Pick a cloud. Any cloud.

Communications service providers (CSPs) are no longer asking if they should go to the cloud. Their question today is, “Which clouds should I use, and how do I get there?”– and there’s no single answer. CSPs require the flexibility to use whatever cloud is best for their applications, workloads, business models and customer needs. That might be a private, public or hybrid cloud, or any combination thereof. If they have the freedom to embrace an “any cloud” approach, CSPs can ensure sunny days are ahead no matter which cloud (or clouds) they choose. The cloud will play a key role in CSPs’ journey towards autonomous network and service operations. CSPs are taking to the cloud for all kinds of reasons: To reap the benefits of automation, scalability, flexibility and elasticity; to become more cost-efficient; to support multi-vendor ecosystems and deploy new services on the fly; and the list goes on and on. In the 5G context, those capabilities matter more than ever. Networks are becoming increasingly complex with virtualization and network slicing. The number of subscriber devices is skyrocketing. New ways of doing business are opening up, such as B2B2X collaborations and as-a-service models. New 5G use cases are letting CSPs finally tap into and capitalize on the enterprise market opportunity. Elevated expectations for the user experience are driving the need for rapid innovation. But if they are to fully gain the dynamism, agility and scalability needed for 5G, CSPs must be able to run their operations support system (OSS) workloads on whatever cloud infrastructure makes the most sense for their business. That’s the heart of the any-cloud approach: Being able to define: which workloads and applications go to the public cloud; which might be spread across multiple cloud platforms (perhaps to avoid vendor lock-in or being tied to a single ecosystem); when to leverage the edge cloud for security and responsiveness; and so on. The right strategies allow CSPs to diversify and personalize their cloud strategy as they see fit. Nokia enables the any-cloud reality At Nokia we are helping CSPs adopt the any-cloud approach through our Digital Operations Center, which enables orchestration across multi-domain, multi-vendor and multi-cloud environments. Our Digital Operations software delivers zero-touch automation throughout the entire service or network slice lifecycle (design, deploy, assure). The key is that the Digital Operations software can be delivered and deployed wherever CSPs require. Based on a microservices architecture, it is modular and standards-based, with an open architecture that can use TM Forum Open APIs and is aligned with 3GPP, ETSI and other specifications. That means all cloud options can be on the table: Public or private, centralized or distributed, physical or virtual, containerized, hybrid or multi-cloud. Such high flexibility makes the Digital Operations Center particularly suitable for any cloud strategy, including public cloud deployments — an area we’ve been focusing on for a while now through our growing relationships with all the major hyperscalers, including Amazon Web Services (AWS). Realizing the potential of the cloud Partnerships with cloud providers are essential to Nokia’s ability to deploy cloud-based solutions in any cloud environments as required by our customers — and to provide them with a broader range of services and capabilities to help them grow their business. Together with AWS, we are able to deliver a superior telecoms infrastructure and greater digital ecosystem engagement that accelerates time to market for new digital services, improves the efficiency of applications and network functions in the cloud, and enables new 5G monetization solutions. Lightstorm is India’s first carrier-neutral network infrastructure platform — and a prime example of the Nokia/AWS relationship in action. Lightstorm uses Digital Operations software deployed on the AWS cloud to automate its service fulfillment and assurance processes. That allows it to quickly develop and offer network-as-a-service (NaaS) solutions to its enterprise customers. Connectivity orders can be processed and delivered up to 500 times faster than with traditional OSS approaches, which is helping Lightstorm, a greenfield operator, secure a foothold in India’s growing NaaS market. Committed to cloud-native At Nokia, we believe being cloud-native is foundational for CSPs to seize the advantages of any cloud, including the public cloud. That’s why Digital Operations Center is truly cloud-native: built with services packaged in containers, deployed as microservices and managed on elastic infrastructure through agile DevOps processes. It allows CSPs to get the greatest possible value from the public cloud, helping them to offer pioneering new services and work with a broader ecosystem of partners to meet the growth needs of the 5G economy. Lightstorm is just one example of how that’s so. Many other CSPs have also implemented Digital Operations software in AWS cloud, including Tier 1, fixed and satellite providers. And the Nokia/AWS relationship extends beyond OSS to include the first ever 5G standalone core network in the public cloud, a cloud-native charging solution and cloud-based 5G radio access network (RAN) solutions. The gateway to the future Just as being cloud-native is key to getting the most from the public cloud, the public cloud itself is the gateway to unlocking the full potential of software-as-a-service (SaaS) for CSPs, enabling them to deliver value-added services faster to seize dynamic market opportunities. But that calls for an any-cloud approach to next-generation OSS workloads. Why? Because that’s the only way to ensure they’ll have the elasticity and scalability to support rapid innovation — essential to keep pace with the disruptive new players entering the market. Having OSS workloads on the cloud will also allow CSPs to focus more on their business and less on technology and infrastructure. While we’re seeing more CSPs shifting toward a cloud-first mentality, how many are actually ready to migrate their OSS to the public cloud? It’s an important question that deserves discussion, especially as we advance further into the 5G era. We’re actively taking part in conversations on the topic. We invite you to watch a recent webinar hosted by Omdia where a panel of experts, including Nokia, talked about the cloud-related obstacles facing CSPs and how to overcome them. We also published a blog this summer providing seven key principles to guide 5G deployments on public clouds. And in the Q3 edition of VanillaPlus magazine, Hamdy Farid, Nokia’s Senior Vice President of Business Applications, talks about how real digital transformation will make CSPs innovators rather than technology integrators. With the right information, CSPs can embrace not just the public cloud but any cloud they need.