Going up: VMware backs platform approach as springboard for digital monetisation

The pace of transformation within communications service providers (CSPs) striving to become digital service providers continues to accelerate, with operators making meaningful progress towards becoming cloud-native and platform-centric as they evolve converged fixed and mobile infrastructure and take software-led operational environments closer to the network edge. 

Building the momentum for this major overhaul is placing a huge demand on scarce resources, particularly with operators in the early stages of ramping up revenue-generating services and customer experiences that leverage these new capabilities. 

In discussions with BTwatch, VMware notes that operators able to successfully control the exertion and expense that accompanies change are overcoming the friction that builds when transforming at pace. This acceleration breakthrough is generated by the smart use of the proven people and technologies already at hand, as well as leveraging new assets, according to Nigel Stephenson, VMware Director of Market Development. 

With this approach, Stephenson believes operators can not only deliver innovation while keeping costs under control, but also ensure that new automated cloud-native services and systems are scalable on networks serving tens of millions of subscribers. “Accelerating new service delivery by leveraging existing skills and people is more efficient and more effective when you can do so on an integrated, customisable platform”, he says.

VMware is aiding this by extending the role of its Telco Cloud Platform beyond the core, and into the radio access network (RAN) environment, including building on its experience as a key partner for US cloud-native disruptor DISH Network. “DISH has helped us understand what we need to do to collaborate with vendors who might be quite new to us”, explains Rob Soni, VMware’s Head of RAN Architecture. 

“ You can modernise the network, but for it to become really monetised, you need the partners and the ideas that are going to differentiate the services that are ultimately offered. ”

Soni.

Opportunities to innovate and differentiate fired up by automation and AI

As operators begin deploying 5G standalone (5G SA) networks and disaggregate the RAN, there is universal recognition that automation and AI will be fundamental to the future service provider. Along with this change in technology foundations, there needs to be a reset of mindset to not only acknowledge the new complexity, but also embrace the full extent of the opportunity. 

“ With an automated open access network, combining an open RAN with a RIC (RAN Intelligent Controller), you get an open environment, you get a programmable environment, you get a multi-vendor environment. All of a sudden, you can do really cool stuff, which translates into service differentiation.

We see challenges when operators try to do new things the old way. It doesn’t work. With programmable open networks, operators need to do new things in a new way and everyone in the organisation needs to recognise that. It’s a matter of thinking about innovation and value rather than just cost. ”

Stephenson.

Successful cloud-native deployments will demand certainty that complex new systems are resilient enough to meet operational demands, including: stringent service level agreements; network issue resolution that can be traced to the root cause; customer experience that can be monitored and analysed; and provisioning and lifecycle management that can be automated. 

Quality of service in cloud-native infrastructure is a key area where automation can have a material benefit for operators, believes Stephenson. He cites the potential for VMware solutions that combine AI with subscriber-level data to not only detect issues, but also identify underlying anomalies in real-time, predict the impact of RAN issues on subscriber experience, and minimise future risks by pinpointing resolutions, while improving network load-balancing.  

Automation and AI will also be key technologies driving rapid service innovation and introduction. This is set to provide opportunities to tailor variations and modifications to specific customer or sector needs, leveraging market intelligence, customer requirements, and network behaviour.

VMware notes that adoption of automation and AI will change the way the industry thinks about network operations, including consideration of what aspects will routinely require human intervention and which are better delegated. This will increasingly see expert teams directing the strategy of the network, specifying intent, and monitoring outcomes for systems that are becoming more intelligent and self-sufficient. 

Ensuring a multi-cloud, multi-vendor environment is fit for multi-purpose

While not new to CSPs, automation is being made more challenging by the advent of a multi-cloud environment requiring orchestration across many dispositions. This makes essential a platform that can span the diverse cloud implementations used by an increasingly wide range of services. 

VMware considers that existing operator investment in virtualisation platforms can be readily harnessed to deliver — at scale — the visibility and consistency required to support a multi-cloud environment. As an enabling partner, it has focused on ensuring that its own solutions are interoperable across the broad range of clouds, including public, private, and hybrid. 

“ Workloads are already moving across different clouds, but it shouldn’t matter where you’re choosing to run them. Just run them where you either need to or want to. But for that to work, all the operations — the observability, the deployment, the fault resolution, all the tools you use to run the environment — should be consistent regardless of where you place the workload. ”

Soni. 

A common horizontal platform approach can also address the continuing danger of silos, where capacity is wasted or inefficiently used, and unable to be shared. “You can take a VMware-based and managed solution and run it where you want”, says VMware’s BT Sales Director Matt Preston. “It isn’t a matter of having to choose one cloud or another, and then risk having it marooned there. Putting a workload on AWS might be the right answer for today, but it could be Microsoft Azure next year.”

Contain yourself: doing more for less on a virtualised platform

As with many aspects of evolving telecoms transformation, preparing for future automated deployments needs to be balanced with making the most of current set-ups and ensuring that existing assets are maximised. Operators can be seen pursuing this strategy through evolution of virtualised environments to create a platform supporting the containerised functions key to future automation. 

Through evolution of its Telco Cloud Platform, VMware is tracking the move towards containerised network functions as it did with the virtualisation of network functions, believing this is best achieved through an accommodative hybrid approach. 

Preston considers there is now an opportunity for operators to make “the best of both worlds” with containerisation and virtualisation. In supporting operators’ embrace of the Kubernetes open source system for managing containerised workloads, for example, VMware has developed interfaces to support deployment via its Tanzu solutions. 

“ It’s important to remember the value of the management, the value of the service assurance, the ability to upgrade, and the economies of scale that virtualisation brings. ”

Preston.

Articulated through its Telco Cloud Automation strategy, VMware considers a virtualised environment and a container-focused environment working together will make it possible to achieve the differentiation, security and other benefits associated with containerisation, together with achieving substantially greater capacity from installed hardware enabled by existing virtualisation capabilities. 

“ There may be an industry perception that amounts to ‘virtualisation is dead, long live containers’ but we think there’s more to it than that. We believe there’s a better way of doing things — by both bringing together and leveraging the manageability, security, reliability and assurance they collectively offer, unlocking substantial economies of scale, while still maintaining performance. ”

Stephenson. 

Mind the skills gap — flexing telco culture and strengths for digitalisation

The changing nature of networks is putting new pressure on operators to secure the people skills needed to manage the integration and operation that is integral to software-driven, cloud-native architecture. Preston believes that an immediate way to alleviate the skills shortfall, and prepare for the next wave of demand and risk, is to consider what can be dialled up or adapted from current resources, and avoid unnecessary replication of existing capabilities. 

He adds that, when looking to build new skills within network teams, operators should not underestimate the value of familiarity with the regulations and other considerations that are unique to the sector. It can be more efficient and effective to train a telco expert in new cloud skills than to initiate an IT person into the culture and particular demands of a telco environment.

“ By looking internally, you’re not only maintaining your culture, you’re also reskilling your own people in cloud-first and fast-fail principles. ” 

Preston.

“…one of the challenges discovered when building the [BT network] cloud platform is the skills gap. There are very few people that understand telecoms and understand IT. This is another key issue the industry needs to tackle. ”

Crane