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It is common to observe that communications service providers (CSPs) must radically change their strategies for service acquisition and delivery if they wish to compete in the convergent, service-hungry IP world. What should a CSP's strategy look like for a flexible service layer that will enable the CSP to deliver more services, more rapidly, and at lower cost to the market?

The longevity of Intelligent Network (IN) services and legacy network assets and growing operator emphasis on service interoperability between networks is leading several key vendors of service-layer technology to reevaluate their market offers. Two companies are redoubling their efforts to support legacy IN customers with new service platforms that can support operators as they migrate to a next-generation network (NGN). Meanwhile, another company has strengthened its grip on the SIP app server market, championing the cause of redeveloping communications applications and making them fit to participate in the next-generation, IT-based services world.

These companies can provide key pieces of service delivery platform (SDP) function necessary for supporting an ecosystem of third-party developers. As part of their service-layer strategies, CSPs will need to build SDPs that manage developer relationships and network access, as well as the lifecycle of the services each party builds and delivers. The largest vendors want operators to be able to buy all the key service-layer technology components from them, rather than CSPs choosing different telco app server, service exposure layer, and SDP vendors.

The battle lines for the service layer are drawn clearly at the telco app server layer, nominally a small element within the much broader market for the SDP and operation/business support system (OSS/BSS) transformation, but a highly strategic one, nevertheless. On one side are ranged the next-generation IN (NGIN) app server vendors and on the other, the remaining, powerful, SIP app server vendors.

The past 12 months has seen much change in the service-layer market. The key requirements for a transitional/next-generation service-layer environment have become clearer and market consolidation means that more of these requirements can now be bought and integrated from fewer vendors. Operators are still making a distinction between suppliers for the programmable telco app server and the SDP, often requiring separate suppliers to work together to provide the entire set of service-layer capabilities they need.

Telco App Servers: NGIN Revs Up for a Serious Run at SIP considers the service-layer capabilities that operators will need to establish to support third-party service development and evaluates the strategies of leading vendors of telco app server technology as they position themselves for the next evolution of this market. It also profiles 10 leading companies in the market.

• Five service-layer requirements can be mapped to five service-layer capabilities, as the following excerpt illustrates. Together, these capabilities support the tasks of communications services creation, (policy controlled) exposure, orchestration, and deployment. The programmable telco app server is the main category of product needed to address the majority of these capabilities. Some telco app servers contain service broker function, although the service broker is establishing itself as a product category in its own right. The third-party development platform needed to support an ecosystem of external developers will require more than a programmable app server, however. It is best realized through the implementation of an SDP.

Companies profiled in this report include: Aepona Group Ltd.; Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU); BroadSoft Inc.; Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ); IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM); jNetX Inc.; OpenCloud Ltd.; Oracle Corp. (Nasdaq: ORCL); Telcordia Technologies Inc.; and Telenity Inc.

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