An ecosystem is only as strong as its least understood link
This Catalyst project, The developer is King!, is designed to investigate the role of developers in the digital ecosystem and gain a better understanding of their points of view.
26 Aug 2020
An ecosystem is only as strong as its least understood link
This Catalyst project, The developer is King!, is designed to investigate the role of developers in the digital ecosystem and gain a better understanding of their points of view.
Developers provide compelling applications for operators’ customers and by addressing the needs of the developer ecosystem, including APIs, infrastructure and business models, operators could benefit from a tremendous reduction in time-to-market and the costs of introducing new applications. They could also attract developers to co-create applications that are portable, which would be particularly advantageous for operators with businesses in multiple geographies.
The proof of concept is championed by Globe Telecom and KDDI Research, supported by participants Ericsson, Google Cloud, Infosys, Azure, Salesforce and VMWare.
The idea is to create a brand-new end-to-end experience for developers to proliferate successful partnerships with service providers. The project explores the tools, deployment scenarios and business models that are of most and least interest to developers.
To get a better understanding of the developers’ mindset, the team has put out a survey in conjunction with TM Forum. One concern is that developers haven’t much awareness of communications service providers (CSPs) as typically they don’t work directly with telcos and probably view them as being simply about connectivity.
The survey probes developers’ working relationship with telecom operators, the capabilities and tools they need and possible business models.
Developers have tended to focus on hyperscale platforms as it is not feasible for them to have to use different tools, processes, platforms and technologies for each operator, and reach a fraction of the audience for their trouble.
This could and should change in the era of 5G. It will deliver new capabilities such as edge computing and network slicing, as explored in previous Catalysts, that will be aligned to specific use cases. Some CSPs will work to develop end-to-end service capabilities for these use cases but others will prefer to be further away in the value chain, acting as enablers or even platforms. Whatever role they choose, they most definitely will need developers to create 5G-enabled applications for them to monetize and to provide a common way of engaging if they are to achieve their goals – as outlined in graphic below – of enhancing common current business models and creating new ones.
Developers provide compelling applications for operators’ customers and by addressing the needs of the developer ecosystem, including APIs, infrastructure and business models, operators could benefit from a tremendous reduction in time-to-market and the costs of introducing new applications. They could also attract developers to co-create applications that are portable, which would be particularly advantageous for operators with businesses in multiple geographies.
The proof of concept is championed by Globe Telecom and KDDI Research, supported by participants Ericsson, Google Cloud, Infosys, Azure, Salesforce and VMWare.
Jay Dela Cruz, is Enterprise Architect at Globe Telecom and the project leader. He says, “Every year Globe is involved in different Catalysts. We’ve done one on edge computing and then one on 5G network slicing, but it all builds together towards the ecosystem that is being set by 5G and edge.
“So we wanted to look at the other ingredients in the ecosystem, and decided we wanted a point of view other than from telcos, although it will indirectly help telcos. By looking from other points of view, you find different ways of doing things and we’re are adopting the point of view of the developer. Right now we're neglecting that part of the interaction in an ecosystem. That's what we're trying to say.”
Creating successful partnerships
The idea is to create a brand-new end-to-end experience for developers to proliferate successful partnerships with service providers. The project explores the tools, deployment scenarios and business models that are of most and least interest to developers.
To get a better understanding of the developers’ mindset, the team has put out a survey in conjunction with TM Forum. One concern is that developers haven’t much awareness of communications service providers (CSPs) as typically they don’t work directly with telcos and probably view them as being simply about connectivity.
The survey probes developers’ working relationship with telecom operators, the capabilities and tools they need and possible business models.
Developers have tended to focus on hyperscale platforms as it is not feasible for them to have to use different tools, processes, platforms and technologies for each operator, and reach a fraction of the audience for their trouble.
5G: A whole new ballgame
This could and should change in the era of 5G. It will deliver new capabilities such as edge computing and network slicing, as explored in previous Catalysts, that will be aligned to specific use cases. Some CSPs will work to develop end-to-end service capabilities for these use cases but others will prefer to be further away in the value chain, acting as enablers or even platforms. Whatever role they choose, they most definitely will need developers to create 5G-enabled applications for them to monetize and to provide a common way of engaging if they are to achieve their goals – as outlined in graphic below – of enhancing common current business models and creating new ones.
To explore ways to achieve these aims, the team adopted a topical scenario of remote education enabled by 5G and edge to include live streaming and chats.
They are supported by network capabilities exposed through Open APIs, such as location, geofencing, network slicing and more.
Salesforce plays the role of “application developer”, because it provides the application for onboarding and enrolling students, and so does Infosys. It contributes the learning management system and orchestration, as well as the role of systems integrator, tying everything together.
Ericsson, VMware and Azure play a telco's network and cloud infrastructure in the set up.
Other areas the Catalyst will go on to explore and likely demonstrate in the next Catalyst Digital Showcase in October are the insights gained from surveying developers, to progress developer lifecycle management, and investigation of monetization models between developers and telcos.
Watch the team presenting the Catalyst, as part of the TM Forum’s Catalyst Digital Showcase.
To look at end to end quality of service and user experience, it developed five use cases: Onboarding students and faculty; market place or B2B2X model including TM Forum Open APIs, 5G, edge computing and vertical industry applications; a sponsored event; orchestration; and student engagement.
They are supported by network capabilities exposed through Open APIs, such as location, geofencing, network slicing and more.
Roles and responsibilities
Salesforce plays the role of “application developer”, because it provides the application for onboarding and enrolling students, and so does Infosys. It contributes the learning management system and orchestration, as well as the role of systems integrator, tying everything together.
Ericsson, VMware and Azure play a telco's network and cloud infrastructure in the set up.
Google also acts as a developer in a number of instances. It supplies the whole education solution package, which includes monitoring students’ engagement. As Dela Cruz explains, “When you’re in a video session with a large group of people it is not possible to see everyone’s faces, but the Google’s video analytics allow the teacher to ‘see’ if a student is, for example, looking up or down or showing other signs of inattention.”
Next steps
Other areas the Catalyst will go on to explore and likely demonstrate in the next Catalyst Digital Showcase in October are the insights gained from surveying developers, to progress developer lifecycle management, and investigation of monetization models between developers and telcos.
Watch the team presenting the Catalyst, as part of the TM Forum’s Catalyst Digital Showcase.
If you are a developer and you have either worked with telecoms operators in the past – or are potentially interested in working with them in the future – we would like to give you the chance to say what telecoms operators need to do to build closer working relationships. Please complete the survey below to give your views.Developer is King – take the survey
If you are a telco or a vendor we would appreciate your support in forwarding the link to any developers that may be interested in the project.
