon, director of [email protected] president for marketing and Product Marketing, Ericsson alliances, Sigma Systems DESIGN DIGITAL SERVICES DIRECTOR Jason Appleby Nathalie Bisnar Ark Design Consultancy Ltd Tel: +44 (0) 1732 808690 Tel: +44 (0) 1787 881623 [email protected] VanillaPlus is distributed free to selected named individuals worldwide who meet the All rights reserved. No part of Publisher's terms of Circulation Control. If you would like to apply for a regular free this publication may be copy supplied at the Publisher's discretion visit www.vanillaplus.com If you do not copied, stored, published or qualify for a free subscription, paid subscriptions can be obtained. Subscriptions for in any way reproduced without the prior written 6 issues cost £99.00 worldwide (or US$150 / EUR125) including post and packing. Dr Reinhard Zuba, CMO, consent of the Publisher © Prestige Media Ltd 2015 VanillaPlus magazine is published 6 times per year. Vipnet (Telekom Austria) 4 VANILLAPLUS MAGAZINE I APRIL / MAY 2015 INDUSTRY NEWS InfoVista acquires Ipanema Technologies for app performance management InfoVista has acquired Ipanema most of the new hybrid network and hybrid Technologies. Ipanema delivers automated cloud paradigm. The two companies have systems to guarantee application also established a proven and successful performance across enterprises’ large and technology partnership for several years. complex networks. This makes us feel very confident in the Orga Systems applies benefits it will bring to our enterprise and The acquisition is part of InfoVista’s CSP customers.” for insolvency as strategy to orchestrate network and application performance. It positions Jim Darragh, the CEO of Ipanema German court appoints InfoVista to maximise business application Technologies, added: “Ipanema is a experiences over hybrid WANs and protect disruptive player in the industry. Its vision of administrator to save business continuity. business-centric application performance management through all-in-one, objective- business and 650 jobs “With this acquisition, InfoVista extends its based and fully automated solutions is capabilities with software-defined WAN to becoming a must-have. This