Embracing enterprise-focused services has been a key strategy for several telecom operators around the globe. A recent cloud services study published by market research firm Infonetics Research shows that 70% of respondent operators are investing in cloud services in anticipation of demand.
Infonetics analysts interviewed 20 incumbent, competitive data center operators and cable operators that offer cloud services now or plan to by 2013 in EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa), Asia Pacific, and North America.
According to Infonetics, among the top operator strategies for offering cloud services are bundling cloud services with network connectivity services and offering cloud services over Ethernet or IP VPN services.
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The carriers’ strategy also comprises applications such as software as a service (SaaS), infrastructure as a service (IaaS, or cloud infrastructure), and platform as a service (PaaS).
The survey points out that 95% of respondent operators offer IaaS now. Many of the smaller data center providers participating in Infonetics’ survey plan to keep their business uncomplicated by moving from simple collocation support offerings to IaaS via the addition of computer and storage hardware, rather than getting into the complexities of offering OS software platforms.
Infonetics highlighted that more sophisticated offerings like platform as a service, formed by the addition of server operating systems such as Windows, Linux, and Unix, and software as a service, such as e-mail and security services offered by telcos and ICPs like Google, are currently offered by fewer operators, but will grow significantly by 2013.
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