The Telco Cloud Manifesto 2.0

Nearly two years on from our first Telco Cloud Manifesto published in March 2021, we are even more convinced that going through the pain of learning how to orchestrate and manage network workloads in a cloud-native environment is essential for telcos to successfully create new business models, such as Network-as-a-Service in support of edge compute applications.

Since the first Manifesto, hyperscalers have emerged as powerful partners and enablers for telcos’ technology transformation. But telcos that simply outsource to hyperscalers the delivery and management of their telco cloud, and of the multi-vendor, virtualised network functions that run on it, will never realise the true potential of telco cloudification. By contrast, evolving and maintaining an ability to orchestrate and manage multi-vendor, virtualised network functions end-to-end across distributed, multi-domain and multi-vendor infrastructure represents a vital control point that telcos should not surrender to the hyperscalers and vendors. Doing so could relegate telcos to a role as mere physical connectivity and infrastructure providers helping to deliver services developed, marketed and monetised by others.

In short, operators must take on the ‘workload’ of transforming into and acting as cloud-centric organisations before they shift their ‘workloads’ to the hyperscale cloud. In this updated Manifesto, we outline why, and what telcos at different stages of maturity should prioritise.

Two developments have taken place since the publication of our first manifesto that have changed the terms on which telcos are addressing network cloudification:

  • Hyperscale cloud providers have increasingly developed capabilities and commercial offers in the area of telco cloud. To telcos uncertain about the strategy and financial implications of the next phase of their investments, the hyperscalers appear to offer a shortcut to telco cloud: the possibility of avoiding doing all the hard yards of developing the private telco cloud, and of evolving the internal skills and processes for deploying and managing multi-vendor VNFs / CNFs over it. Instead, the hyperscalers offer the prospect of getting telco cloud and VNFs / CNFs on an ‘as-a-Service’ basis – fundamentally like any other cloud service.
  • In April 2021, DISH announced it would build its greenfield 5G network with AWS providing much of the virtual infrastructure layer and all of the physical cloud infrastructure. In June 2021, AT&T sold its private telco cloud platform to Microsoft Azure. In both instances, the telcos involved are now deploying mobile core network functions and, in DISH’s case, all of the software-based functions of its on a hyperscale cloud. These events appear superficially to set an example validating the idea of outsourcing telco cloud to the hyperscalers. After all, AT&T had previously been a champion of the DIY approach to telco cloud but now looked as though it had thrown in the towel and gone all in with outsourcing its cloud from Azure.

Two main questions arise from these developments, which we address in detail in this second Manifesto:

  • Should telcos embarked or embarking on a Pathway 2 strategy outsource their telco cloud infrastructure and procure their critical network functions – in whole or in part – from one or more hyperscalers, on an as-a-Service basis?
  • What is the broader significance of AT&T’s and DISH’s moves? Does it represent the logical culmination of telco cloudification and, if so, what are the technological and business-model characteristics of the ‘infrastructure-independent, cloud-native telco’, as we define this new Pathway 4? Finally, is this a model that all Pathway 3 players – and even all telcos per se – should ultimately seek to emulate?

In this second Manifesto, we also propose an updated version of our pathways describing telco network cloudification strategies for different sizes and types of telco to implement telco cloud. We now have four pathways (we had three in the original Manifesto), as illustrated in the figure below.

The four telco cloud deployment pathways in STL’s Telco Cloud Manifesto 2.0

Source: STL Partners, 2023

Existing subscribers can download the Manifesto at the top of this page. Everyone else, please go here.

If you wish to speak to us about our new Manifesto, please book a call.

Table of contents

  • Executive Summary
    • Recommendations
  • Pathway 1: No way back
    • Two constituencies at operators: Cloud sceptics and cloud advocates
  • Pathway 2: Hyperscalers – friend or foe?
    • Cloud-native network functions are a vital control point telcos must not relinquish
  • Pathway 3: Build own telco cloud competencies before deploying on public cloud
    • AT&T and DISH are important proof points but not applicable to the industry as a whole
    • But telcos will not realise the full benefits of telco cloud unless they, too, become software and cloud businesses
  • Pathway 4: The path to Network-as-a-Service
    • Pathway 4 networks will enable Network-as-a-Service
  • Conclusion: Mastery of cloud-native is key for telcos to create value in the Coordination Age

Related research

Our telco cloud research aligned to this topic includes:

 

Building telco edge infrastructure: MEC, Private LTE and VRAN

Reality check: edge computing is not yet mature, and much is still to be decided

Edge computing is still a maturing domain. STL Partners has written extensively on the topic of edge computing over the last 4 years. Within that timeframe, we have seen significant change in terminology, attitudes and approaches from telecoms and adjacent industries to the topic area.  Plans for building telco edge infrastructure have also evolved.

Within the past twelve months, we’ve seen high profile partnerships between hyperscale cloud providers (Amazon Web Services, Microsoft and Google) and telecoms operators that are likely to catalyse the industry and accelerate route to market. We’ve also seen early movers within the industry (such as SK Telecom) developing MEC platforms to enable access to their edge infrastructure.

In the course of this report, we will highlight which domains will drive early adoption for edge, and the potential roll out we could see over the next 5 years if operators move to capitalise on the opportunity. However, to start, it is important to evaluate the situation today.

Commercial deployments of edge computing are rare, and most operators are still in the exploration phase. For many, they have not and will not commit to the roll out of edge infrastructure until they have seen evidence from early movers that it is a genuine opportunity for the industry. For even more, the idea of additional capex investment on edge infrastructure, on top of their 5G rollout plans, is a difficult commitment to make.

Where is “the edge”?

There is no one clear definition of edge computing. Depending on the world you are coming from (Telco? Application developer? Data centre operator? Cloud provider? etc.), you are likely to define it differently. In practice, we know that even within these organisations there are differences between technical and commercial teams around the concept and terminology used to describe “the edge”.

For the purposes on this paper, we will be discussing edge computing primarily from the perspective of a telecoms operator. As such, we’ll be focusing on edge infrastructure that will be rolled out within their network infrastructure or that they will play a role in connecting. This may equate to adding additional servers into an existing technical space (such as a Central Office), or it may mean investing in new microdata centres. The servers may be bought, installed and managed by the telco themselves, or this could be done by a third party, but in all cases the real estate (e.g. the physical location as well as power and cooling) is owned either by the telecoms operator, or by the enterprise who is buying an edge-enabled solution.

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Operators have choice and a range of options for where and how they might develop edge computing sites. The graphic below starts to map some of the potential physical locations for an edge site. In this report, STL Partners forecasts edge infrastructure deployments between 2020 and 2024, by type of operator, use-case domains, edge locations and type of computing.

There is a spectrum of edge infrastructure in which telcos may invest

mapping edge infrastructure investmentSource: STL Partners

This paper primarily draws on discussions with operators and others within the edge ecosystem conducted between February and March 2020. We interviewed a range of operators, and a range of job roles within them, to gain a snapshot of the existing attitudes and ambitions within the industry to shape our understanding of how telcos are likely to build out edge infrastructure.

Table of Contents

  • Executive Summary
  • Preface
  • Reality check: edge computing is not yet mature, and much is still to be decided
    • Reality #1: Organisationally, operators are still divided
    • Reality #2: The edge ecosystem is evolving fast
    • Reality #3: Operators are trying to predict, respond to and figure out what the “new normal” will be post COVID-19
  • Edge computing: key terms and definitions
    • Where is “the edge”?
    • What applications & use cases will run at edge sites?
    • What is inside a telco edge site?
  • How edge will play out: 5-year evolution
    • Modelling exercise: converting hype into numbers
    • Our findings: edge deployments won’t be very “edgy” in 2024
    • Short-term adoption of vRAN is the driving factor
    • New revenues from MEC remain a longer-term opportunity
    • Short-term adoption is focused on efficient operations, but revenue opportunity has not been dismissed
  • Addressing the edge opportunity: operators can be more than infrastructure providers
  • Conclusions: practical recommendations for operators

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