Before now, there was one answer: Telco clouds were private clouds. They existed within silos operated by network operators. But the adjacency of hyperscalers, the rise of hybrid cloud solutions, and the very nature of the 5G core network are forcing a new discussion.
Network operators have siloed telco clouds for as long since they first spun them up. Purpose-built for the stringent operational demands and regulatory requirements imposed on telecom, telco clouds have always been separated from IT clouds. That’s changing. CSPs are finding more uses for the public cloud. Public cloud or private cloud is no longer the end of the discussion. New innovations from telcos and hyperscalers blur the lines, when it comes to carrying the workload and demands of telecom service.
5G cloud-nativity promises and end to dependency on more vendor-specific hardware. Vendors can to manage almost all network services using software running on commodity hardware. Even at the baseband level with efforts like Open RAN. The move to cloud digitalization is accelerating, and enterprises are looking for competitive advantages in the new cloud economy.
The 5G core network Service-Based Architecture is cloud-native. It operates according to the same principles as any other cloud. Cloud-native network functions and virtual network functions (VNFs) replace limiting network hardware, enabling cloud-scale networking operations. And if the data center resources are sufficient, hyperscale operations.
The public cloud’s place in telecom
Hyperscalers already dominate the public cloud landscape as hosts of global public cloud infrastructure. Cloud-facing enterprises and businesses use their platforms and rely on their tools and their infrastructure to work, and are pouring more money than ever into their efforts. Gartner forecasts total end-user spend on public cloud services to increase from $332 billion in 2021 to more than $397 billion in 2022.
What’s more, hyperscalers are encroaching on enterprise business that was once the sole domain of CSPs. AWS announced a new private 5G service in November. A recent study from Omdia named Microsoft the top innovator in the field, ahead of AT&T and Deutsche Telekom.
This innovation is driving change in the enterprise cloud market. Most enterprises polled in the study said they want a hybrid cloud solution in place of a fully dedicated, private network. Others are ditching private cloud infrastructure for public cloud space when it makes sense. Wells Fargo is using both Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud, for example. Azure will be its primary public cloud provider. Google Cloud provides other essential services.
Verizon’s On Site 5G gives enterprise and public sector customers access to its 5G mmWave network at indoor and outdoor facilities. The company has since expanded its offering to include edge computing services by Microsoft Azure. Verizon 5G Edge with Microsoft Azure Stack Edge is an on-premises, private edge compute solution.
Enterprise and business cloud operations can often grow unchallenged in the free market. The needs and service requirements of network operators are fundamentally different from the operations that govern the public cloud. The regulatory frameworks that CSPs are beholden to, and are different from hyperscalers, and the devil is in those details.
Telco Cloud hosted on public infrastructure
In Belgium, telco Proximus is moving its data center business to a hybrid cloud modelsupporting Azure, Google Cloud, AWS, and other public cloud solutions. HCL indicated that its hybrid cloud platform uses the latest green data center technology to minimize its CO2 footprint. It will also create “a dedicated innovation lab” with Proximus to develop new 5G, Edge and IoT solutions.
CSPs have been content to work adjacent to hyperscalers to grow mutual business and services, but so far, those efforts have worked in parallel with public cloud infrastructure, they aren’t dependent on them.
Network operators continue to build and refine their private cloud networks to suit their specific needs and requirements, connecting as needed to public and hybrid cloud infrastructure depending on circumstances.
Dish stands alone as the only network operator so far to use public cloud infrastructure as the foundation for its network, however. Or it will, anyway, once Dish’s vaunted 5G SA network gets off the ground. Dish and AWS have signed a strategic collaboration agreement to use Amazon Web Services as the foundation for its cloud-based 5G network. AWS is the foundational tech running Dish’s O-RAN network, and OSS and BSS layers. AWS hands the automated provisioning and operation of 5G workloads, including private networks and network slicing.
