The availability of off-the-shelf, pre-integrated cloud platforms is allowing network operators to roll out and deliver effective cloud-based services to their enterprise customers, a development that is likely to have a positive effect on cloud service profitability, according to a new report by market research firm Heavy Reading.
The report titled "The Cloud Platform Makeover: Buy It, Don’t Build It" revealed that to take advantage of the opportunity to deliver cloud services to enterprises, communications service providers must put in place a cloud platform with cloud automation, management and advanced orchestration capabilities.
The market research firm said that network operators increasingly will need to support advanced cloud scenarios including cloud bursting, virtual private clouds and cloud disaster recovery.
Heavy Reading service provider IT insider research analyst Caroline Chappell said the arrival of robust off-the-shelf products means telcos no longer need to build their own cloud platforms, which could mean the end of Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) offerings.
Chappell said, "IaaS is becoming a commodity service, and it may even become a redundant service as cloud service consumers interact directly with virtualisation-aware applications rather than virtual machines."
The research revealed that the need to bring IT together with the network in support of advanced cloud orchestration scenarios is driving the formation of three IT/network vendor partnerships: VCE Company, HP and Alcatel-Lucent, and IBM and Juniper.
In addition, the report opined that start-up cloud platform vendors are driving innovations around cloud security, cloud bursting, cloud marketplaces and the virtual private cloud; and cloud platforms must move beyond support for IaaS as this becomes a commodity and, in a world of virtualisation-aware applications, a redundant service.
