サマリー
この調査レポートは、サービスブローカーがどのように、多くの異なるアプリケーション機能やネットワークエレメントを、的確に価値を付加してコスト効率の良いサービスとして、タイミングよくネットワークの適切な場所をとらえることのできる、正しい技術を使用できるかについて調査している。
Time is running out for operators that have ignored the need to overhaul their internal service delivery strategies. While they are trying to patch up ageing legacy Intelligent Network (IN) infrastructures, continuing with divided post and pre-paid service portfolios, multiple, duplicate IN service platforms and inflexible IN charging infrastructures, those telcos that have established a migration path to next-generation IN (NGIN) are racing ahead.
The most advanced operators are well on their migration journey toward IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS). In an IMS world, services can be regarded as components that can rapidly be reused and recombined in many different innovative ways for competitive advantage. Such operators are preparing for this rapid assembly model, even before they have fully migrated service function onto Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) app servers (several have no intention of doing so in the foreseeable future). Advanced telcos are exploring ways of orchestrating reusable communication services components with Web-based application function. And they understand that, as they bring IMS into their networks, they will need to orchestrate rich compositions of "service capabilities" that involve more than just application function running on SIP servers or any other NGIN platform.
Operators need a flexible way to program real-time orchestrations across this universe of service capabilities if they are to deliver differentiated offers to their subscribers. The ability to orchestrate such service capability interactions quickly and easily is already helping advanced operators to support sophisticated policy-based monetization, flexible service access and network optimization/traffic steering scenarios, giving them a head-start on customer experience management and opex/capex containment.
The strategic use cases for the service broker are at an early stage and do not appear to be on the radar of the network equipment providers, except possibly Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent's SDP group. Tekelec and Metaswitch, which remain unencumbered by an NGIN platform play, are well positioned to meet the emerging requirement for a programmable "bus" for the service layer/control plane that the service broker, in its strategic role, fulfills. Amdocs and Oracle are moving in this direction: Their acquisitions have taken them further into the network, but they lack Metaswitch's and Tekelec's association with the control plane, a perception they need to address.
What's Next for the Service Broker? discusses why the service broker is the right technology appearing at the right time and place in the network to orchestrate the many different application functions and network elements participating in agile, value-added and cost-effective service delivery. It explains why the service broker must work harder, defragmenting the increasingly confused landscape growing up around the IMS signaling infrastructure. It also examines the different vendor strategies for the service broker: Where many of the network equipment providers are seeking to limit the service broker role for their own ends, other service broker vendors are developing exciting new use cases for the technology that should make it a central plank of any operator's next-generation service delivery strategy. Finally, the report profiles nine leading vendors in the market.
Market demand for the service broker is still low, and operators remain unconvinced of the technology's value as a standalone layer in their network architecture. As RFPs show, many telcos are unaware that the technology can be a solution to their problems and are happy with a tactical (point) solution rather than the strategic, multi-functional capability that a service broker provides. This plays into the hands of network equipment providers that, despite adding service broker capabilities to their NGIN platforms, can easily persuade customers of their other choices.
Companies profiled in this report include: Aepona Ltd.; Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU); Amdocs Ltd. (NYSE: DOX); Ericsson AB (Nasdaq: ERIC); Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ); Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd.; Metaswitch Networks, the trading name of Data Connection Ltd.; OpenCloud Ltd.; Oracle Corp. (Nasdaq: ORCL); and Tekelec Inc. (Nasdaq: TKLC).
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