logo_header
  • Topics
  • Research & Analysis
  • Features & Opinion
  • Webinars & Podcasts
  • Videos
  • Event videos

Make it happen – Implementing connectivity-as-a-service

Communications service providers (CSPs) will have to collaborate with many partners to make connectivity-as-a-service (CaaS) happen, from working together to adopt standards and best practices, to partnering in digital ecosystems. We outline the steps CSPs should take to make CaaS a reality.

Tim McElligott
12 Apr 2021
Make it happen – Implementing connectivity-as-a-service

Make it happen – Implementing connectivity-as-a-service

This is an excerpt from our recent report What is connectivity-as-a-service? Download it now for the full insight. With connectivity-­as-­a-­service (CaaS) not yet fully defined or understood, communications service providers (CSPs) have an opportunity to turn it into a powerful tool for targeting enterprises. However, they will have to collaborate with many partners to make it happen, from working together to adopt the necessary standards and best practices to enable CaaS, to partnering in digital ecosystems in order to deliver the capabilities enterprises want. Following are steps CSPs should take to make CaaS a reality:

Focus on the customer

Today, connectivity is not geared to specific requirements from enterprises or applications, but with CaaS companies will be able to design the kind of connectivity they need and manage it dynamically from their own portals. Delivering this kind of flexibility will help CSPs demonstrate their value and relevance in providing complex connectivity-enabled solutions. Without being able to offer customized connectivity solutions, the telco is a plain vanilla connectivity provider.

Prioritize projects

More than a third of CSP respondents to our survey for this report said that the biggest obstacle to delivering CaaS is that they are already pursuing far too many complex transformation projects. But CSPs should not view CaaS as another project. Rather it will be the result of many ongoing digital transformation efforts including adopting network-as-aservice (NaaS), intent-based management, zero-touch partnering and network slicing. But within these efforts, prioritization is necessary. Our view is that CaaS first requires the ability to deliver NaaS and intent-based management.

Learn from NaaS

NaaS allows CSPs to expose capabilities at the network level using APIs. CaaS works on the same principal but at the service layer. Implementing these concepts requires a different mindset on the part of operations personnel, in that they need to think like software engineers and adopt Agile DevOps practices. Many CSPs will need to acquire these skills.

Automate partnerships

When people working in network and IT organizations consider automation, they usually think of closed-loop network management, parameter changes, remote remediation or flow-through fulfillment. But the process of managing business partnerships is in dire need of automation. For end users to be able to adjust requirements on the fly as envisioned for CaaS, partner interactions, both technical and monetary, must be automated using APIs. TM Forum’s Digital Ecosystem Management Project is working on standards and best practices for automating and managing partnerships. To learn more, please contact Joann O’Brien.

Adopt Open APIs

As noted, APIs are necessary for exposing and automating capabilities. The good news is that 74% of CSP respondents agree that consolidating on a common set of APIs to create more consistent interfaces for end-to-end network and service management and for communicating with the network core should be among the first steps operators take to advance CaaS. Many companies are standardizing on the TM Forum Open APIs, which are developed using a crowdsourcing approach. They are technology agnostic and can be used in any digital services scenario, from developing next-generation IT systems to enabling IoT services and smart cities, or onboarding virtual network functions.

Go cloud native

In our survey, a quarter of CSP respondents said that CaaS will require a fully cloud native network to achieve the flexibility, scale and customization desired. Others are not so sure, however. Our view is that delivering CaaS as envisioned likely will require a cloud native core network. Network operators should continue moving existing network and IT components to the cloud with a goal of implementing cloud native solutions in the future. The TM Forum Open Digital Architecture can help with this transition. It is a component-based architecture, with the business functions of each component exposed as a set of Open APIs. To learn more about ODA and Open APIs, please contact Ian Turkington.

Don’t forget security

Trust services, including privacy, security and identity, are the features enterprise customers are most likely to pay a premium for with connectivity, according to 64% of CSP survey respondents. CSPs need to beef up their data governance capabilities not only to make their customers feel safe, but also to be able to confidently upsell security services on top of connectivity and drive new revenue.