The Journey from On-Premises to the Cloud

Communications Services Providers (CSPs) need to be nimble, efficient, and constantly in-tune with their bottom line and customer needs. Unfortunately, traditional on-premises solutions can hold them back from achieving these goals, which is why many providers are embarking on a cloud journey to achieve the scalability, agility, and cost savings they need to succeed in a market that has become increasingly competitive and complex. By embracing the cloud, CSPs can leverage its inherent advantages to transform their operations and stay ahead of the curve.

On the Precipice of Dramatic Growth

The journey from on-prem to the cloud is well underway. The telecom cloud market is projected to grow by a CAGR of 23.1% to $32.5 billion by 2027, according to MarketsandMarkets. Capgemini estimates that the largest telcos will invest more than $1 billion in the cloud over the next three to five years.

CSPs already in the midst of their cloud transformation expect impressive results. According to Capgemini’s research, those who adopt cloud-based telco platforms expect to recover 47% of their investment in the first three or so years. They noted that the move to the cloud allows them to improve the customer experience and increase customer lifetime value by cross-selling and upselling more value-added services to existing customers. This, in turn, increases loyalty and helps mitigate attrition. For example, Capgemini reports that the cloud enables CSPs to “more easily access their data, scale the services they use (or sell), and put advanced analytics and automation to use—for example, to predict and prevent service incidents and to support customers as they choose from, and use, the telco’s offerings.”

A Shift in Thinking

But moving from tools and technologies located on-premises to the cloud requires a fundamental shift in the way CSPs manage and deploy their resources.

To ensure a successful evolution to the cloud, there are several important steps CSPs must follow:

1. Assess current infrastructure, applications and workloads to determine what can be moved to the cloud. Some legacy systems may not be compatible with cloud environments, or they may require significant updates or customization to work effectively in the cloud, while other systems can move effortlessly to the cloud and start delivering benefits day one.
2. Identify the right cloud provider. These could include major providers such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP), among others.
3. Determine which cloud deployment model – public, private or hybrid – best meets the company’s needs. The different options should be evaluated to ensure that CSPs are optimizing resource usage while also minimizing costs.
4. Optimize cloud resources. This includes managing compute, store and networking functions to ensure everything is running efficiently. CSPs also will want to make sure that the cloud applications can integrate seamlessly with existing IT infrastructure so data continues to flow smoothly between the systems.
5. Implement cloud security measures. This includes securing network connections, encrypting data and implementing access control policies. Cloud providers must have appropriate security measures in place to protect customer data and comply with relevant regulations.
6. Monitor and manage cloud resources to ensure they’re performing as expected. Cloud-based systems must be highly available and reliable, with minimal downtime or service disruptions, and are able to handle unexpected outages or traffic spikes.

A World of Opportunity

Moving to the cloud can provide CSPs with significant opportunities to improve their business. Among these benefits are:

• Scalability: Respond to changing customer demands and market conditions easily by scaling infrastructure and services.
• Agility: Quickly deploy new services and applications to meet the evolving needs of customers in a fast-paced industry.
• Cost savings: Reduce capital expenditures on IT infrastructure since there’s no need to purchase and maintain their own hardware and software. Cloud services are purchased on a usage basis, helping minimize overall IT costs.
• Customer experience: Cloud-based services support faster provisioning, better network performance and more reliable services, all of which factor into the customer experience.
• Data analytics: With access to advanced data analytics, cloud solutions enable CSPs to gain deeper insights into customer behavior and network performance, which allows them to make better business decisions and develop new services that customers want.

Intraway – Your Partner in the Cloud Journey

Intraway is poised to help lead CSPs through a successful digital transformation, bringing the traditional on-premises OSS and BSS to the cloud. With Symphonica, the no-code, cloud-native, telco-grade orchestration and service activation platform, Intraway makes it easy for CSPs to automate service lifecycle management without investing in time-consuming and budget-heavy projects.

Symphonica leverages the cloud to deliver adaptive service management orchestration and provisioning and support more efficient operations. Built on industry standards, Symphonica enables automation that speeds the activation of all services, regardless of vendor or network technology, all from a single point. CSPs can rely on Symphonica to fulfill various services, including residential broadband, business, mobile and next-gen TV, and end-to-end infrastructure provisioning.

Customers supporting 40 million subscribers across more than 20 countries have seen measurable benefits using Symphonica. They’ve reduced operational costs by up to 40%, shortened time to revenue by as much as 75% and quickly expanded their product portfolios thanks to moving to the cloud. And by delivering a positive customer experience, including self-service capabilities, the CSPs have reduced churn and strengthened customer loyalty.

To learn more about how Intraway can support your journey to the cloud, be in touch with our product experts.