DTWS: DISH and Rakuten tout cloud native and Open RAN gains
Entering the capex-intensive business of building networks and competing against established communication service providers (CSPs) for business is no easy task. However, new entrants believe they hold an ace up their sleeves in the form of IT and network innovation. Executives from DISH Network and Rakuten Symphony discussed at Digital Transformation World Series (DTWS) how cloud-native networks are reshaping approaches to operations, networks, enterprise customers, partnerships and services.
29 Sep 2021
DTWS: DISH and Rakuten tout cloud native and Open RAN gains
Entering the capex-intensive business of building networks and competing against established communication service providers (CSPs) for business is no easy task. However, new entrants believe they hold an ace up their sleeves in the form of IT and network innovation. Executives from DISH Network and Rakuten Symphony discussed at Digital Transformation World Series (DTWS) how cloud-native networks are reshaping approaches to operations, networks, enterprise customers, partnerships and services.
DISH Network Corporation in the US is building out a cloud native, Open RAN-based 5G network, with the goal of reaching over 70% of the population by 2023. One of its ambitions is to carve out a share of the 5G enterprise market using its cloud-native network’s capabilities.
“Enterprises, they want to have their own network,” explained Marc Rouanne, Chief Network Officer, DISH Wireless, speaking at TM Forum's Digital Transformation World Series. “I like to say that we are building a network of networks where sub-networks can serve different requirements.” He gave the example of enterprises in different vertical sectors using DISH networks tailored to their specific needs in terms of speed, cost and security to manage their devices and assets, be they drones, cars or inventory in a factory.
“All of these can be managed by your sub-network that will be designed for that specific enterprise. So, if you're an enterprise, all of a sudden, this new 5G network gives you the keys to access to your devices, your assets. And … you can design new services, you can think of new optimizations, you can think of new automation of new way of producing and shipping your services.”
Rouanne spelled out why he sees a cloud native 5G network providing a foundation for new services.
“We have this 5G project at a time when the technology allows us to go cloud native. Cloud native means for us scalability. We can … grow and shrink our network when we need,” said Rouanne. “It means bringing new software very fast [and] having access to a large DISH data lake and using all the machine learning, the automation, the analytics, to steer the network and also to provide advanced content for people using our network.” And “we can design a lot of new services because we know what's happening everywhere.”
The changing face of network operations
Rakuten also sees cloud native Open RAN networks reshaping customer service in a future where “the network operation doesn’t exist” in today’s form, according to Rahul Atri, Managing Director, Rakuten Symphony.
Instead, Atri said, network operations will “exist as customer service centers and customer experience centers, where customer-oriented networks someday will become smart enough to be self-healing [and] self-operable.”
This evolution, he contended, will allow CSPs to take a more sophisticated approach to measuring performance.
“Today CSPs’ KPIs monitor where are they getting coverage, throughput, and how well they're able to browse the network, for example," explained Atri. "What we’ve started doing is to take all layers together. We see network, we see customer KPIs, we see all the business-related transactions which a customer is doing because of our wide ecosystem.”
Ushering in new partnership models
This, he said will be necessary if CSPs are to move to a more complex service model.
“Traditionally the vendors used to provide you hardware, software and managed services on the top. And typically managed services are just monitoring the KPIs and making sure the network is up and running," said Atri. "Now … you need to not only monitor the network KPIs, but software, platforms, hardware, multiple layers of cloud infrastructure.”
Partnerships are set to break with the traditional managed services model, according to Atri.
“It's not about who's building what, but it's about co-developing and owning the part of the problem or solution, which we do together.”
Atri gives the example of partnering to build and share playbooks -- or use cases. The playbook "goes into our automation platform and it's always available as a library. So next time, the same thing happens, you just click on that the action and the vendor also builds those playbooks. And they can also take it for the future investments and future projects,” he explained.
"I cannot define where the physical or the logical line is, but ... it has to be a collaborative partnership," said Atri. “I think if we do this partnership, right you will not only become an operator, but you'll become a technology provider.”
Watch Marc Rouanne's keynote interview on cloud native 5G networks is on demand:
Watch Rahul Atri's keynote interview on how Rakuten is transforming its operations for the future on demand here.
DISH Network Corporation in the US is building out a cloud native, Open RAN-based 5G network, with the goal of reaching over 70% of the population by 2023. One of its ambitions is to carve out a share of the 5G enterprise market using its cloud-native network’s capabilities.
“Enterprises, they want to have their own network,” explained Marc Rouanne, Chief Network Officer, DISH Wireless, speaking at TM Forum's Digital Transformation World Series. “I like to say that we are building a network of networks where sub-networks can serve different requirements.” He gave the example of enterprises in different vertical sectors using DISH networks tailored to their specific needs in terms of speed, cost and security to manage their devices and assets, be they drones, cars or inventory in a factory.
“All of these can be managed by your sub-network that will be designed for that specific enterprise. So, if you're an enterprise, all of a sudden, this new 5G network gives you the keys to access to your devices, your assets. And … you can design new services, you can think of new optimizations, you can think of new automation of new way of producing and shipping your services.”
Rouanne spelled out why he sees a cloud native 5G network providing a foundation for new services.
“We have this 5G project at a time when the technology allows us to go cloud native. Cloud native means for us scalability. We can … grow and shrink our network when we need,” said Rouanne. “It means bringing new software very fast [and] having access to a large DISH data lake and using all the machine learning, the automation, the analytics, to steer the network and also to provide advanced content for people using our network.” And “we can design a lot of new services because we know what's happening everywhere.”
The changing face of network operations
Rakuten also sees cloud native Open RAN networks reshaping customer service in a future where “the network operation doesn’t exist” in today’s form, according to Rahul Atri, Managing Director, Rakuten Symphony.
Instead, Atri said, network operations will “exist as customer service centers and customer experience centers, where customer-oriented networks someday will become smart enough to be self-healing [and] self-operable.”
This evolution, he contended, will allow CSPs to take a more sophisticated approach to measuring performance.
“Today CSPs’ KPIs monitor where are they getting coverage, throughput, and how well they're able to browse the network, for example," explained Atri. "What we’ve started doing is to take all layers together. We see network, we see customer KPIs, we see all the business-related transactions which a customer is doing because of our wide ecosystem.”
Ushering in new partnership models
This, he said will be necessary if CSPs are to move to a more complex service model.
“Traditionally the vendors used to provide you hardware, software and managed services on the top. And typically managed services are just monitoring the KPIs and making sure the network is up and running," said Atri. "Now … you need to not only monitor the network KPIs, but software, platforms, hardware, multiple layers of cloud infrastructure.”
Partnerships are set to break with the traditional managed services model, according to Atri.
“It's not about who's building what, but it's about co-developing and owning the part of the problem or solution, which we do together.”
Atri gives the example of partnering to build and share playbooks -- or use cases. The playbook "goes into our automation platform and it's always available as a library. So next time, the same thing happens, you just click on that the action and the vendor also builds those playbooks. And they can also take it for the future investments and future projects,” he explained.
"I cannot define where the physical or the logical line is, but ... it has to be a collaborative partnership," said Atri. “I think if we do this partnership, right you will not only become an operator, but you'll become a technology provider.”
Watch Marc Rouanne's keynote interview on cloud native 5G networks is on demand:
Watch Rahul Atri's keynote interview on how Rakuten is transforming its operations for the future on demand here.
Note: Registration to the Digital Transformation World Series is required to watch the recording.
Not registered yet? There’s still time. Register here to get access to all the keynotes, panel discussions and master classes. Communication service providers can register for free. The event platform closes on Friday 29 October.
Not registered yet? There’s still time. Register here to get access to all the keynotes, panel discussions and master classes. Communication service providers can register for free. The event platform closes on Friday 29 October.
