2021: Cloud gets real, CaaS gets defined, data gets regulated
Powerful insights on what TM Forum’s subject matter experts think we can expect from 2021, and how the pandemic might influence their predictions.
03 Feb 2021
2021: Cloud gets real, CaaS gets defined, data gets regulated
No one expected 2020 to turn out the way it did, that’s for sure. By February, Covid-19 had turned the world upside down. Telcos rushed to move their call center employees to work remotely. City skyscrapers became vertical ghost towns and their dedicated T1s seemed pointless. The world’s businesses were running on home Internet services. Webcams became HTF (hard to find). “You’re on mute!” was the quote of the year. And suddenly we could all relate to the BBC reporter who was interrupted by his dancing toddler and baby on wheels during a live broadcast a few years ago.
With all of that in mind – and fully aware that annual predictions from companies are a bit of a cliché – I thought it would be interesting to find out what TM Forum’s subject matter experts think we can expect from 2021, and how the pandemic might influence their predictions. Read what they had to say, then let us know your predictions. Tweet #2021predictions @tmforumorg.
George Glass, CTO
The ecosystem of the telecommunications industry is about to undergo it largest transformation in decades. The time is right for cloud native networks to emerge from the laboratories. We have been exploiting, and enjoying, the benefits of configurable storage and compute on demand, i.e. cloud native IT, in the systems space for several years now, and it is time for networks to catch up! The worlds of systems and networks are merging, and everything is becoming software applications that run on standardized, virtualized infrastructure. We have seen the start of network infrastructure virtualized, and we have seen the emergence of software-defined network components. But, when these two capabilities come together and are exploited from a software engineering perspective, we will start to see truly cloud native network functions that sub-divide today’s network components into configurable and orchestratable network services. Running on public cloud infrastructure will become the way to dynamically deliver, deploy and manage the networks of the future.
These virtualized, software-based network functions will need to be deployed using concepts, such as dynamic workload allocation, so that the relevant network function can be moved, while in-service, to the appropriate cloud-based domain (hyperscale core cloud, edge cloud or device cloud) depending on the requirements of the service, such as low latency or elastic scalable capacity.
John Gillam, Chief Digital Officer
Normally, I’m not a fan of making predictions, but after living through 2020 and the challenges of leading global teams during Covid-19 and ubiquitous remote working, I couldn’t resist taking part in this year’s fortune telling exercise. Based on my experiences this year, I think 2021 will see advances in real-time digital human interaction spurred on by necessity as well as a backlog of serendipitous moments waiting to happen at water coolers around the world – once the world gets back to the office.
Let’s face it: Right now, Zoom and Teams are a stopgap solution for collaboration, rapid innovation and Agile software development – five years from now we will probably look back and consider them primitive, but they did let us get the work done.
Still, we are all missing those “water-cooler moments” where a new idea emerges from a casual conversation – an idea that may change the world. After almost a year of remote working, people are anxious to connect at a deeper level than on Teams and Zoom. They are anxious to get back to work, face-to-face. And after having a thorough understanding of what’s lacking in digital human interaction, our industry’s more diverse brainpower and increasing use of crowdsourcing and open code is truly an ideal environment for rapid innovation and iteration. Hope to see you around the virtual water cooler at Action Week starting February 1.
Aaron Boasman-Patel, Vice President, AI and Customer Experience
Data regulation has again been thrown into the spotlight, especially due to the pandemic and the inability to access meaningful data which can be shared. That’s why I think 2021 is going to see a renewed focus on data regulation around the globe. The ability to share large data sets is also key for the adoption of smart technologies which will see massive growth in 2021. TM Forum continues to look at this space carefully and will be releasing a new data governance whitepaper in March.
Another one of my predictions is focused on AI regulation and how it’s used and implemented across systems, networks and applications. When Ursula Von der Leyen first took the European Commission presidency in December 2019, she promised a legislative proposal on AI within the first 100 days. While this hasn’t been met, once the pandemic is under control, it will be a renewed focused for the world. However, managing and governing AI, which includes trying to eliminate bias, is a huge and difficult task, not only for operators and enterprises but for governments as a whole.
Addressing model provenance and audit, bias, correctness and comprehension will also come to the fore as will model ethics and delegation. Here at the Forum, we are continuing to work on AI governance, recently published AI Model Data Sheets and checklists, and are currently working on an AI Canvas, or framework, to ensure that AI can safely be deployed and managed across the lifecycle.
Joann O’Brien, Vice President, Digital Ecosystems
The global pandemic has been a driver for digitization across many industries, especially healthcare, education, government and retail, and it will influence global cross-industry relationships for years to come. Operators can no longer look at the world like the man with a hammer. They need to be asking, “What can I do for you?” now, or they will finally lose the war with over-the-top providers.
Under the “what can I do for you?” category, I think connectivity-as-a-service (CaaS) will be a 2021 buzzword. We are definitely entering a new era of sustainable development, renewable energy, sustainable farming and conservation around biodiversity, oceans, food systems and climate. Operators need to be relevant to these challenges and provide seamless CaaS, including scalable IoT infrastructure, and partner to deliver services and build trust with these industries.
As the pandemic continues, digital health will also boom in 2021. Driven by focus and direction from the World Health Organization, operators will concentrate on growing partnerships, relying more on 5G, and developing methodologies and common capabilities that accelerate innovation in digital healthcare systems, and in turn, business assurance, fraud prevention, cyber security and more.
Vicky Sleight, Director, Human Factor and Diversity & Inclusion Council
2020 was a year that none of us could ever have expected. Organizations learned how to be flexible and harness the diverse voices in our industry – not just to make them heard, but to be involved. They also learned how include diverse thoughts, perspectives and experiences to drive innovation across products and services in a way they have not done before.
With employees isolated, businesses had to quickly learn that everyone’s personal circumstances are different and take a much more integrated approach to wellbeing and inclusion. In fact, the CIPD revealedthat organizations choosing to proactively support the health and wellbeing of their workforce can lead to much more positive results. Going forward, executives see empathy playing a far greater role in sustaining a thriving workforce; and not surprisingly, two out of three employees would prefer to work for an organization that shows empathy toward all of its stakeholders.
As business leaders prepare their workforce for the next phase of recovery, they must ask the question: how do we cultivate a healthy, productive and empathetic workforce willing to own the transformation journey – and resilient and sustainable enough to handle the challenges brought by a global pandemic? For sure, innovative and agile approaches to work are key components of survival through crisis. Collaboration, trust and mutual support are also critical to team and organizational endurance, along with continued flexible working.
We will reach our common global goals only if we are able to create equal opportunities for all, address the failures exposed and exploited by Covid-19, and apply human rights standards to tackle entrenched, systematic, and intergenerational inequalities, exclusion and discrimination. TM Forum will continue to support the industry to achieve this through our work within Human Factor and the Diversity & Inclusion Council as we work toward our goal of making the tech and telecoms industry the most diverse industry in the world.