Author: Tim McElligott,Senior Analyst Editor: Dawn Bushaus, Managing Editor December 2019

Sponsors:

inform.tmforum.org Contents 03 08 04

The big picture Section 1: Have CSPs Section 2: Go native or go truly changed their minds home about cloud? 12 16 23

Section 3: Who are Section 4: Trailblazers Section 5: Make it potential cloud partners begin adopting cloud happen – Strategies for for CSPs? embracing cloud

25

Additional features & resources

inform.tmforum.org 2 The big picture

When US communications service providers (CSPs)CenturyLink and Verizon sold off their data centers in 2016 and 2017, many in the telecoms sector felt the blast of air from the burst balloon of telco cloud opportunity. But by the timeAT&T and Telefónica followed suit in 2019, the sentiment had shifted from lost opportunity to a realization that there may be a better way for CSPs to participate in the cloud and platform economy: by partnering with public cloud providers.

Technologically, culturally and in systems (OSS/BSS) should be on the with particular focus on OSS/BSS. It terms of business models, the public rise in preparation for 5G. also examines the strategies that cloud is still the quandary for telcos. It leading public cloud providers are is no less complex than traditional More operators are deploying BSS in using to address the telco market. networking and is perhaps even more the public cloud, however, and this Both sides are coming to the complex. It is also risky. summer AT&T and Microsoft realization that the future lies not in announced a blockbuster $2 billion, public cloud alone but in a multi­year deal to move all AT&T’s combination of cloud architectures. In the minds of many non­network workloads to the CSPs, the public cloud still Microsoft Azure public cloud. AT&T’s Read the report to understand: contains too many simultaneous proclamation that it is becoming a “public cloud first” n What the drivers are for CSPs to unknowns regarding company is likely to convince other embrace cloud architectures, and security, performance, true operators to embrace public cloud, conversely why CSPs are wary of cost of operation, not only for telco operations, but also cloud to target enterprise customers. interoperability, and n Which types of workloads CSPs are moving to the cloud first control of both customer Two-way street data and network The onus in these burgeoning n The difference between cloud­ connectivity. Most of all, it relationships is not all on CSPs. Cloud native, public cloud, hybrid cloud does not adhere to providers must work closely with and multicloud operators to address end customers’ n How Amazon Web Services, Google traditional telco processes, needs. They must also recognize that and Microsoft are partnering with practices and standards. they are working with partners who CSPs and how they manage have invested considerably in multicloud environments network functions virtualization – Historically, any one of these investments telcos are unlikely to n How OSS/BSS suppliers such as concerns would be show­stoppers for abandon. Just as CSPs need to adapt MYCOM OSI and Optiva are CSPs that prefer a more principled to cloud environments, cloud delivering cloud­native applications engineering environment. This providers must learn how to engage explains why, according to our with CSPs operating multi­ n Why the AT&T­Microsoft deal is research, most CSPs have deployed generational networks. important and how other leading less than 5% percent of their CSPs such as Dish Network, operations software in the public This report looks at CSPs’ strategies Rakuten, Telefonica, Three UK, TIM, cloud, at a time when investment in to move corporate IT, OSS/BSS and Truphone, Vodafone and Verizon new operational and business support network applications to the cloud, are partnering with cloud providers

inform.tmforum.org 3 Section 1 Have CSPs truly changed their minds about cloud?

It isn’t as if communications service providers (CSPs) are against the concept of cloud. As noted in the introduction to this report, most large operators built their own data centers a decade ago only to sell them off when they failed at being cloud providers. But most CSPs are hesitant to put their own workloads into a public cloud environment, particularly operational and business support systems (OSS/BSS). This begs an important question as CSPs once again look to target enterprises, this time through partnerships with public cloud providers: If the cloud is not good enough for telco operations, why would enterprises put their workloads there? CSPs will have to come up with an answer.

Expectations for CSPs to move BSS Cloud OSS/BSS then and now to the cloud have always been higher than for moving OSS. In 2017, TM Forum published a report called Cloud BSS: The migration begins, which found that operators were beginning to test the cloud waters by moving some 2017 74% 10% 44% 30% customer management and revenue of CSPs had less than of BSS in the cloud, but believed that more than half planned to move would be in the cloud by 2020 big data analycs management applications. But there to the cloud was no strategic objective to move the entire BSS stack.

At the time, three quarters of CSP respondents reported having less than 10% of their BSS in the cloud (see graphic). But operators had 2018 begun adopting the software as a 50% 5% 50% of CTIOs said that less than of OSS infrastructure was to be in the cloud by 2021 service (SaaS) model for some BSS in the cloud, but they expected applications, partnering with companies such as Salesforce and SAS.

This is likely why nearly half of respondents to the survey predicted that more than 50% of all BSS would be in the cloud by 2020. We are 2019 84% but only 4% 26% surveying CSPs now for a Future BSS of Digital Transformaon of CSPs have moved some do not plan to move OSS report to be published in January, but World aendees believe OSS to the cloud and to the cloud – ever CSPs need to be early indications are that operators invesng in cloud-nave are nowhere near achieving that technologies prediction. TM Forum, 2019

inform.tmforum.org 4 Section 1

One finding in the BSS survey has transitioned some OSS applications to Other research reinforces TM Forum’s proven true, however: Big data a public cloud (mostly service findings. A 2019 report from Ovum analytics are workloads suitable for assurance applications), and only 5% notes that only 20% of core telecoms cloud. In 2017, nearly a third of CSP are planning a full OSS stack systems are virtualized, and only a respondents said they were already transformation (see graphic). A third fraction of them are in the public cloud. deploying or planned to deploy said they will move select Ovum’s analysis suggests that CSPs are analytics in the cloud. The growing applications, but a quarter do not plan missing a big opportunity to evolve but adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) to move OSS to the public cloud – still predicts that telcos will be among and machine learning is reinforcing ever. the fastest­growing adopters of public this trend. A 2019 survey of Digital cloud this year and next. In fact, Ovum Transformation World attendees CSPs’ adopon of public cloud has predicted that the number of CSPs revealed that a full 84% of for operaons planning to move workloads such as respondents believe CSPs need to be 5% revenue management and network investing in cloud­native technologies management to the public cloud will to support this transformation. double by the end of the year. At press 34% time, their final numbers had not been Read this report to learn more about 28% published. the role for cloud in data analytics:

HOW TO LEVERAGE Pros & cons DATA ANALYTICS Author: Mark Newman, Chief Analyst Editor: Dawn Bushaus, Managing Editor December 2019 The CSPs we surveyed and interviewed

26% 4% for this report were able to cite more 3% reasons for deploying workloads in public clouds than against. However, We will transion all OSS infrastructure to the public cloud one negative reason could be enough Sponsors: to deter adoption if an operator inform.tmforum.org We will transion only certain components of OSS to the cloud considers it an insurmountable problem. We have already transioned OSS to the The word clouds on pages 6 and 7 Uncertainty about OSS cloud There is much less certainty about show the pros and cons. Larger words We began a greenfield operaon fully signify a greater number of people whether OSS workloads are suitable cloud-nave choosing it as a benefit or challenge. for cloud, despite previously high We will not move OSS to the cloud expectations. In 2018, TM Forum Curiously, some reasons appear in conducted a survey of CTIOs which Undecided arguments for and against, such as reliability and availability. This indicates revealed that half of CSPs had moved TM Forum, 2019 less than 5% of OSS infrastructure to that while some operators are convinced of cloud’s reliability, others the cloud, but they expected this Read this report to learn more about are decidedly not. Additional analysis of percentage to increase to 50% within the future of OSS: three years. the pros and cons follows the word clouds.

While their prediction has two more FUTURE OSS: TOWARDS AN OPEN DIGITAL ARCHITECTURE Author: Tim McElligo, Senior Analyst Editor: Dawn Bushaus, Managing Editor years to come true, operators do not November 2019 appear to be on a trajectory to realize it. Only 4% of the 99 CSP respondents surveyed for our November 2019 report Future OSS:

Towards an open digital architecture Sponsor: said their companies have already inform.tmforum.org

inform.tmforum.org 5 Section 1

Cloud benefits

Time to market Agility Risk control Reliability/availability Operaonal performance Process management Greenfield Escalaon Cloud BSS integraon Modern architecture Automaon Regulatory concerns Security Trial open source Reuse Flexibility Enable innovaon Distributed architecture CapEx/OpEx reducon Maintenance Hardware failure Easier upgrade Monezaon Service awareness Adapve integraon Scalability Lack experse DevOps Data privacy On-demand Responsiveness TCO Resource opmizaon Predicve maintenance Standardizaon

TM Forum, 2019

Scalability – the ability to Time to market – despite Predictive maintenance – CSPs scale applications years of process automation would love to reduce the time it economically is important to and improvement, CSPs still takes to perform upgrades and respondents, but even more critical is are unable to create services as maintenance, and they believe cloud ability to scale on demand. This lies at quickly as internet­based companies. deployments, particularly managed the heart of CSPs’ efforts to automate They believe cloud will help level the services, could help by allowing them to operations and optimize networks for playing field by speeding service perform maintenance tasks without real­time response and reporting. design and testing. taking components out of service.

Total cost of ownership – Automation – enabling Lack expertise – CSPs realize Rakuten CTO Tareq Amin automation is the top they don’t have the necessary claims that operating a cloud attribute CSPs are looking for software skills for cloud and are environment costs 45% less than in next­generation OSS and BSS ready to let the experts handle the running a traditional network (see solutions. If the early deployments of unfamiliar language, components, page 20). Time will tell if this is true, BSS in the public cloud succeed, CSPs technologies and culture of cloud but the assumption is that moving may be more likely to move OSS to networking. applications to the cloud lowers the cloud. operating expenses. The amount of savings likely will depend on the level of managed services provided and the complexity and size of the network.

inform.tmforum.org 6 Section 1

Cloud drawbacks

GDPR compliance Customers’ concerns Data security Unstable Proprietary plaorm Not scalable Investment costs Inflexible Lacks global availability No quality assurance Physical security Customer data protecon Performance Unreliable Complex management Costly Prefer private Can't customize Too risky Lack of control

TM Forum, 2019

Physical security – this Lack of control – similar to Need for change concern is mostly about physical security concerns, unauthorized access to CSPs are not comfortable In the end, it may not be that CSPs servers and systems in the cloud. It giving up operational control during have changed their minds about has been a difficult barrier for cloud times of outage, performance cloud, but rather that the weight of providers to overcome, but they are degradation, feature rollout, etc. the negative arguments is lessening. taking steps to improve security. The need for change is undeniably Google, for example, has adopted Unreliable – a 2014 report urgent, and operators are realizing stringent identity and access from the International they cannot transform on their own. management restrictions. More detail Working Group on Cloud Computing Resiliency (IWGCR) about Adoption of public cloud by is available in the company’s security prominent global operators like AT&T whitepaper. global cloud availability showed an average of 99.1% availability. (see page 16) is convincing others to Investment costs – respondents Although it’s an outdated figure, it is give public cloud a chance. Their cite somewhat ancillary costs in still often cited as the norm for cloud­ minds are slightly more at ease about this concern, referring to the based systems and is a far cry from going in the direction they know is cost of changing providers and moving the ‘five nines’ reliability CSPs are inevitable if they are ever to realize data that has been stored with one used to. their goals of cost efficiency, agility cloud provider to another, sometimes and being a leading player in the called egress. Also, transactional costs GDPR & data security – when enterprise. associated with continually accessing it comes to customers’ privacy and data security, CSPs have a In the next sections, we’ll look at what data can add up, and CSPs worry about it means to be cloud native and why the cost of managing analytics. good reputation to protect. They also are heavily regulated and do not feel some CSP leaders are betting on the comfortable trusting data stored in technology. the cloud. This is especially true in countries with strict data residency rules such as the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

inform.tmforum.org 7 Section 2 Go native or go home

Moving a handful of applications to the cloud is one thing, but operating as a cloud­native service provider is an entirely different objective. Eventually, all communications service providers (CSPs) will become cloud­native operators, but for now they are relying on their suppliers to pave the way with cloud­based network functions and support applications. In some cases, they are giving vendors an ultimatum: Go cloud native or risk losing our business.

For now, most suppliers are simply What is cloud native? “lifting and shifting” workloads to the cloud, meaning they are porting Cloud native is a term used to describe traditional software systems to a container­based environments. When applications are “containerized”, they hosted cloud environment. Some Vendors are not in a vendors are hosting their applications are bundled with all the related hurry. They made a big configuration files, libraries and with public cloud providers like “ Amazon Web Services, Google or investment in these dependencies required to run efficiently Microsoft, while others host them in CapEx technologies.” and reliably in different computing their own private clouds or in CSPs’ environments. private clouds. But only a few suppliers Containers isolate an application and its are delivering applications designed Suppliers’ plans to move OSS dependencies into a self­contained unit from the outset to operate in a cloud soluons to the cloud that can run anywhere. Hardware and environment. operating systems are virtualized, which 7% means the same operating system is Vendors’ reluctance shared with other hosted applications. 30% 13% Our Future OSS survey reveals that But this does not make them cloud suppliers have a long way to go to native. To be cloud native, solutions deliver cloud­native apps. Only 7% of must be broken into functional blocks supplier respondents said they plan to and run as microservices within move their entire OSS stack to the 20% containers on elastic infrastructure cloud, and nearly a third have no plans 30% using Agile DevOps processes and at all to offer cloud­based solutions continuous delivery workflows. (see graphic opposite). We plan to migrate all OSS soluons In a traditional IT environment, The lack of support for cloud­based to the cloud operations teams manage the solutions is less about indecision than We plan to migrate certain components allocation of infrastructure resources to it is about reluctance. As IBM’s Bill of OSS soluons to the cloud applications manually. In a cloud­native Lambertson, Director of Cloud for We have already transioned OSS environment, applications are deployed Telco, Media and Entertainment at soluons to the cloud on infrastructure that abstracts the IBM explains: Undecided underlying compute, storage and We do not plan to transion OSS networking functions. Cloud­native soluons to the cloud platforms handle tasks such as scheduling of workloads, scaling and TM Forum, 2019 load balancing, debugging, and authorization through software tools that manage containers.

inform.tmforum.org 8 Section 2

Reducing costs may never move to the cloud. Making Read Glass’ two­part series on why the determination depends on several CSPs should embrace cloud: More broadly, being cloud native factors, including: relates to achieving the promised cost savings that result from running Age or remaining shelf­life of a workloads in a cloud, says Eric Troup, system Microsoft’s CTO, Worldwide Communications and Media Industries. Functional issues such as In a cloud­native environment, all meeting latency requirements resources necessary to run any workload or application are software Rules and regulations that defined and load balanced and can prohibit storing an application’s Cloud agnostic? expand dynamically to support data in a cloud environment workloads as they scale up or down. There are differing opinions about whether being cloud native means that Cost and other technical a company can put a workload into any constraints of redesigning public cloud or multiple public clouds without modification. A similar question Quick wins plagues CSPs relying on systems Cloud-native software Nevertheless, the lift­and­shift integrators to run their back­office approach can deliver quick benefits, environments. Suppliers must choose “must be developed in a which integrator to team up with and according to George Glass, TM way that lets the cloud Forum’s VP of Architecture & APIs and which middleware platform to write work the way it was former Chief Systems Architect at BT. application program interfaces (APIs) intended to work, so that It can help operators tackle “technical for, thereby limiting their ability to debt” by removing dependence on address the full market. it can take advantage of legacy infrastructure, for example. the technology and The difference is that containers economics the cloud improve the onboarding process by reducing the need for integration as offers,” Troup explains. proprietary components are secured inside the container. MYCOM OSI The lift­and­shift approach is usually The lift-and-shift approach announced its cloud­native meant to be a temporary fix and Experience Assurance and Analytics “does not leverage all (EAA) solution in early 2018, cannot take full advantage of a cloud­ native architecture. CSPs eventually public cloud’s advantages,” leveraging the Red Hat OpenShift will phase out these applications, or Glass explains. “On the Container Platform. This cut the time they will have to be redesigned to be other hand, completely it takes to deploy and operate the system by over 75%. MYCOM OSI cloud native. In the interim, Troup says, rewriting an application they equate to driving a 50­passenger then partnered with AWS to launch bus with a single passenger in it, which and transforming it to be its public­cloud based Assurance is inefficient. cloud-native typically Cloud SaaS offering in early 2019. takes a long time and The process of porting applications to “You can transport that one individual requires significant different cloud environments is not at a much lower cost if you can effortless, however. Each environment instantly and dynamically downsize the investment.” has its own way of operating, which bus and then size it appropriately if the means that a workload optimized for a number of passengers increases,” he Microsoft Azure environment may not He adds: “CSPs need a middle ground explains. be optimized for Google Cloud. This that allows for gradual migration in a typically leads to a hybrid cloud controlled manner to a cloud­native deployment because suppliers do not It’s an evolution architecture. The TM Forum Open want to build for two different public For most CSPs and suppliers, the lift­ Digital Architecture (see page 10) cloud platforms when they could use and­shift approach is a stepping stone. provides a framework for this middle their own private cloud for redundancy It is as much a part of the planning ground as well as a full migration path with less development work. process as re­architecting solutions to forward in the public cloud.” be cloud native. And some applications

inform.tmforum.org 9 Section 2

Using the Open Digital Architecture to transition to cloud Despite a steady upswing in public cloud deployments, it isn’t a sure TM Forum Open Digital Architecture: a work in progress bet for any company, as is evidenced by analyst firm IDC’s finding that a full 81% of companies Party management “repatriated” in 2018, which means People DECOUPLING & INTEGRATION they moved their public cloud Intelligence deployments back into private or Engagement Core commerce management management management hybrid cloud environments. For Organizaons CSPs, making the leap to public DECOUPLING & INTEGRATION cloud will be an evolutionary DECOUPLING & INTEGRATION DECOUPLING DECOUPLING & INTEGRATION DECOUPLING process, and the TM Forum Open Things Producon Digital Architecture (ODA) can help

them get there. TM Forum, 2018

“CSPs will embrace public cloud be managed on scalable accepts that not everything has to because it’s much less expensive, infrastructure using Agile be cloud­native and that simply more scalable and easier to development practices. cloud­enabling some legacy manage,” says George Glass, TM components may be appropriate to Forum’s VP of architecture & APIs. “CSPs and other organizations can manage costs. In addition, re­ “The big question for most use ODA to set an architectural engineering or abstraction allows operators is how to embrace cloud­ vision and plan relevant roadmaps for the decomposition of a native applications and public to implement it,” Glass explains. component into services and cloud.” “The transformation guides that are microservices enabling a company part of the ODA enable to move to a cloud­native As noted, CSPs basically have two organizations to work backwards deployment. options: lift and shift existing from their target architecture.” applications to the cloud or re­ “This supports an Open Digital architect them. The former short­ For example, companies can use Framework concept called ‘pace changes operators on the benefits optimization, re­engineering or layering’, where components that of cloud, but the latter takes too abstraction to manage migration support innovation and much time and is costly. The ODA from their current hosting differentiation can be identified and provides an evolutionary path infrastructure, which is usually a mix abstracted from legacy between the two. of dedicated hardware, virtualized infrastructure using Open APIs,” infrastructure, private cloud Glass explains. “They are then Part of the Open Digital Framework, deployments and some public cloud rewritten using DevSecOps (see page 34) ODA is fundamentally deployments, to a truly cloud­based techniques to provide continuous designed as a component­based environment. integration and continuous architecture, with the business development (CI/CD). This helps services of a component exposed as “Controlling the migration allows CSPs deliver new services rapidly a set of Open APIs. The APIs can be, CSPs to change the architecture of and maximize return on investment.” and typically are, further their IT estate gradually, moving decomposed into a set of services relevant components to the cloud If you’d like to learn more about the and microservices. The advantage of only when the business is ready,” ODA project, contact George Glass. using microservices is that they can Glass says, adding that ODA

inform.tmforum.org 10 Section 2

What about NFV? LANs and WANs and interfaces are Multi­access edge computing was not ‘native’ in cloud native. Until those conceived as a cloud solution in part With all the excitement about cloud­ concepts become something we can because it is a distributed environment native architectures, it’s easy to forget translate between, it will be tough to that has closer proximity to end users about the fervor that surrounded the adopt cloud as a greenfield for us. It which helps when latency is an issue. 2012 ETSI­sponsored whitepaper that will be a hybrid world we will have to For example, Verizon’s 5G Edge service 13 of the world’s largest telcos manage for quite a long time.” combines its 5G Ultra­Wideband authored extolling the virtues of network with AWS’ cloud services in network functions virtualization (NFV). Lonker added that it is difficult to build order to partner with enterprise So far, NFV, which was supposed to be cloud­native applications that also customers to develop large­scale, transformative on its own and act as a work in a network because the latency­sensitive applications at the catalyst for 5G, has not delivered. architectures are very different. edge.

“Virtual network functions [VNFs] The goal should be to move away from Domenico Convertino, VP of Product have been around a while but haven’t traditional VNFs, which were Management at HPE, agreed, saying really taken off,” Adrian Comley, developed to disaggregate hardware that cloud­native MEC is deployable General Manager of Dynamic Network from software, and break them into today. Services at BT said during a panel microservices so that core components discussion at SDN NFV World from them can discover and build on Congress in October 2019. “There are each other, Comley added. But, he no global deployments of service admitted, “we are not there yet.” chains of VNFs at scale anywhere.” Watch the SDN NFV World Congress Whatever cloud-native But the investment CSPs have already panel discussion: made in NFV could stall investments in “services are running at the cloud, because operators have a edge have a completely limited amount to spend and are different set of economics unlikely to abandon investments in VNFs when they are still counting on it than those running in an to support 5G. Plus, there isn’t a lot of NFV environment,” he incentive make VNFs cloud native if explained. “So, it is they are effective in supporting services. technology and business Edge needs cloud that is driving this Comley was part of a panel discussion innovation.” about moving from NFV to cloud­ One area of the network that most native architectures which also panelists agreed could benefit from a included representatives from Orange cloud­native architecture is the mobile In the next section, we’ll compare the Spain, Verizon, HPE and Intel. Vickie edge. Most multi­access edge leading cloud providers, focusing on Lonker, Verizon’s VP of Product computing (MEC) functions by default their hybrid and multicloud strategies. Management and Development, said will be cloud native, so they are a good place to start, according to Lonker. she struggles with cloud­native technology because of its limitations. “They will be different types of “We are squarely grounded in a place workloads than we deploy in current where NFV infrastructure is where we universal CPE [customer premises are deploying network functions,” she equipment] applications today,” she said. “The things I care about, like said.

inform.tmforum.org 11 Section 3 Who are potential cloud partners for CSPs?

When it comes to partnering with cloud platform providers, communications service providers (CSPs) have several options depending on whether they want to pursue public, private, hybrid or multicloud deployments. In this section we compare several cloud providers’ strategies, with an emphasis on public cloud providers.

Enterprises are partnering with public Amazon held its 40% share of the nearly The table below lists the major cloud cloud providers because the economics $90 billion business, while the other providers partnering with CSPs. Further are too hard to ignore, particularly when three providers showed steady gains. analysis of AWS, Google Cloud, technology changes are far outpacing IBM stands as the leader in hosted and Microsoft Azure and IBM Cloud follows, their internal IT teams’ abilities to managed private cloud services, with a focus on their hybrid or manage them. CSPs have been more according to the research firm. multicloud strategies. hesitant, however, because they have concerns about reliability, security and a giving up control. While they are still Cloud providers at a glance unlikely to put network workloads in a Cloud provider Primary focus Recent developments public cloud, they are beginning to move BSS workloads, especially revenue Offers AWS Outposts, a managed service through which management, billing and charging, and users get AWS-configured hardware and soware Public cloud delivered to their on-premise data center or co-locaon customer management to the cloud (see space to run applicaons in a cloud-nave manner, without Section ).4 having to run it in an AWS data center

Google Cloud's new cloud management plaorm, Anthos, Public cloud providers have been acts as a management layer that runs on top of the Google working to harden their facilities and Public cloud Cloud Plaorm and Google Kubernetes Engine; it allows users to manage their enre hybrid, mulcloud improve reliability, and they are environment from a central system expanding their strategies to include hybrid cloud management of workloads Public, hybrid Microso Arc is a mulcloud management layer that and mulcloud extends Azure capabilies to other cloud plaorms across different cloud and network including AWS and Google environments. Like CSPs, hyperscale cloud providers have been reluctant to Alibaba bought a major stake in ZTESo, including OSS/BSS assets, creang the subsidiary now known as share ownership of the customer, which Public and Whale Cloud; Whale Cloud provides cloud, big data and is essentially what happens in a hybrid hybrid cloud AI-enabled soluons to global telecom operators, governments and enterprises in more than 80 countries cloud, but this portion of their and regions businesses is growing. Since acquiring Red Hat, IBM has broadened its reach in cloud compung; together, the companies can substanally Private and move cloud and plaorm adopon forward, parcularly at Market leaders hybrid cloud the intersecon of telecom and the enterprise as their A recent report about the public cloud paths merge market from Synergy Research Group Although new and sll in development, Oracle’s Generaon shows that during Q3 2019 the top four 2 Cloud plaorm features an Autonomous Database, which public clouds – Amazon Web Services automates patching, upgrades and tuning; plaorm services Hybrid cloud include applicaon development, business analycs, data (AWS), Alibaba Cloud, Google Cloud and management, integraon, security, AI and blockchain; one Microsoft Azure – accounted for 72% of of the first apps created for telecom is the cloud-nave the worldwide market for infrastructure Billing and Revenue Management (BRM) soluon and platform as a service, up from 57% at the beginning of 2016. TM Forum, 2019

inform.tmforum.org 12 Section 3

How AWS Outposts works

AWS Outposts Configure Connect Launch Build Run AWS infrastructure Configure and order Connect Outposts to Use AWS Console to Build and run apps using on-premises Outposts from AWS your local power and launch EC2 instances nave AWS services on Console network on Outposts Outposts and services available in the local region

TM Forum, 2019 (source: AWS)

Amazon Web Services that companies using a multicloud Google Cloud strategy typically don’t divide the Many CSPs are considering business evenly across providers. Google introduced its new cloud partnerships with AWS because of its management platform, Anthos, in market share. AWS’ answer to April 2019. Anthos acts as a operating in and managing a hybrid management layer that runs on top of cloud model is AWS Outposts, which the Google Cloud Platform and the company announced at its 2018 Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), annual event. Outposts is a managed If you do, you have to allowing users to manage their entire service through which users get AWS hybrid, multicloud environment from configured hardware and software “standardize on the lowest a central system. delivered to their on­premise data common denominator [in Anthos supports users running center or co­location space to run terms of feature set], and applications in a cloud­native manner applications and workloads on­ without having to run it in an AWS these platforms are in premises or in public and hybrid cloud center. AWS operates and manages pretty radically different environments, including AWS and the service. The graphic above shows spots right now in terms Azure. Like Amazon, Google Cloud is how it works. also a VMware partner and leverages of capabilities and the that partnership for hybrid on­ This approach isn’t really about ecosystem and maturity,” premises deployments. multicloud, rather it focuses on AWS Jassy said. “You also end services running in the AWS cloud or In November, Google enhanced its on the customer’s premises, using up taking your hybrid cloud approach with the VMware’s software­defined data development teams and acquisition of CloudSimple, a startup that simplifies the migration of center platform. So far, however, it is asking them to not just still only a concept. AWS said it would VMware workloads running on­ officially launch OutPosts in late make the big shift from premises to public cloud 2019, but at press time no on-premises to the cloud, environments without the need to re­ announcement had been made. architect applications. This sounds a but then force them to be lot like lifting and shifting, but the It is unclear whether AWS will fluent across multiple companies say that users can still support multiple clouds as Microsoft providers, which leverage benefits of cloud like and IBM do, but in an interview development teams hate.” performance, elasticity and published at the beginning of integration with other cloud December, AWS CEO Andy Jassy said applications.

inform.tmforum.org 13 Section 3

Google Cloud Anthos Plaorm Dispelling cloud myths Applicaon operaon BSS provider Optiva is partnering Accelerate applicaon development and modernize tradional applicaons with Google for its cloud­based BSS. API Observability At Digital Transformation World 2019 CI/CD Serverless Marketplace management diagnoscs representatives from the two companies dispelled some of the misperceptions, or myths, around Network & security operaons public cloud. The biggest myths Implement policy, security controls and compliance across environments

include: Policy & configuraon Identy Service discovery & Secure soware management management management supply chain 1. Public cloud is not secure Secure mul-tenancy Zero Trust network security 2. Private cloud is the same as public cloud Plaorm operaon 3. All public clouds are the same Centralize cluster management, deliver consistent service across environments, standardize with Kubernetes

4. Migrating to the cloud is the same Centralized Storage Managed Network Migraon as being cloud­native Kubernetes management Management

5. Public cloud is more expensive Monitoring

Since partnering with Google Cloud in February 2018, Optiva claims it Infrastructure has been able to save a Tier 1 Canadian CSP up to 70% by moving On-premises Public cloud revenue management and charging into Google Cloud. A quick poll conducted during the session TM Forum, 2019 (source: Google) revealed that given the new information presented, 64% of the hybrid cloud configurations. The Looker In November Microsoft introduced audience found public cloud to be acquisition continues Google’s strategic Microsoft Arc, a multicloud management more secure than on­premises commitment to multi­cloud by layer that extends Azure capabilities to solutions, a double­digit improvement empowering companies to create a other cloud platforms including AWS and from the beginning of the session. cohesive layer built on any cloud Google. Arc give CSPs what they have database, including Amazon Redshift, long wanted in their own networks: a Google also announced the acquisition Azure SQL, Snowflake, Oracle, Microsoft single view of all applications and of cloud storage company, Elastifile, in SQL Server or Teradata, as well as in workloads running on any and all July and in June said it would acquire other public clouds and on­premise data platforms. This allows Microsoft to offer data analytics company Looker for $2.6 centers. In early November, Google public, hybrid and now multicloud billion. At the time of the Elastifile Cloud amped up its hybrid and services to CSPs while also helping them announcement, Deepak Mohan, multicloud sales effort by authorizing 50 deliver the same to their large enterprise Research Director at IDC, said that partners to start reselling Anthos in early customers. increasingly applications require on­ 2020. premises level of performance for latency Advances in the Azure Arc Resource and consistency alongside the scalability Manager, Azure’s deployment and benefits of the cloud and that the Microsoft Azure management service, give users a central, acquisition of Elastifile will better enable Microsoft has been offering tools for unified approach to manage Windows Google Cloud customers to meet this hybrid cloud deployments since 2016 and Linux Servers, Kubernetes clusters mix of needs as they deploy such when it launched Azure Stack, a portfolio and Azure data services at scale across workloads to the Google Cloud Platform. of products that extends Microsoft Azure on­premises, multicloud and edge. At its cloud services and capabilities to a recent annual Microsoft Ignite event, Elastifile was already a Google Cloud customer’s cloud environment of choice CEO Satya Nadella said the company partner for Anthos and works to by enabling hybrid and edge computing believes the hybrid model is a augment GKE On­Prem for deployments applications to be deployed and run permanent, not temporary, state. in Google Cloud, on­premises and in consistently across location boundaries.

inform.tmforum.org 14 Section 3

Microso Azure Arc enables a hybrid model

Azure

Azure Resource Manager On-premises, mulcloud & edge

Single-pane-of-glass Role-based Azure Arc access control (extend Azure management to on-premises, mulcloud and edge) Tools and for management experiences Cloud-nave Example: Security & Portal pracces compliance Customers Shell CLI Local management tools Resources in Azure Resources in customers’ locaons

TM Forum, 2019 (source: Microso)

Indeed, Eric Troup, Microsoft’s CTO, an enabler, helping to accelerate Worldwide Communications and clients’ journeys to the public cloud, Media Industries, says the discussion whether it be with AWS, Google among CSPs around hybrid cloud has Cloud, Microsoft Azure or any moved very quickly, causing the combination of them. IBM provides They know they need to distinction between public and multicloud management as well as move to a fully cloud- private cloud to fade, while at the skills needed for transformation to “ same time increasing their level of cloud­based solutions. In addition, native environment, but confidence in the overall cloud IBM can help CSPs deploy artificial we are seeing signs that solution. Azure Arc expands the intelligence (AI) and analytics, which there will be a coexistence control plane for policy management gives the company an advantage over across multiple cloud platforms some of the competition. of virtual machines and including private data centers and cloud-native functions for IBM compartmentalizes its cloud CSPs are more comfortable with that, at least another three to he says. efforts in the telecom space around different workloads: IT, OSS/BSS, five years.” Developing the ability to work across network and business­to­business. environments is a challenge CSPs According to Bill Lambertson, IBM’s understand well. The moves by the Director of Cloud for Telco, Media IBM is helping operators establish top three hyperscale cloud providers and Entertainment, CSPs are making their cloud­native architectures using to support multicloud environments is significant progress in using public microservices, Kubernetes and Red likely to give operators’ more cloud for corporate IT applications Hat’s Open Shift platform. Using confidence about moving applications (for example, human resources). Kubernetes, CSPs can securely to the cloud since it gives them a deploy, run and manage their data choice about where to put their most “As long as there is a public cloud and applications on whatever cloud or sensitive workloads. property within the data sovereignty combination of clouds they choose to area, it makes sense to leverage it use. All of IBM Cloud, including IBM whenever you can,” he says. IBM Cloud Watson and IBM Blockchain Platform, runs on Kubernetes, enabling massive IBM has a different approach than the Lambertson also sees a lot of interest scale and workload diversity. big three public cloud providers in from CSPs in moving the BSS stack to that its primary role often is to act as public cloud. He explains: In the next section, we’ll look at how some leading CSPs are partnering with cloud providers.

inform.tmforum.org 15 Section 4 Trailblazers begin adopting cloud

While many communications service providers (CSPs) are moving slowly to embrace cloud, some like AT&T, China Unicom, Dish Network, Telefónica, Three UK, TIM, Vodafone and Japanese startup Rakuten are leading the way. Indeed, AT&T’s announcement in July that it is becoming a ‘public cloud first’ company is a huge vote of confidence in the technology, which could persuade other operators to follow suit.

The table on page 17 shows some network applications and workloads, and applications to advance 5G. It early partnerships between CSPs and including operational and business also includes giving AT&T’s 250,000 cloud providers. It includes public support systems (OSS/BSS), to the employees access to Microsoft 365 cloud platforms as well as software Microsoft Azure platform by 2024. for productivity tools, and Microsoft vendors whose applications are will help AT&T design, test and build hosted in a cloud environment. As part of the multiyear agreement, edge computing capabilities. AT&T’s $2 billion deal with Microsoft Microsoft will be AT&T’s preferred cloud provider, and the arrangement is perhaps the most notable, because Public cloud first the telco has said it will move all non­ includes joint development of AI tools In a joint statement with Microsoft, AT&T said it is becoming a “public cloud first” company: “That initiative will allow AT&T to focus on core network capabilities, accelerate innovation for its customers, and empower its workforce while optimizing costs.”

In reality, AT&T and other CSPs will adopt cloud strategies that rely on a combination of public, private, hybrid and multicloud platforms. In fact, AT&T announced another significant cloud alliance with IBM for its AT&T Business Solutions unit at nearly the same time as the Microsoft deal (see panel on page 18), and the telco already has a relationship with AWS, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella with AT&T CEO John Donovan primarily in its marketplace.

inform.tmforum.org 16 Section 4

CSPs’ partnerships with cloud providers

CSP Cloud partner Type of cloud Strategy

As part of a $2 billion deal, the companies will collaborate on cloud, AI and 5G. Microso will be AT&T’s preferred cloud provider, and AT&T Public will move all its non-network applicaons and workloads to the Azure plaorm by 2024, including OSS and BSS

AT&T Business Soluons is moving internal soware applicaons to Hybrid IBM Cloud and is using Red Hat’s open source plaorm to manage workloads and applicaons

China Unicom partnered with Alibaba Cloud to launch a new access Public soluon in the African market; the combined public cloud and connecvity services help Chinese and other Asian enterprises who want to do business in Africa

Dish Network has commied to launching a 5G broadband network by To be To be the summer of 2023 that could serve 70% of the US populaon; determined determined Founder and Chairman Charlie Ergen says operaons will be cloud nave and therefore cost 25% less than other 5G network buildouts

Rakuten is developing a greenfield end-to-end, cloud-nave architecture for a new 5G network; this includes working with Nokia Public for the core network and Netcracker for cloud-based OSS/BSS; Rakuten was expected to launch services in October 2019 but now is aiming for March 2020

Telefónica has expanded a local agreement it had with Google in Spain into a global agreement that includes offering Google Cloud services Public alongside other public cloud services and managing the workloads and relaonships across cloud providers

As part of its 5G core network migraon, Three UK is using MYCOM Private (Core) OSI's public cloud-based Experience Assurance and Analycs suite, Public (OSS) which runs on the AWS cloud plaorm, to provide service assurance of its Nokia core network, which includes new VNFs and exisng PNFs

TIM is aiming to become a key player in cloud and edge compung by Public partnering with Google; the CSP will expand its service porolio for the Italian enterprise market by offering public, private and hybrid cloud services

Truphone is deploying the Opva Online Charging System, which runs Public on the Google Cloud plaorm; the company is also using AWS and IBM Cloud as part of other deals

Verizon is deploying AWS Wavelength as part of its 5G edge compung offering to give developers the ability to deploy applicaons that require ultra-low latency; Verizon 5G Edge provides mobile edge compung and Public/hybrid high-volume connecvity between users, devices and applicaons, while AWS Wavelength supports the parts of an applicaon that require ultra-low latency to the edge of the network while connecng back to the full range of cloud services running in AWS

Vodafone Idea in India is deploying Ericsson's Cloud Packet Core on a Private (EPC) private cloud and the Opva Online Charging Engine; the telco is Public (BSS trialing the Opva soluon on a Kubernetes-enabled private cloud moving to public) with an opon to move to public cloud (Google Cloud)

Vodafone Germany has deployed Amdocs’ end-to-end digital Hybrid cloud-nave and open plaorm, which runs on the X plaorm and includes customer care, commerce and a dynamic catalog

The companies formed a $550 million venture that provides opmizaon and management services from IBM Mulcloud Manager Hybrid as part of Vodafone’s Business Mulcloud Plaorm to large mulnaonal corporaons using exisng public cloud offerings from AWS, Google Cloud, Microso Azure and Alibaba Cloud; it also leverages the private IBM cloud

TM Forum, 2019

inform.tmforum.org 17 Section 4

Staying competitive AT&T’s cloud deals are important AT&T & IBM target enterprises because they signal a willingness to One day before AT&T announced “There is a learning curve that partner to save money and increase its partnership with Microsoft, operators need to go through on agility. This is the only way CSPs can AT&T Business Solutions unveiled a their own before they realize that remain competitive. cloud initiative with IBM aimed at being in the enterprise space for “Every carrier on the planet has the innovating and collaborating in the voice and connectivity doesn’t same issue and is heading down the enterprise market. The deal is a mean they can automatically have same path,” says Eric Troup, strategic alliance primarily focusing the skills and knowledge to be in Microsoft’s CTO, Worldwide on private and hybrid cloud the enterprise space for cloud and Communications and Media solutions. IT,” says Bill Lambertson, Global Industries. “They need to cut costs, be Director of Cloud for Telecom, IBM will be the primary developer much more agile than they currently Media and Entertainment at IBM. and cloud provider for AT&T are and focus their investment where “Keeping up with the changes in Business Solutions’ operational the revenue really is. technology, from IaaS applications and will help manage [infrastructure as a service] to PaaS the AT&T Communications IT [platform as a service] to infrastructure, on­ and off­premises Kubernetes to work coming out of and across different clouds – the Cloud Foundry and serverless private and public. AT&T Business technology, makes it challenging to AT&T bit the bullet early Solutions will also utilize Red Hat's maintain the right skill sets. Many open source platform to manage and made a huge have recognized they need a “ workloads and applications. partner to help them on their cloud commitment,” Troup adds. journey.” The end goal is to better serve “Other carriers are taking enterprise customers. For example, Watch AT&T CEO John Donovan longer to make that AT&T and IBM will collaborate on and IBM CEO Ginni Rometty decision, but the economics multi­access edge computing discuss their companies’ cloud services to help enterprise clients partnership: are so fundamental that capitalize on 5G network speeds everybody will be driven in and internet­connected devices this direction over the next and sensors at the edge of the five years.” network. It will also allow for the rapid transport of data to and from multiple clouds and billions of edge devices with increased reliability TM Forum’s George Glass, VP of and security, addressing any Architecture & APIs agrees: “This is a latency concerns in the process. big step for AT&T, one that all telcos eventually must take. Embracing public cloud is not a question of ‘If?’, but ‘When’? Vodafone tries it all Online Charging Engine, which is hosted on Google Cloud (see panel “As CSPs build trust with public cloud At Vodafone, all cloud options are on on page 19). Vodafone Germany has providers, they will move applications the table, as is evidenced by the deployed Amdocs’ cloud­native to the public cloud, eliminating the company’s widespread use of cloud customer care and commerce need to build and run data centers,” platforms across its operating solutions, and in late November Glass adds. “They will embrace public companies. In India, for example, Vodafone Egypt became the country’s cloud because it’s much less expensive, Vodafone Idea is deploying Ericsson’s first cloud service provider to reach more scalable and easier to manage.” Cloud Packet Core and Optiva’s VMware Cloud verified status.

inform.tmforum.org 18 Section 4

Vodafone Business has teamed up with IBM as part of a $550 million deal to Partnering for cloud BSS form a venture that uses public, private, Three years ago, Optiva pledged to Vodafone cloud using Kubernetes. As hybrid and multicloud platforms to invest $100 million to re­architect its part of a two­phased strategy, the deliver new digital services to its product line to be cloud native and operator will move the BSS enterprise customers. The partnership operate in public cloud application onto the public cloud falls just short of being a legal joint environments. Now Vodafone Idea platform pending a successful pilot venture, according to Santi Ribas, Head and UK­based Truphone, a mobile program. The company also signed a of Cloud & Security Offers and virtual network operator (MVNO), multimillion­dollar deal with IBM to Innovation at Vodafone Business. He are using the company’s Online manage hybrid and multicloud explains: Charging Engine, which runs on the environments, and to apply analytics Google Cloud platform, to reduce and AI­based security in its IT “We wanted to avoid a loose partnership costs and add new capabilities. environment. and make sure everything worked together.” “[Public cloud] is a game­changing Truphone is also using the Optiva technology that has not yet been Charging Engine to launch an MVNO Toward this end, the team works in a adopted widely enough by operators, service. Truphone is a connectivity joint office where co­leaders from each and the hesitancy does not work to and eSIM provider that operates its company, including Ribas, develop joint their advantage,” says Shay Assaraf, own network infrastructure with strategies, make decisions about Chief Marketing Officer at Optiva. “If points of presence in London, New roadmaps and investment, and provide cloud gives you the ability to run York, Amsterdam, Sydney, California the structure necessary to support containers, do it. If it allows you to do and Hong Kong and partners with operations and services. continuous deployment and other operators to create a global integration, do it. Don’t bring your network. The venture delivers workload proprietary software to the cloud. optimization and management services You won’t see the benefits.” The operator is taking an all­options from IBM Multicloud Manager as part of approach to cloud deployment. Vodafone’s Business Multicloud Platform For Vodafone Idea, reducing costs is Besides partnering with Optiva, to large multinational corporations using critical because ofthe volatility in the Truphone is working with Soracom, a existing public cloud offerings from Indian market. The company, which global provider of smart connectivity AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure resulted from a merger between for the internet of things, whose and Alibaba Cloud. It also leverages the Vodafone India and Idea Cellular, is remote SIM provisioning platform is private IBM cloud. the third­largest mobile operator in on the AWS cloud. In addition, it has India, behind startup Reliance Jio and announced a partnership with While the public hyperscale cloud Bharti Airtel. Movius, a provider of cloud­based providers do a great job of deploying and secure mobile communications managing availability of workloads and Vodafone Idea is using the Optiva software operating on the IBM providing security, Ribas contends that Charging Engine in a private Cloud. together Vodafone and IBM take managing the lifecycle of public cloud Manages and optimizes network Vodafone’s position in IoT, 5G and edge workloads to a new level. Through IBM and service availability computing with IBM’s multi­cloud and tools and professional services, the professional services. Vodafone also uses venture provides a single management Provide an analytics layer IBM’s Multicloud Management platform platform that: comprised of AI and machine to set up storefronts for enterprises leaning to leverage data from all across public cloud providers. Provides a cost assessment of cloud and network domains workloads prior to deployment Watch Vodafone and IBM executives Manages assets against discuss their partnership: Manages workloads across customers’ security policies multiple clouds Ribas says the goal of the joint venture is Conducts planning within the to prepare customers for the digital structure of customers’ world and help them discover what they budgeting processes can do with the cloud. The team will co­ develop new services that combine

inform.tmforum.org 19 Section 4

Partnering for cloud OSS management and closed loop managing network performance during a automation. time of rapid growth in terms of both CSPs Three UK and Globe Telecom in users and traffic, he says. the Philippines are partnering with

MYCOM OSI for cloud­based service Benefits of cloud native Globe Telecom can now deliver a unified assurance that runs in the AWS public By making its service assurance data set that supports proactive cloud. MYCOM OSI launched its application cloud native, MYCOM OSI resource assurance across networks Assurance Cloud platform in February has been able to reduce the time it takes through a single view. The operator also 2019 after announcing a formal for CSPs to deploy it from days to an can support virtualized network partnership with AWS a month earlier, hour. Other benefits include on­demand technology in real time and quickly scale but the company has been working scaling and feature activation, and better on demand to expand application since 2017 to make its service assurance interoperability with network cloud processing power. solution cloud native by using containers deployments. In addition, the and microservices. partnership with AWS enables the supplier to leverage the cloud platform’s Rakuten rolls its own Three UK selected the company as a analytics tools, which end users can use Japanese ecommerce giant Rakuten is partner in 2017 for a transformation to build and manage data lakes. developing its own cloud­native 5G project to develop a 5G distributed network and back­office stack with help cloud network. The operator also Globe Telecom began working with from Nokia and Netcracker. Rakuten partnered with Nokia, which managed MYCOM OSI in 2016 when the CTO Tareq Amin says his company can the project and is providing cloud company was looking for a converged build a 5G network for 30% of the cost management and many of the core network performance management of a traditional one, with a total cost of network elements. The network is now solution to replace multiple siloed ownership that is 45% lower. serving 9 million customers, nearly all of systems and manage network and whom are using data services and about service quality across all network Rakuten had planned to launch 5G 65% of whom are also using voice. domains, technologies and equipment services in October, but the company vendors. Now the company is running has pushed its start date to spring of Three UK’s transformation goals were to MYCOM OSI’s cloud native­assurance 2020. According to Amin, the company migrate to public cloud, increase agility, application in the AWS cloud. was able to build a virtual radio access improve customer experience and network (vRAN) in eight months, and it double Net Promoter Score (NPS) by The move has delivered tangible took less time to implement Netcracker’s 2021. To do this, the company requires a benefits in a very short time period, digital BSS, which will reduce the time it service assurance solution capable of according to Niles Howsare, OSS takes to onboard new customers from 3 delivering a combined view of the Advisor, Globe Telecom. The biggest hours to 10 minutes. The graphic below network and services, plus end­to­end overall benefit is the cost efficiency of shows the company’s architecture.

Rakuten’s architecture

8 9 Zero-touch, end-to-end automaon & assurance

Any service, anywhere 3 6 1 Small cell

The internet vRAN IPv6-based 5G-ready transport network for backhaul 4 4G, 5G Rakuten vRAN edge cloud Regional DCs Central DCs Hybrid Cloud

Rakuten xEdge for Mobile Edge Compung Core services

Distributed & common carrier-grade telco cloud 2

Soware-defined programmable infrastructure 7

Simple, agile & disrupve

TM Forum, 2019 (source: Rakuten)

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Amin says that using virtual network Watch an interview with Rakuten’s looking at public and private cloud functions and cloud­native BSS also Amin filmed at Digital options for its 5G core, vRAN, mobile will significantly reduce the time it Transformation World 2019: edge, local and market data centers, takes to perform upgrades and and OSS/BSS. maintenance because Rakuten will be able to apply fixes and perform Like Rakuten’s Amin, Ergen believes upgrades and maintenance without that going cloud­native will help the taking services down. company get to market much more quickly, and he believes that building a As an example, he points to Netflix, cloud­native network will cost 25% which performs thousands of software less than a traditional network. upgrades a day without maintenance windows. CSPs on the other hand Dish aims high If Dish is successful, “it will provide a must schedule network maintenance really good example of where to look Dish Networks plans to use public for inspiration for what it looks like to and upgrades during low­peak traffic cloud in its gutsy push to become the times to minimize impact. move to a fully cloud­native operating next nationwide 5G mobile operator model that supports both container­ Amin’s bold plans garnered him in the US. While some observers have based and VNF­based virtualization recognition asFierceWireless’ most called the idea a fantasy, others say it technologies,” comments IBM’s powerful person in wireless could be a masterstroke. Lambertson. technology in 2019. More importantly, Dish Founder and Chairman Charlie Understandably, comparisons to Rakuten has drawn the attention of Ergen first floated the idea in May the telecoms industry to the potential Rakuten have been made in terms of 2018. The company has since Dish being a risk­taking innovator. benefits of cloud­native technology committed to launching a 5G and virtualization. Time will tell if the two companies can broadband network by June 2023 that succeed in disrupting the 5G market. However, it remains to be seen could serve 70% of the US population. One thing is clear, however: CSPs and whether the company will be Dish is set to acquire Sprint’s prepaid their partners need to be specific successful. In addition to postponing businesses and customers including when discussing what it means to be its rollout, Rakuten reported a Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile for $5 cloud native and consider options significantly higher operating loss for billion following completion of the beyond public cloud. While Rakuten its third quarter as a result of increased merger of Sprint and T­Mobile, but it claims to be building a cloud­native investment in the mobile network and will still have to build a nationwide network, the reality is that it will not lower revenue targets due to the network and clear many regulatory be 100% cloud native. It also is not delay. hurdles. clear whether Rakuten and Dish will Given the tight time frame, the only be able to stick with the more way to achieve this is through economical public­cloud option or partnerships, virtualization and cloud revert to a more hybrid or private networking. Dish is looking to build a cloud environment. fully cloud­native operation and is

inform.tmforum.org 21 Section 4

Cloud at the edge of an application that require ultra­low between our companies was great and latency to the edge of the network our engineers have done terrific work In December, Verizon and AWS while connecting back to the full during the last 18 months.” announced a partnership to deploy range of cloud services running in Verizon’s 5G Edge computing service AWS. While this deal is initially positive for in the cloud. Verizon will use AWS both parties, it will provide some good Wavelength to provide developers the Vestberg said the companies began insights into how the dynamics ability to deploy applications that collaborating 18 months ago as between CSPs and cloud partners require ultra­low latency to mobile Verizon was disaggregating the evolve. devices using 5G. In an interview with hardware and software in its mobile CNBC, Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg network and AWS was developing its Watch the CNBC interview with said that the service is live in Chicago cloud service for the edge. The Vestberg: with companies such as game deployment is a combination of public publisher Bethesda Softworks and the and hybrid cloud with latency­ National Football League using it. sensitive application components working at the edge and the rest of The solution is aimed at enabling the app running in AWS’ public cloud. latency­sensitive use cases like machine learning inference at the “We have capabilities in the 5G edge, autonomous industrial network like extremely low latency, equipment, smart cars and cities, enormous throughput, and we can do internet of things, and augmented and slices of the network,” Vestberg said. The next section offers guidance to virtual reality. Verizon 5G Edge “In order to do those together you help CSPs begin transitioning to cloud. provides mobile edge computing and need a partner and the first partner high­volume connectivity between we chose was Amazon. They were the users, devices, and applications, while most advanced and we are the most AWS Wavelength supports the parts advanced, so the compatibility

inform.tmforum.org 22 Section 5 Make it happen – Strategies for embracing cloud

Communications service providers (CSPs) largely have resisted partnering with public cloud providers because of questions about reliability and security, but they should take the lead of companies like AT&T, Vodafone and Verizon and embrace it for at least some workloads. Not only do the economics and the complex demands of consumers and enterprises demand it, but the cloud is ready. Public cloud has overcome most objections around quality and security, and operators can use other cloud options such as private, hybrid and multicloud to complement public cloud deployments. Following are steps CSPs can take now:

Evaluate public cloud Build partnerships Trust but verify A full 84% of attendees at Digital CSPs will need to build many types of Operators know how to engineer, Transformation World 2019 said CSPs partnerships to target enterprises. monitor and manage networks, and the need to be investing in cloud­native Network­facing partnerships with cloud cloud is a network. However, cloud technologies. However, operators will providers (AT&T and Microsoft, for providers have developed cross­ not reap the full benefit without example – see page 16) should focus on platform management tools to provide putting more workloads into the public proper management of workloads, managed services, so this will be an cloud where the total cost of including scale, performance and area of competition. CSPs should not ownership and operation are lowest. security. CSPs can leverage customer­ take their well­trained eyes off the ball. They should begin evaluating individual facing partnerships within industry They should exploit their operational workloads now to determine, even verticals to co­create solutions and business support system hypothetically, which are suitable for leveraging the network. Finally, (OSS/BSS) tools to provide managed cloud. Whenever possible, they should ecosystem partnerships are needed to services. choose public cloud because the manage business and technology economics are undeniable. relationships between CSPs, application In cases where a cloud provider is developers, platform providers and delivering multicloud service cloud providers. These should cover management, CSPs must continue to interconnection (APIs), revenue sharing, monitor performance to assure quality revenue, and quality assurance, data and identify areas where they could sharing and compliance are required. add value for customers and to ensure that the cloud provider is delivering on The relationship between CSPs and their commitments by maintaining cloud providers at times will be visibility into service and network competitive and conflicting, but all performance. parties need to recognize when ‘coopetition’ is in the best interest of the customer. Parties must look for ways to bring joint solutions to market or form a joint venture as Vodafone has done with IBM (see page 19).

inform.tmforum.org 23 Section 5

Adopt an open Require cloud native Use what works architecture Operators can go only so far in their Unlike whales, birds and butterflies, cloud­native quests because they which push themselves to incredible The “lift­and­shift” method of migrating depend on their suppliers to deliver limits to get from one place to another, workloads to the cloud does not cloud­native solutions. Not all vendors people in the telecoms industry equate to being cloud native, nor does are as progressive as the ones consistently underestimate the pain it leverage most of the potential highlighted in this report. Many are and challenges of migration. It’s a benefits of moving to the cloud. More deliberately moving slowly to embrace tough road with only one golden rule: If importantly, it provides no roadmap for cloud­native architectures because they there is a safe path that others have doing it the right way, which is want to preserve the status quo as long followed successfully, use it. migrating to a cloud­native architecture as possible. CSPs should insist on cloud­ and into the public cloud. native solutions in all requests for CSPs should look to pioneers that have successfully moved BSS and OSS TM Forum’s Open Digital Framework, proposal, because even if some workloads into the cloud, and they which includes the Open Digital workloads will not go into the public should be willing to share their Architecture and Open APIs (see page cloud now, there may come a time migration experiences with others by 10), provides a way for CSPs to adopt when operators want to change their contributing to standards organizations cloud at their own pace and an strategies. like TM Forum and open source opportunity to move much faster. The projects. This will make the path less architecture provides transformation risky for everyone. techniques such as optimization, re­ engineering or abstraction to select the desired path to cloud­based deployment of IT applications, allowing CSPs to set a vision, create a roadmap and execute on the plan.

Create new lines of business 5G will make it much easier for CSPs to enter new markets and create new lines of business. Operators should leverage the public cloud in the same way that greenfield competitors like Rakuten and Dish Networks intend to – to get to market more quickly at much lower cost. CSPs can introduce public cloud­based BSS and OSS to support new opportunities in the internet of things, managed networks and multi­access edge computing.

inform.tmforum.org 24 Additional features & resources

26 | SaaS has arrived for Telco OSS 31 | Is the public cloud right for BSS? 34 | TM Forum Open Digital Framework 35 | TM Forum research reports 36 | Meet the Research & Media team SaaS has arrived for Telco OSS Dirk Michel SVP SaaS Business Operations at MYCOM OSI

Recent years have seen a rapid growth in the adoption of a ‘cloud first’ strategy by leading global CSPs, driven by benefits relating to speed, scalability, elasticity, Total Cost of Ownership and functional flexibility, which in turn lays the foundation for a step­change in business agility. With 5G roll­outs underway across the globe, the focus is now on the cloudification of OSS applications, including Network and Service Assurance, which are business critical to operating as well as delivering the promise of 5G: orchestrating carrier­grade digital experience guarantees across speed, latency and connection density, underpinned by AI/ML and closed loop automation.

But can Network and Service Learn more about how Globe carrier­grade service assurance SaaS Assurance – which has traditionally Telecom is using Service Assurance offering. It delivers business agility by been located on­premise close to CSPs SaaS: eliminating months of on­premise networks – really be delivered from deployment time and effort, avoiding the public cloud as Software­as­a­ system infrastructure management risk Service (SaaS)? As Globe Telecom and costs and enabling on­demand presented at Digital Transformation expansion and feature activation. With a Asia 2019, large­scale Service predictable subscription service model, Assurance can indeed be migrated to the Assurance Cloud™ is 5G­ready and SaaS, that not only achieves significant future­proof, enabling CSPs to grow and cloud­based benefits but is also faster accelerate their journey to Digital than on­premise systems, despite the Service Providers (DSPs), aided by lack of physical co­location with At the forefront of Service cloud­native AI/ML at scale to realize network infrastructure. Globe Telecom Assurance in the public the vision of highly automated network may be a leader in SaaS adoption but and service operations. several other Tier 1 CSPs are also cloud implementing Service Assurance in the MYCOM OSI’s Assurance Cloud™, public cloud including the UK’s Three deployed at Globe Telecom, Three and and Vodafone. Vodafone, is the telecom industry’s first

inform.tmforum.org 26 Powered by Amazon Web Services (AWS), The Assurance Cloud™ leverages AWS’s advanced security, scalability, availability, platform orchestration, AI/ML services and global footprint to deliver MYCOM OSI’s Experience Assurance and Analytics™ (EAA) suite of applications and associated catalogs of data acquisition agents and use case­ based SmartPacks™ with ever­increasing levels of automation.Announced at Mobile World Congress in February 2019, The Assurance Cloud™ today already assures some of the largest, The Assurance Cloud™ is highly more departments and teams, but fastest and most complex CSP networks automated and deployable, ready to crucially this remains under the full in the world, including some of the ingest data in under one hour. Time­ control of the CSP. world’s first 5G networks. to­value is typically compressed to under 3 months. Completely eliminating the cost and complexity of A subscription business infrastructure model for Telco Service management Assurance MYCOM OSI controls the cloud MYCOM OSI has created a flexible infrastructure and middleware on SaaS offering incorporating a simple, which the Assurance Cloud™ operates, predictable subscription model, avoiding much of the time and tailored to the changing needs of complexity involved in deploying the telecommunications service providers. EAA applications on different ‘flavors’ It combines flexibility with of on­premise infrastructure and IT predictability, with customers able to environments. Compared to the on­ “right­size” the initial subscription premise approach, it enables CSPs to package and updating the package take full advantage of the Assurance parameters as and when their Cloud™’s deep integration with AWS requirements change. Changes to the and helps eliminate large up­front subscription fee are possible on­ private infrastructure deployment demand, if for example the CSP costs, time, complexity and effort. intends to expand the user group to

inform.tmforum.org 27 Delivering advanced assurance functionality and faster innovation via the public cloud AI/ML is a core aspect of assurance­driven closed loop automation, which becomes an essential ­ not an optional ­ capability in the 5G era. But integrating AI/ML into cloud­native network and service applications involves leveraging rapidly evolving algorithmic systems such as Amazon SageMaker, as well as adapting to significant fluctuations in specialized compute resource requirements.

MYCOM OSI’s Assurance Cloud™ enables on­demand scalability and advanced assurance­driven automation and predictive analytics by leveraging the cloud­native AI/ML services of the AWS public cloud and byincorporating open standards and APIs such as the TM Forum Open APIs and Open Source MANO (OSM). CSPs can additionally leverage integration with peripheral OSS applications to automate and optimize network and service operations across a range of scenarios. As network and service orchestration becomes simultaneously more complex and more business­critical in the 5G era, this assurance­driven automation requirement becomes essential.

Several Tier 1 customers have transformed operations by adopting the Assurance Cloud™ in the following ways: n Adopting AI/ML driven closed loop automation: Advanced analytics (AI/ML) made possible by the vast compute resources of AWS, enabling intelligent closed loop automation, supporting stated targets of upwards of 80 – 95% automation n Adopting AI/ML driven predictive analytics: Training of advanced ML models and creation of predictive inferences at high accuracy underpins a new era in preventative and proactive operational processes for CSPs n Adopting a new approach to innovating and risk: A business model that eliminates barriers to CSP growth through ‘all­ inclusive’ capabilities that seamlessly cater to 5G networks with no additional cost or Service Assurance deployment n Unifying their overall assurance estate for cross­domain use cases through the unification of assurance functions and data into the Assurance Cloud™

inform.tmforum.org 28 The Experience Assurance & Analytics™ suite of applications and solutions The Assurance Cloud™ provides the full Experience Assurance & Analytics™ (EAA) suite of applications from the public cloud. EAA provides the functional building blocks for CSPs to move towards ever­increasing automation of their NOC/SOC operations, collapsing the traditional data silos ofService Quality Management (SQM), Performance Management (PM) and Fault Management (FM), supported by a platform of common resources and data models that enable end­to­end visibility and control across all network domains. Based on modern containerized cloud­native technology, it evolves to meet the demands of CSPs today and in the future. EAA: n Eliminates the silos that constrain CSPs’ visibility of the customer experience, with cross­domain comparable KPIs based on a common platform n Leverages orchestrators for CNF, VNF and PNF technologies to pro­actively automate increasingly complex manual tasks in real time, enabling the resolution of many issues before they impact the customers, reducing MTTR and enabling SLA compliance n Enables data­driven decision­making, by deploying AI/ML to uncover hidden issues and trends, and implement predictive maintenance and capacity planning, unlocking value from a wealth of network, product and context data n Provides carrier­grade assurance capabilities out­of­the­box for emerging technologies including 5G, with a catalog of 200+ pre­integrated use case­based SmartPacks™ n Provides a rapid release cycle supported by DevOps and CI/CD, responsive to the changing needs of CSPs n Supports leading open technologies including OSM, ONAP, OpenDayLight and many more, through active,non­exclusive involvement in open source projects and standards bodies

Subscribers to the Assurance Cloud™ have access to the entire 200+ SmartPacks™ catalog on­demand and can activate or de­activate any given solution at any time, within the parameters of their selected subscription package. This represents a significant improvement in the way CSPs can experiment with services, because the instantiation of assurance of those services is frictionless, eliminating a bottleneck in service innovation without compromising on carrier­grade performance.

inform.tmforum.org 29 The cloud is essential to and there are three key characteristics support on­demand access to new that mean the public cloud, if not features, massive scalability and Telco Service Assurance completely essential, has significant advanced automation capabilities. The in the 5G era advantages over on­premise public cloud is uniquely placed to deployments. First, enabling ‘tenants’ deliver on this requirement. Public Network and Service Assurance will of individual network slices to operate cloud providers such as Amazon are continue to play an increasingly and assure their network and services progressing further into distributed important role in the move to will require the on­demand cloud architectures that support advanced 5G monetization. Network instantiation of assurance capability, service delivery and assurance from slicing promises to unlock new especially given the high turnaround the edge, for low latency and revenue streams across a range of of tenants across thousands of slices. compute intensive scenarios, with enterprise verticals, and it is not Second, for the CSP itself, the services such as Outpost and difficult to view the full ‘stand alone’ prospect of orchestrating speed Wavelength. Looking into the 5G network of the future being split (eMBB), latency (uRLLC) and medium­term horizon, innovations into thousands of end­to­end slices, connection density (mMTC) such as these mean that MYCOM each catering to a unique set of guarantees across thousands of OSI’s Assurance Cloud™ is uniquely performance requirements. concurrent networks slices comes placed to lead the way in driving with significant uncertainty, across public cloud adoption in the category compute resource capacity of telco Service Assurance. requirements as well as the business scenarios it will cater to. Third, the efficient automation of network slices will involve deep integration with advanced AI/ML services and external orchestration systems.

Network and Service Assurance is Moving into the 5G era, it will critical to efficiently orchestrating the therefore be essential for Network overall network in this future scenario and Service Assurance systems to

inform.tmforum.org 30 Is the Public Cloud Right for BSS?

Ask most CTOs outside of telecom, "What has been the most beneficial innovative technology in the last decade?" The answer will likely be the public cloud. So why do we not hear this as frequently from our industry?

Over the last two decades, the public continually investing there, leading n Highly controlled access, preventing cloud was the foundation for many analysts, such as Gartner, have any unauthorized partner, vendor, successful companies, such as Lyft, acknowledged that the public cloud or employee from entering with and a growth accelerator for others, has become more secure than on­ defense depth controls at every such as Netflix. As telecom operators premise data centers. layer. face fierce competition, challenges from over­the­top (OTT) players, and Public cloud vendors make massive n Data encryption at rest by default. changes in the value chain, they must investments in security. For example, n Transparency through frequent evaluate their value propositions and Google Cloud, an Optiva technology third­party certifications and audits. ensure they leverage the best partner, spent $13 billion in 2018 to technologies. Public cloud is the build data centers and implement single most transformative force security. This earned Google coming to this industry, and the shift recognition as aForrester Wave cloud has started. platform security leader, and it is an investment in innovation and security The Truth About Public that operators simply cannot match. Through 2020, public The stringent guidelines and “cloud infrastructure as a Cloud investments help operators to comply service (IaaS) workloads Operators often have the perception with the security and privacy laws will suffer at least 60% that the public cloud is not secure, is that vary by country, regulatory body, just another data center offering and company policies. It also provides fewer security incidents hardware, and is more expensive. But operators with maximum control over than those in traditional is any of this true? the data and who has access to it. data centers.” Says Gartner Is Public Cloud Secure? The specific reasons that Google is - Cloud Leadership Cloud offerings from providers, such more secure than alternative options Strategy - Gartner as Google Cloud Platform (GCP), include: Insights on How and Why Amazon Web Services (AWS), and n Layered defense with strong Leaders Must Implement Microsoft Azure, must meet stringent perimeters and surveillance on Cloud Computing guidelines for security and privacy cloud data centers. and give full control to their customers. And since they are

inform.tmforum.org 31 Is the Public Cloud Just So, make sure you are not offered a private cloud deployment or an Another Data Center? architecture that is not cloud­native. Often, vendors market themselves as Further, when you run in the public being cloud­ready, saying they are cloud by only dropping existing As other CSPs build trust available on the cloud, or referencing software onto Azure, AWS, or GCP — with cloud providers, they a customer who migrated their that is not cloud­native. That is a “lift “ application to use public cloud and shift” exercise that does not will move applications to compute power. Is that enough to leverage or deliver the full benefits of the public cloud, leverage the public cloud’s game­ public cloud, including speed, scale, eliminating the need to changing capabilities? and massive savings to operators. build and run data The terms “cloud­native” and “cloud­ But what exactly does “native” mean? centers. They will embrace ready” are often used inaccurately. Applications that are suited to the There are no official definitions of cloud utilize a decomposed cloud because the benefits these terms. Therefore, vendors can architecture and containerization are compelling …” Says easily make marketing claims that are approach to development, such as George Glass - VP, misleading. So, buyer beware — Docker. They embrace a Kubernetes Architecture & APIs - educate yourself to avoid confusion solution to orchestrate their and negative consequences. Doing so containers. The only way to be truly TM Forum - Telcos will will help ensure that the strategies cloud­native is to leverage the embrace public cloud – you consider align well with your software and solutions available on they can’t afford not to needs today, goals long term, and the public cloud (e.g., database expectations for budget, capability, management, AI, ML, etc.). One and performance. example is to replace legacy, old­ school Oracle relational databases to “Lift and shift” does not give you full allow the vastly superior database benefits. performance and scalability provided by public cloud data management Most vendors usually say their BSS is software. running on the cloud — without being too specific. However, to leverage the massive benefits of the public cloud, you need to run on the public cloud.

inform.tmforum.org 32 Is Public Cloud More Public cloud is considered a disruptive force, but it can also be Expensive? transformative to telcos and their To accurately calculate the cost core BSS applications. It brings savings operators can achieve, a unmatched capabilities, including We recently built a model bottom­up analysis of the total cost speed, scale, and savings — which “for a customer — a of ownership (TCO) is required — cannot be duplicated with other types from the ground where the servers sit of deployments like private cloud. medium-sized operator in to the people who operate the While some concerns, such as Asia Pacific — and environments and manage the various security and privacy, are still being determined they would save applications and everything in raised by operators, the benefits and 60% on their TCO over five between. advantages of the public cloud that other industries enjoy are convincing years by moving their on- By moving to the public cloud, telecom operators to begin the premise live and disaster operators can gain up to 80% savings journey. on their BSS spending, when recovery systems to public analyzing the following cost streams: How to Begin Your Public cloud.” Says Shay Assaraf - CMO - Optiva n Hardware and software, including Cloud BSS Journey refresh/replacements Optiva is the leader in providing n Data center operations telecom operators with cloud­native it allows operators to focus on their revenue management software on the business, not on deploying and n Maintenance and support public cloud. Operators globally are managing enterprise software. starting to leverage our re­architected n People products and are discovering the Optiva Charging Engine™ is a flexible, robust, end­to­end converged n proven benefits. Optiva offers its BSS vendor fees, including upgrades charging solution optimized for the and CRs customers two leading products that provide operators 2x faster time to world’s largest CSPs. Whether your With the public cloud, operators don’t market and value at the lowest TCO customer base is 5M or 500M, the buy hardware. There are no data with up to 80% savings. unique pricing model, functionality, center costs, such as real estate, and scalability enable 10x database power and cooling, operation, Optiva BSS Platform™, re­architected performance and make it the best security, and staffing. Operators and made available on the public OSS/BSS solution for telco eliminate investments in third­party cloud, is Optiva’s new entry into the innovators. Software­as­a­Service (SaaS) market. database software, disaster recovery, Contact us to learn more about our and static testbeds. It provides unlimited capacity with a worry­free, SaaS, pay­as­you­grow capabilities and the value public cloud The public cloud increases savings model. The multi­tenant, best­in­suite can give you. and reduces TCO, and it empowers platform is a fully managed, end­to­ operators to be more agile. end, cloud­native product. Therefore,

inform.tmforum.org 33 TM Forum Open Digital Framework

Delivering the tools to go from concept to cash in just 18 days

The TM Forum Open Digital Framework is an interactive, continuously evolving collection of tools, knowledge and standards that give communications service providers (CSPs) an end­to­end migration path from legacy systems to modular, cloud­native IT components. Simply put, it is a blueprint for service providers to deliver intelligent operations fit for the 5G era.

A prototype version of the framework is available now for TM Forum members to explore. It is being developed through the TM together with standards simplifies and de­risks Forum Collaboration Program and maximizing the potential of AI to transformation projects Catalyst Program, and builds on the enhance customer experience success of the Forum’s established and increase operational The goal of the Open Digital Open APIs and the Frameworx efficiency Framework is to help service suite of standards. Specifically, it providers increase agility and includes: n Reference implementations – a drastically reduce the development framework for assembling and cycle for products and services n Open Digital Architecture (ODA) validating ODA components in from 18 months to 18 days. Much – an enterprise architecture the Forum’s Open Digital Lab, of the collaborative work that is blueprint, common language and fostering the creation of a part of the framework is already key design principles for modular, services marketplace available, but it helps to organize it cloud­based, open digital and make it more accessible. The platforms that can be n Practical guidance – guides and framework is a work in progress orchestrated using AI videos showing how the Open and will improve through Digital Framework can be used crowdsourcing. n Open APIs – 50+ standardized to transform the core business REST­based APIs to facilitate and enable new business growth If you would like to learn more zero­touch integration and zero­ about the project or how to get touch partnering n Foundational libraries – involved in the TM Forum normalized models providing a Collaboration Community, please n Data & AI standards – an common language for business contact Andy Tiller. industry­agreed data model, processes and information that

inform.tmforum.org 34 TM Forum research reports

HOW TO LEVERAGE FUTURE OSS: TOWARDS AN DATA ANALYTICS OPEN DIGITAL ARCHITECTURE Author: Mark Newman, Chief Analyst Author: Tim McElligo, Senior Analyst Editor: Dawn Bushaus, Managing Editor Editor: Dawn Bushaus, Managing Editor December 2019 November 2019

Sponsors: Sponsor:

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DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION 5G FUTURE: TARGETING

TRACKER ASIA: SEIZING THE ENTERPRISE Authors: Tim McElligo, Senior Analyst & Mark Newman, Chief Analyst NEW OPPORTUNITIES Editor: Dawn Bushaus, Managing Editor

September 2019 Author: Mark Newman, Chief Analyst

Editor: Dawn Bushaus, Managing Editor

November 2019

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May 2019 | www.tmforum.org

BL CKCHAIN: WHERE’S THE VALUE FOR TELEC MS?

Author: Paul Ridgewell, Contributing Analyst Editor: Dawn Bushaus, Managing Editor

May 2019 | www.tmforum.org April 2019 | www.tmforum.org 5G: EVOLUTION AND REVOLUTION

Author: Mike Hibberd, Contribung Analyst Editor: Dawn Bushaus, Managing Editor DYNAMIC INVENTORY April 2019 NETWORK AS A SERVICE: The foundation of ADDRESSING THE FULL ENTERPRISE intelligent automation Author: Tim McElligott, Senior Analyst OPPORTUNITY Editor: Dawn Bushaus, Managing Editor

Author: Tim McElligott, Senior Analyst Editor: Dawn Bushaus, Managing Editor

Sponsors:

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inform.tmforum.org 35 Meet the Research & Media team

Report Design: Report Editor: Report Author: Intuitive Design UK Ltd Dawn Bushaus Tim McElligott info@intuitive­design.co.uk Senior Analyst Managing Editor [email protected] [email protected] Published by: TM Forum 4 Century Drive, Chief Analyst: Editor, Digital Content: Parsippany, NJ 07054 Mark Newman Arti Mehta USA Chief Analyst [email protected] www.tmforum.org [email protected] Phone: +1 973­944­5100 Fax: +1 973­944­5110 ISBN: 978­1­945220­65­4 Customer Success & Commercial Manager, Operations Manager: Research & Media: Ali Groves Tim Edwards [email protected] [email protected]

Global Account Director: Digital Marketing Carine Vandevelde Manager: [email protected] Anna Kurmanbaeva [email protected]

© 2019. The entire contents of this publication are protected by copyright. All rights reserved. The Forum would like to thank eth sponsors and advertisers who have enabled the publication of this fully independently researched report. The views and opinions expressed by individual authors and contributors in this publication are provided in the writers’ personal capacities and are their sole responsibility. Their publication does not imply that they represent the views or opinions of TM Forum and must neither be regarded as constituting advice on any matter whatsoever, nor be interpreted as such. The reproduction of advertisements and sponsored features in this publication does not in any way imply endorsement by TM Forum of products or services referred to therein.

inform.tmforum.org 36 For more about TM Forum’s Open Digital Architecture Project, please contact George Glass