Our Telco Cloud and Edge highlights reel includes key insights from the industry's thought leaders including: Shawn Hakl VP, 5G Strategy at Microsoft Azure, Ram Venketaramani, Senior Director, Edge Solutions at VMware, Franck Morales, Vice President, Evolution Platform at Orange Business Services, Zac Smith, Head of Edge Infrastructure Services at Equinix, Mauricio Sanchez, Research Director at Dell'Oro, and a cameo by Antonella Sanguineti, Head of PM Secure Cloud & Networking Solutions at Sparkle (who features in an upcoming report - stay tuned).
2023 Telco Cloud and Edge
To kick off 2023, AvidThink and Converge Network Digest are pleased to present our Telco Cloud and Edge Resource site that examines major telco initiatives like 5G, IoT, OSS/BSS modernization, edge computing and the choices telcos face in building the next-generation telco cloud to support these efforts. Check out the videos from thought leaders, and download the AvidThink report.
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Telco Cloud Insights from Industry Thought leaders
CSPs are under pressure to determine which parts of their infrastructure are core, whom to partner with, when and where to use public clouds, and how much to extend their infrastructure to the edge and into customer premises. — 2023 Telco Cloud and Edge Report
Content from Sponsors and Thought Leaders
The following media comprises interviews and other content related to telco cloud and edge. Views expressed are those of the presenting individuals and companies and may not necessarily represent views of Converge! Network Digest or AvidThink.
Automation is the path to cloud-native network solutions
Automation is key to enabling services across a global ecosystem of Service Providers, says Franck Morales, Vice President, Evolution Platform, Orange Business Services, and Director of MEF.
Here is a perspective on how this automation is developing within MEF and across the industry.
Building a Global Telco Cloud
Orange Business Services is pursuing a global Telco Cloud strategy with major hubs in 45 cities worldwide and expanding to the hundreds. Capabilities will include advanced services powered by Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) nodes, as well as multi-vendor cloud-based solutions. Listen to perspectives from Franck Morales, Vice President, Evolution Platform, Orange Business Services.
Multi-Cloud Flexibility for Telco Cloud and Edge
The advent of 5G is driving deep changes in the way that telcos deploy and manage their networks. Telco Cloud infrastructure must adopt a distributed, multi-cloud architecture. It must also be ready to leverage public cloud capabilities to benefit new business opportunities. Here are the insider views of Ram Venketaramani, Senior Director, Edge Solutions, VMware.
We Know How to Secure Telco Clouds
Despite hand wringing at some telcos around the security of Telco Clouds, it’s a solvable problem. John Carse , CISO of Rakuten Symphony and Rakuten Mobile , explains how other critical industries like finance or defense that have already moved to cloud have created best practices to secure cloud platforms.
Big Carriers Look to Telco Cloud
Telco Cloud is entering an exciting phase: actual execution. AT&T is the flagship customer for Microsoft’s Azure for Operator Distributed Services which already supports tens of millions of users. Microsoft’s VP, 5G Strategy, Shawn Hakl explains what carrier-grade Telco Cloud really entails.
Bare Metal for Telco Clouds
Telcos have the most demanding requirements, says Zachary Smith, Head of Edge Infrastructure Services, Equinix. The high-intensity workloads are what powers the underlying rails of our digital lives. The telco environment is a multi-tenant, multi-application proposition. All of these factors point to bare-metal as an enabling solution for telco clouds.
Managing Private 5G, Telco Cloud , and Edge Compute
The management challenges of telco cloud, private 5G, and edge compute depends on the complexity of the deployment and on the geographic footprint. Here’s a perspective from Paul Savill, Global Practice Leader of Networking & Edge Compute, Kyndryl.
Telco Cloud, Edge, and O-RAN Infrastructure
If someone wants to build a shared-infrastructure, neutral host with Open RAN functionality, Vapor IO is ready to meet the low-latency challenge, say company CEO, Cole Crawford. Cole also discusses the handoffs between a telco network, a private wireless network, and a hyper scale cloud provider.
Telco Cloud Possibilities
The telco cloud has evolved from in-house carrier platforms to hybrid offerings that include public hyperscaler offerings and in-house offerings. It ranges from public regional clouds to even uCPE on premises. Telcos face challenges in managing the diversity of hardware platforms and locations — APIs and standards, and assurance of performance is still evolving.
Marc Cohn, Principal Technology Strategist, Spirent explains.
Comparing Telco Cloud with Public Cloud
Tier-1 carriers have unique cloud environments suited to their specific needs (e.g., supporting NFV with DPDK and OVS), whereas public cloud operators optimize their infrastructure for a broader mission. Spirent Communications’ CTO and SVP, GM of its Cloud and IP business, Dave Larson, compares the different environments.
The Starting Point for Telco Cloud
As applications become highly distributed to edge locations, new opportunities open for telcos. The challenge for telcos is how to gain a foothold in this space when the hyperscale cloud operators already are capturing enterprise workloads. Here is market analysis from Mauricio Sanchez, Research Director at Dell’Oro Group — a leading analyst firm.
Securing Telco Clouds
Securing telco cloud infrastructure, and 5G networks in particular, is top priority. Whenever there is a major shift in technology, hackers will look for new attack vectors. Rodrigo Brito, Head of Cybersecurity Business Line, Nokia, discusses strategic planning in securing telco clouds.
Telco cloud complexity is a big factor
Telcos have domain expertise in procuring network functions and then building a managed service around it. As we move into virtualized telco clouds, the level of complexity increases, providing both challenges and opportunities for the ecosystem.
Sunil Khandekar explains.
Hyperscalers will retain strategic advantages
Hyperscalers are keenly focused on migrating as many enterprise workloads as possible onto their clouds. They have the expertise and the infrastructure. However, when it comes to data sovereignty, telcos may have advantages, especially if they are partnered with the hyperscalers. Sunil Khandekar, MEF board member and industry veteran, shares his perspective.
Optical Transport Underpins Telco Clouds
Whether private 5G, IoT, AR/VR or metaverse, tomorrow’s workloads demand closer proximity of compute and storage resources to end-users. Optical transport across telco cloud domains will be key to ensuring optimal performance. Travis Ewert, Chief Operating Officer, Lightriver, shares his insights.
Telco Cloud needs an Ecosystem
Telco Clouds needs a robust ecosystem to grow and thrive. And John Carr, Vice President of Business Development, Neustar, explains why an API-driven network is necessary to for rapid telco cloud growth and innovation.
Special Feature - Telco Cloud One Mile Chat
Big trends in Telco Cloud and Edge
Join Jim Carroll of Converge Digest and Kaloom’s SVP Marketing and BD, Hitendra Sonny Soni, on a 1-mile stroll in San Jose, California as they discuss trends in Telco Cloud and Edge including: top players, sustainability, killer app, early advantage, 5G workloads, metaverse, AR/VR, OCP, P4 and more.