Telcos Targeting Cloud as Technology Evolves
Cloud computing will expand with the entry of major telcos, said companies and analysts we interviewed. Standards and user cases for the technology, still in its early stage, will change over time, they said.
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Major telcos are ready to become important players throughout the range of cloud computing services, including Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Software-as-a-Service, said Ovum analyst Peter Hall. The third cloud computing service model, as defined by the National Institute of Science and Technology, is Cloud-Platform-as-a-Service. Hall cited telcos’ history of providing managed data-center services and hosting, in addition to their networking and security offerings. Telcos can provide guaranteed bandwidth, he said. “Cloud is meaningless without the connectivity,” said Steve Coker, a general manager at Sprint Nextel on service convergence.
But some analysts said telcos are still struggling to find a niche market and figure out how to jump into the decade-old managed-services business. And telcos may not fare as well as established IT players in aspects of cloud computing that require applications expertise, they said. Still, telcos are expected to be major players in areas more closely related to managed hosting, they said. Sprint’s cloud services complement offerings from IT players more than they compete, Coker said. The company’s strategy is creating a level playing field for applications provided by carriers and partners to work with the same high reliability and low latency, he said.
Cloud computing is an important trend in the roles that operators play in supporting the infrastructure of business, said Ed Morche, a senior vice president of Level 3. The company’s IaaS approach aims to support secure reach to on-demand computing power, storage, memory and bandwidth, he said. There’s no one-size-fits-all model in cloud, said IDC analyst Melanie Posey. Customers are likely to want a mix of physical and virtual infrastructure, said Patrick Verhoeven, Verizon senior product manager of IT solutions. The key to Verizon’s cloud approach, called Computing as a Service, is the option for customers to choose between virtual infrastructure, like server resources, and traditional physical infrastructure, he said. There’s “tremendous organizational focus” on cloud, Verhoeven said. Unlike Amazon’s cloud offering, often tailored to large and midsized businesses, Verizon’s sweet spot is mid-tier companies, he said.
Telcos can take advantage of their current infrastructure in moving to cloud, said Steve Caniano, a vice president of AT&T Business Solutions. The carrier’s IaaS model complements its network assets, allowing it to leverage its data center infrastructure and build a multi-tenant service platform, he said. Other telcos, such as Qwest and TW Telecom, are also moving aggressively to cloud.
Still, many customers have little idea of what cloud computing is, Coker acknowledged. “Because the whole context around the model for cloud isn’t completely defined yet,” there’s still a lot of confusion and misconceptions, he said, advocating additional customer education. Cloud computing remains an evolving concept, Coker said. Simpler and clearer pricing models are needed, Verhoeven said. Customers want it to be easier to estimate any increase in usage based on terms they already know, he said.