VIDEO PREVIEW
How CSPs can win in the cloud An operator’s cloud services offerings need to encompass both on-premise and syndicated offerings, according to Jack Zubarev of Parallels and Knut Aasrud of Microsoft. Here we preview a video conversation between them coming soon to www.vanillaplus.com. Communication service providers (CSPs) are in a fantastic position to capitalise on cloud services for three main reasons:
Jack Zubarev, president, marketing and alliances, Parallels: Time to market is critical
Knut Aasrud, general manager, Microsoft Communication s Sector, EMEA: Wide range of cloud-based solutions for CSPs to offer
1) they own the underlying network infrastructure 2) they have existing commercial relationships with tens of millions of small and medium business (SMB) customers 3) they have a culture of support that creates a competitive advantage over pure-play cloud providers. However, to profit from the cloud, CSPs will need to offer a full set of cloud services so that they can cover the IT needs of all potential SMB customers. In addition, CSPs will need to make sure customers are activated and using more than one service, as this reduces churn by over 50%. Finally, CSPs will need to enable online selfservice so customers can easily add, remove, and update their cloud services without having to call in to support. Offering a wide range of cloud services With the right cloud service delivery automation solution, CSPs can aggregate multiple cloud services from multiple vendors, giving them the choice to either manage these services onpremise, or let a third party provider manage the actual infrastructure while just orchestrating the provisioning, billing, and licensing of the service – a syndicated approach. Given how rapidly customer requirements are evolving, time-to-market is THE critical factor for winning in the cloud. The fastest and most flexible way for CSPs to proceed is with Parallels Automation: commercial-off-the-shelf software built on multi-tenant standards and designed for enabling the delivery and management of cloud services while integrating with existing OSS/BSS systems. Using Parallels Automation, a CSP is able to rapidly add new cloud services and define service bundles along with pricing and margins. How Parallels enables Microsoftbased cloud services Microsoft offers a wide range of cloud-based solutions for CSPs to offer their customer base,
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in both on-premise and syndicated models. By using Parallels Automation, a CSP is able to manage their entire cloud services portfolio and harness the power of Microsoft’s offerings. For example, Microsoft Exchange is one of the most widely used messaging platforms among businesses today. With Parallels Automation, a CSP can choose to allocate resources – such as the number of mailboxes and the amount of storage space – according to the service plan the customer chooses, billing overage charges when a customer exceeds the allocated amount. Taking it a step further, a CSP could also use Parallels Automation to add Microsoft Lync Server and Microsoft SharePoint to provide its customers an even more comprehensive communications package. In addition, as Microsoft makes continued investments into its online portfolio of services, Parallels Automation also enables a CSP to syndicate the Microsoft Office 365 suite of applications, thereby gaining the ability to: • Rapidly launch syndicated Office 365 services - in weeks rather than quarters • Maintain the primary billing relationship with the end customer • Leverage open APIs to integrate with existing OSS and BSS systems • Easily bundle additional cloud services, such as backup, security, domains, and VPS Although the Office 365 services are hosted in Microsoft’s data centres, other services the CSP chooses to include in the bundle may be hosted by them or syndicated from other sources. Ignore the cloud? Simply, CSPs that ignore the cloud will see churn increase. In a recent AMI study, 48% of SMB respondents indicated they were likely to switch providers in the absence of cloud offerings. Disruptive players are coming into the market with full service offerings and growing rapidly; CSPs cannot afford to ignore the opportunity and threat that cloud services represents. For more information visit: www.parallels.com/csp