Cloud Consumption Trends in Telecom
Cloud computing, along with mobility increasing percolation of broadband, is aiding the creation of a
networked society. Moving towards a digitally connected world, telecom operators have a unique
opportunity to position themselves and capitalise the growth of cloud services – both as service providers
and adopters of the technology. With rising global competition, digitization and the spread of Internet-
based communication services, a rift has been created in the market. Due to this, telecom operators have
started to leverage significant investment they have made in the already existing infrastructure. With the
success of cloud computing in the enterprise realm, telecom operators seem contingent upon the cloud for
reaping the benefits of economies of scale, cost-effectiveness, improving agility and scalability. As an
additional advantage, it also removes dependency of telecom sector from traditional revenue streams.
With the development of more and more applications these days, the very first emerging trend that we see
is – as Consumption of Applications is increasing be it in-house applications like Airtel One or aggregated
applications like Tapzo providing bundled services, it is helping telecom industry to achieve higher value in
terms of customer experience. Moreover, using cloud in telecom assists in Solving major connectivity
challenges for on field workers and provisions the digital economy further which is constantly changing
end user needs. Another significant trend that we can notice is Technology upgrade to 4G - As per Indian
Telecom Sector Report, All the providers are pushing for increasing the 4G penetration and significant
investments have been seen in this effort. Few examples are: Jio deciding to invest 30,000 crores more into
4G in 2017; Idea raising 500 crores more to fund 4G expansion; Airtel under its LEAP program announced
in Nov 2015 has already decided to invest 60,000 crores on 4G till 2018. With these trends dominating the
telecom arena, we look forward for further penetration of Cloud in this realm.
Adoption of Cloud in Telecom:
Critically, cloud computing is revolutionising the way we provision Information and Communication
Technology resources. With the rising competition, Over-the-top players, offering applications and
streaming content directly to consumers 24*7, have increased their dominance along with increasing
engagement in the core communication services. As per An Exclusive Whitepaper by Frost & Sullivan on
Industry Outlook for the Indian Telecom and Broadcast Industry, Whatsapp, Line, Viber and Apple’s
iMessage represent more than 80% of all messaging traffic. As cloud computing gains traction, more and
more applications and data are being moved from user premises and equipments to the internet. Infact,
without access networks, services and data will not be available for the users, therefore being connected
has become the need of the hour. Moreover, connectivity increases the value of access networks and
provides network service providers with new business opportunities – justifying the adoption of cloud in
telecom realm.

Within telecom sector, investments in software (SaaS) is rising significantly wherein SaaS enables consumers
to use provider applications that run on a cloud infrastructure. Reason of growth in this area is clear though
since this is a continuously developing field with a huge scope of development in future. Along with this,
PaaS enables consumers to create and deploy applications onto the cloud infrastructure and IaaS enables
them to access processing, storage, networks and other fundamental computing resources in order to
deploy and run arbitrary software, including operating systems and applications. However, due to less
opportunities, saturated growth and less scope of work, these services does not put together significant
investment opportunities.
Unlocking Enhanced Communication & Customer Experience through Cloud Consumption
With the rising demand of collaboration, cloud and security solutions for telecom operators, there are
opportunities for differentiation through geographic expertise, industry-specific solutions and quality.
Telecom operators can therefore benefit from established customer relationships within enterprises that
can be leveraged by providing cloud services. Few pointers supporting this fact are:
 The explosive growth of mobile access into the cloud through smartphone applications plays
strongly to operator’s strengths in enriching customer relationships even more.
 Telecom operators can greatly benefit as users of the technology as many of their business
operations can be streamlined through clouds to realise flexibility, faster time-to-market and cost
savings.
 They can also choose to simultaneously commercialise those cloud applications to open up
opportunities in traditional markets such as outsourced billing for over-the-top (OTT) players, or as
a vehicle to enter emerging segments like cloud-based machine-to-machine (M2M) platforms for
vertical industries.
 Operators should consider cloud computing as an integral part of their strategies. As they shift from
selling communications services to servicing on-demand ICT capacities, an understanding of the
evolving cloud ecosystem, partnerships and business models will be vital. Their networks, business
processes, support systems and organisational structure must be optimised to facilitate the
proliferation and consumption of cloud services.
The Road Ahead in Telecom - Cloud Adoption
Since recurring revenue models are already changing the status quo of traditional solution models,
therefore for cloud consumption in the telecom arena, few expectations in the near future could be:
 Consumers of the Cloud Subscription & Consumption of Cloud models will continue to grow.

 End users will focus on perpetual licensing with low focus on hardware .
 As per a Capgemini report Telecom industry trends 2020, the next major trend in telecom that
might impact is the explosion of connected devices. This could add billions of new connected data
sources globally by 2020.
 Consumption model will replace subscription billing because it's better for business.
 Cloud monetization will pave the way for better solutions.
 Accordingto the Global telecommunicationsstudy:navigatingthe roadto 2020, growth
opportunitiesexistacrossinformationandcommunicationstechnology(ICT).M2Mconnections
are forecastto reach1b by2020, representing10% of all mobile connectionsasthe Internetof
Things(IoT) takesshape, while enterprisesare adoptingcloudservicesinevergreaternumbers.
 Implementation of different virtualization technologies, different application program interfaces
(APIs) to request and control resources, and different network and connectivity environments.
 As per Deloitte’s Reporton Telecommunication Industry Outlook 2017, with the rise of 5G networks,
an enormous wave of change promises to spark starting in 2017. While the technology has not yet
been fully defined, carriers are proceeding with lab and field trials for at least the basic connectivity
elements in their race to stay competitive.
In the times to follow, telecom industry will continue to be the epicenter of innovation, digitization growth
and disruption by newer technologies. Cloud will get embedded even more in the fabric of society today
giving further momentum to the telecom. As penetration expands, smartphones prices goes down,
connectivity proliferates beyond urban and suburban subscription bases and number of connected things
continues to grow - cloud space in telecom will be redefined.