By Rich Karpinski
Vendors deliver ‘Integrated Cloud Delivery Platform’ driven by belief that telecom service providers of all sizes will be key cloud players
“Cloud” means a lot of things to a lot of people, and how you deliver cloud services has also mostly been a custom – and at times a research and development – exercise more than anything. But while a technology as complex as cloud computing will never be delivered by vendors “in a box,” vendors are starting to line up partnerships and put together delivery platforms that will significantly jump-start the building of cloud platforms and the delivery of cloud services.
That’s the case today, with Cisco and BMC Software teaming to announce an alliance and new solution to enable very large-scale, multi-tenant cloud computing architectures – with a specific focus on working with telecom service providers.
While large global telcos like AT&T and Verizon are already delivering cloud computing services, vendors like Cisco and BMC not only want to help them further automate and scale those offerings, but enable cloud computing to be a more mainstream product offering from all sorts of service providers.
“The evolution that we see happening on the service provider side is that they are moving from a basic hosting and ASP model up to the next level into the cloud space, offering infrastructure- or computing-as-a-service, on demand to the end customer,” said Simon Aspinall, senior director of service provider marketing for mobility and data center/cloud solutions, Cisco.
What such service providers need to deliver such services are the same types of back-office provisioning and other operational systems that they’ve used to deliver telecom services. In fact, the real opportunity for telecom operators likely will come in combining high-speed data services like IP-MPLS along with cloud services packaged up with very detailed service level agreements (SLAs) that will be appeal to enterprise users of cloud services, said Cisco’s Aspinall.
“The one big difference between service providers and Amazon and Google is the network and the ability to ensure a connection to the cloud,” Aspinall said. Rather than a “best effort” cloud service, telecom providers can offer “a guaranteed cloud experience with guaranteed access and latency.”
To help service provides better deliver such cloud services, Cisco and BMC on Monday introduced the Integrated Cloud Delivery Platform, specifically focused on the delivery of large cloud service infrastructure that spans multiple data centers, computing systems, storage networks and applications.
As part of the alliance and new cloud platform, Cisco and BMC said they will align their overall cloud product road maps and architectures, with Cisco focusing on its Unified Service Delivery and data center management products and BMC contributing its Cloud LifeCycle Management technologies. The idea is to provide service providers with all the infrastructure and management platforms they need to deliver multi-tenant cloud services, including tools to automate and optimize the initial provisioning and configuration of cloud services. The platform will also deliver a “self-service” portal that service providers can offer to their customers so they can have control over their own cloud services.
Cisco and BMC said they are working with several large global telcos on deploying the new platform. As part of the announcement, Spain’s Telefonica said it was working with the vendors to bring new levels of automation to its cloud services, which is being offered out of Telefonica’s Cloud Vertical Business Unit.
While large global carriers like Telefonica, AT&T and Verizon may seem to be the best fit for such cloud platforms, Cisco and BMC contend the technology is a good fit for smaller carriers as well, most of whom already run sophisticated data centers – both to support their own networks and in many cases to delivery early cloud-style applications and services. For carriers too small to buy and build their own cloud platforms, regional or third-party “white label” cloud providers will likely emerge as key partners – with those providers (cloud provider Savvis is a good example) deploying infrastructure platforms such as the one from Cisco/BMC.
That’s the case today, with Cisco and BMC Software teaming to announce an alliance and new solution to enable very large-scale, multi-tenant cloud computing architectures – with a specific focus on working with telecom service providers.
While large global telcos like AT&T and Verizon are already delivering cloud computing services, vendors like Cisco and BMC not only want to help them further automate and scale those offerings, but enable cloud computing to be a more mainstream product offering from all sorts of service providers.
“The evolution that we see happening on the service provider side is that they are moving from a basic hosting and ASP model up to the next level into the cloud space, offering infrastructure- or computing-as-a-service, on demand to the end customer,” said Simon Aspinall, senior director of service provider marketing for mobility and data center/cloud solutions, Cisco.
What such service providers need to deliver such services are the same types of back-office provisioning and other operational systems that they’ve used to deliver telecom services. In fact, the real opportunity for telecom operators likely will come in combining high-speed data services like IP-MPLS along with cloud services packaged up with very detailed service level agreements (SLAs) that will be appeal to enterprise users of cloud services, said Cisco’s Aspinall.
“The one big difference between service providers and Amazon and Google is the network and the ability to ensure a connection to the cloud,” Aspinall said. Rather than a “best effort” cloud service, telecom providers can offer “a guaranteed cloud experience with guaranteed access and latency.”
To help service provides better deliver such cloud services, Cisco and BMC on Monday introduced the Integrated Cloud Delivery Platform, specifically focused on the delivery of large cloud service infrastructure that spans multiple data centers, computing systems, storage networks and applications.
As part of the alliance and new cloud platform, Cisco and BMC said they will align their overall cloud product road maps and architectures, with Cisco focusing on its Unified Service Delivery and data center management products and BMC contributing its Cloud LifeCycle Management technologies. The idea is to provide service providers with all the infrastructure and management platforms they need to deliver multi-tenant cloud services, including tools to automate and optimize the initial provisioning and configuration of cloud services. The platform will also deliver a “self-service” portal that service providers can offer to their customers so they can have control over their own cloud services.
Cisco and BMC said they are working with several large global telcos on deploying the new platform. As part of the announcement, Spain’s Telefonica said it was working with the vendors to bring new levels of automation to its cloud services, which is being offered out of Telefonica’s Cloud Vertical Business Unit.
While large global carriers like Telefonica, AT&T and Verizon may seem to be the best fit for such cloud platforms, Cisco and BMC contend the technology is a good fit for smaller carriers as well, most of whom already run sophisticated data centers – both to support their own networks and in many cases to delivery early cloud-style applications and services. For carriers too small to buy and build their own cloud platforms, regional or third-party “white label” cloud providers will likely emerge as key partners – with those providers (cloud provider Savvis is a good example) deploying infrastructure platforms such as the one from Cisco/BMC.
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