To predict what will come in the new year, we often look back at the previous year to identify successes as well as gaps and notice momentum. But trends and predictions don’t always fit nicely within calendar years. In fact, trends often take multiple years and overlap with each other. The combination of trends and the predictions for 2020 map out an exciting path towards network operations transformation and the evolution of the telecom service provider business and customer experience.
Here are three key trends I predict for 2020:
#1: The End of the Telco Cloud - Service Providers Actively Move Mission-critical Applications to the Public Cloud
Telcos have historically claimed that mission-critical operations must be on internal telco assets. They’ve attempted to replicate the capabilities and cost structures of the public cloud in separate telco cloud architectures, but this method has not produced the scale, scope or cost structures needed for success. The public cloud has been able to far surpass the telco cloud to the point where five 9s performance is now table stakes. Additionally, security as a roadblock to public cloud is also being addressed. Service providers are realizing that physical security is not sufficient to ensure network security. Security breaches are increasingly due to poor security processes and not simply due to physical access to network functions. Solid security processes along with a solid network design make the public cloud suitable for mission-critical network operations. You’ll see significant movement of traditional network functions to the public cloud this year.
#2: AI Delivers Predictive Use Cases for Network Operations
Service provider networks have grown in size and complexity. This initial push of Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning was to address this complexity and answer the network operator’s question: “What is happening in my network today?” AI focused on anomaly detection, root issue identification and root cause analysis; “Tell me what happened and how I can fix it.” The next step in the AI journey is to get ahead of the operational outages by predicting incidents. AI predictive maintenance, predictive incidents, and proactive operations will transform service provider operations.
Chris Neisinger,
Field CTO,
Guavus
#3: Open Loop Moves to Closed Loop
This trend is all about Explainable AI. Current AI use cases in the network service provider stop at the trouble ticket. Many operators are reluctant to let the AI system directly control their network orchestration systems because they don’t understand why or how the AI decisions are made. They still want a human in the loop for critical network operations decisions. In 2020, AI becomes more than techno buzz, as data scientists start implementing algorithms that emphasize explainability. Network operators will be less reluctant to close the loop and implement full automation. The value of AI + closed loop automation will be realized through better development of explainable algorithms.
This year we’ll see mission-critical applications being put on the public cloud and these architectures will enable new business relationships with cloud providers, telco service providers and their joint customers. Network operations will be enhanced through predictive operations use cases. Telco five 9s reliability will be maintained or exceeded. And closed loop control follows, and marks the beginning of the transition to fully automated AI-based service provider networking. The combination of these will impact not only telco business and operations but greatly improve the customer experience telcos are able to deliver.