Telco Cloud: Why it matters, how to make it happen, and how to measure success

What is telco cloud and why does it matter?

This overview explains the essentials about telco cloud, including virtualisation, NFV and SDN.

NFV Deployment Tracker

Access our unique database of live commercial deployments of NFV and SDN by leading telcos worldwide. The latest update contains details on 572 deployments made up of 1100+ sub-components

Latest update: June 2020

Open RAN: What should telcos do?

Alongside the roll-out of 5G cores and radios, the Radio Access Network (RAN) is evolving to a more open, virtualised and distributed architecture. What are the opportunities and risks for telcos?

Published: April 2020

Cloud Native Telecoms: Are CNFs the future?

Unpicking the claim that “cloud native” is the future of telecoms, disentangling the reality of deployments from marketing spin. What does this mean for NFV?

NFV Vendor Landscape tool

An interactive tool that shows the offerings from different players in the NFV ecosystem,segmented based on the categories defined in the ETSI NFV architectural framework. It is a broad view of current and future offerings.

Will open RAN help telcos reduce their physical infrastructure footprint

Open RAN will have serious consequences for the physical distribution of the mobile network. What strategies are operators adopting and how will this affect operations?

Telco Cloud: Why it hasn’t delivered, and what must change for 5G

Telco cloud made big promises for the transformation of telecoms. It is a fundamental enabler for 5G and the exciting opportunities ahead. Why hasn’t it delivered yet – and what needs to change?

Published: February 2020

5G Telco Clouds: Where we are and where we are headed

In this webinar, we will argue that 5G will only pay if telcos find a way to make telco clouds work.

NFV Deployment Tracker: Asia-Pacific points to the future

Asia-Pacific is the leading region in the global NFV/SDN market: highest volume of deployments and consistent record of innovation. The region points the way ahead for the global market.

Published: November 2019

Rakuten’s network: is it really cloud-native, multi-vendor and fully-virtualised?

Japanese new-entrant operator Rakuten claims to have built a fully-virtualised, cloud-native, multi-vendor network, which is a world’s first. We evaluate the nature of Rakuten’s employment, breaking it down based on what each factor means and the extent to which these claims are true.

3 telco business models: Soft-net, compute-net, cloud-net

Telcos must adapt to virtualisation and changing customer needs in the Coordination Age. Our three models offer a realistic agenda for telcos to build up the stack into the IT layer – either by themselves or through partnerships

Published: March 2019

NFV Deployment Tracker: North America update

New deployments in N America are increasingly driven by 5G, with a striking role for open source and telco self-builds. N American deployments account for around 24% of the global total

Published: June 2019

NFV Architectural Framework

NFV architecture needs to establish the virtualisation of diverse sets of network functions, and encourage the standardisation of NFV by addressing interoperability and enable VNFs to be used in a way that is independent of the vendor supplying them. This article explores the NFV architectural framework established by ETSI

Telco SD-WAN: What’s happening, and how to do it?

In this webinar, hosted by Juniper Networks, we share our independent view on why SD-WAN should be an operator’s first VNF-based service. We also discuss models for deployment

Recorded: March 2019

Proprietary vendors still dominate NFV

NFV promised to deliver truly open hardware and software platforms. Yet the space is still dominated by proprietary vendor solutions. We look at the data around this

Published: January 2019

Benefits of SD-WAN: SD-WAN benefits over a traditional environment

SD-WAN brings with it several benefits over a traditional environment. Here, we explore the core benefits of SD-WAN and explain some of the nuance surrounding these.

CDN: what is edge CDN and virtual CDN (vCDN)?

Content and gaming providers face increasing competition to offer users the best quality of experience in the face of increasing demand for fast and high-quality streaming. The COVID-19 environment has put new strains on the network that means it is much more difficult to ensure delivery of content in a way that optimises user experience. There are two key trends emerging in CDN that could address this challenge: edge CDN and vCDN.

15 NFV Solution Providers to Watch

We have been following developments and deployments in the Telco Cloud space for several years. In this article, we highlight fifteen different companies that offer NFV solutions, from traditional Network Equipment Providers to start-ups you may not have heard of.

SD-WAN vs MPLS: Will SD-WAN lead to the demise of MPLS?

When SD-WAN first came along, there was a lot of hype surrounding it; many said it was far superior to MPLS and that its rise would lead to the ‘death’ of MPLS. We look at the difference is between the two, and if one is in fact better than the other.

Private LTE: new business model opportunity for vRAN

Our research predicts that the most significant and earliest use cases for edge sites will to be support vRAN for opex reduction but also to enable next-generation network services. Private LTE networks are one key example of this, and represent a significant opportunity for operators to create new business models and revenues.