Cloud migration: Assessing strategies

There has been an inexorable trend towards the use of cloud in telecoms IT for several years, but it is gathering pace as communications service providers (CSPs) embrace public and hybrid cloud configurations for their operational and business support systems (OSS/BSS). Vendors in these sectors are being driven to redesign their solutions from the ground up, in a cloud native form. The importance of this shift cannot be overstated as CSPs’ requests for information and proposals (RFI/RFPs) often turn the searchlight on software companies’ cloud native credentials. Most CSPs still run most of their OSS/BSS on-premise and in their own data centers. Across the gamut of telecoms software functions, there is evidence that BSS segments are often the first to migrate to the cloud. Indeed, within BSS, there are some hot spots for CSPs that are addressing digital service models and value chains. This report focuses on the drivers and trends within the migration towards cloud native software and what this means for CSPs and their suppliers. It features new opinion polls from TM Forum’s latest Digital Transformation Tracker survey. Read the report to understand:

• Where CSPs are with the migration to cloud native OSS/BSS
• What strategies CSPs are putting in place to build cloud native architectures
• Where the hotspots are for the first wave of truly cloud native BSS
• What the differences are between private, public and hybrid cloud deployments
• What CSPs see as the benefits of multi-cloud operations
• What it means to “lift and shift” applications to the cloud
• Why APIs are a crucial part of a cloud strategy
• What the biggest challenges are to moving OSS/BSS to the cloud and how to address them
• Why CSPs need an evolutionary cloud strategy and how TM Forum's Open Digital Architecture can help