Why service providers need to focus on agile processes

Communications service providers across the world are looking to claim their position at the heart of the digital society, but they first need to become more agile and lean. There are many innovations that can help in this quest: network function virtualisation, software defined networking, the convergence of networks and IT, cloudification, DevOps, and more.

In most cases the required technologies are now available and ready for mission-critical environments. However, the surrounding operational processes and mindset are often in need of a review.

Communications service providers are already modernising. Examples include the likes of Altice Group, which is building a holistic network function virtualisation platform with ambitious timelines for getting the majority of mobile traffic running on it. Or Three UK, which has developed a world-first cloud-native core network, designed to be massively scalable so it can respond to subscribers’ service demands.

Once communications service providers have these initial network function virtualisation use cases up and running, they need to turn their attention to how to scale these out, adapting and improving their operational processes and, in many cases, the way they think about their operation altogether in order to become more agile and lean.

Open source is a key change agent in this process. It brings the desired innovation, yet is fundamentally different, in the way it is engineered, to other technologies – and communication service providers need to understand how can they avoid the risks and reap the benefits.

Cloudification brings speed, efficiently. Digital-native businesses that are born in the cloud are more agile and innovative, including many over-the-top companies that now compete with communications service providers for the value-add services that drive margins and customer loyalty. These companies can more freely experiment with new services without huge amounts of upfront investment or commitment, and they are not afraid to fail fast. And when a service does take off it can scale quickly and reliably.

Most communications service providers were not born directly in the cloud, but are fast adopting it. They are making the move away from dedicated hardware, away from monolithic systems with proprietary software running on a specific piece of equipment.

However, this is a change that may take some time for communications service providers, which typically have significant legacy systems that may still not be fully paid off. But as their old systems come to the end of their maintenance lifecycle, or as new initiatives are launched, every new system is designed for more modern architectures.

These are typically based on open source, helping to avoid proprietary lock-in, and perhaps more dangerous: the customisation of open source code that deviates from standard upstream communities.

Agility and efficiency do not come from technology innovation alone, but also require changes in process, mindset and culture. Red Hat’s recent Open Source Culture Survey revealed that 91% of respondents across industries thought that technological developments were changing the way their organisation had to operate in order to succeed. 81% respondents agreed that having an open organisational culture is important to their company.

However, only 67% of respondents said that their organisation has the resources necessary to build an open culture, with 59% of them identifying legacy systems and outdated technology as a barrier to change. When it comes to human resourcing a technology roll-out, having the right skill sets on board is only half of the challenge; having those people work in the most efficient way is the other.

Communications service providers have grown used to working in a certain way. Typically, they work on projects from beginning to end, ensuring that any new service or application is absolutely watertight before it is deployed. And rightly so. In the old inflexible world this is completely necessary. The ability to revise things on the fly is not an option.

Cloudified environments are different. They break the relationship between software and hardware, and even between different layers of software architecture, enabling flexibility and hybridity. Much faster change is possible without jeopardising reliability and operations, but this also requires a review of organisations, processes and mindset.

Knowing this and doing this are two very different matters though. It is unrealistic to expect sweeping reform among the communications service providers community. It is more likely to happen on a project by project basis, step by step. Building open cloud platforms to enable virtualisation is a first step, and communications service providers are well on the way with this.

The benefits of embracing the next-generation wave of technologies is well documented, and just about every communications service provider on the planet is looking at how it can accelerate the transition.

Key takeaways

• Agility and efficiency do not come from technology innovation alone, but also require changes in process, mindset and culture.
• Cloudified environments are different and break the relationship between software and hardware.
• Much faster change is possible without jeopardising operations but requires a review of organisations, processes and mindset.
• As old systems come to the end of maintenance lifecycle every new system is designed for modern architectures.
• Most communications service providers were not born directly in the cloud but are fast adopting it.
• Communications service providers are making the move away from monolithic systems running on a specific piece of equipment.
• It is unrealistic to expect sweeping reform among the communications service providers community.
• Building open cloud platforms to enable virtualisation is a first step.
• Most communications service providers were not born directly in the cloud, but are fast adopting it.

Communications service providers need to build flexible processes allowing for change while adopting cloud platforms explains Santiago Madruga at Red Hat.