Can Azure for Operators facilitate telecommunications operators in creating new revenue streams?

Back in September 2020, Microsoft announced its Azure for Operators initiative and described it as a constantly expanding set of cloud services that will help businesses overcome operational challenges. It was envisioned to offer operators the freedom to develop, manage and launch applications on a global network via preferred frameworks and tools.

Today, Microsoft Azure for Operators is positioned to help operators build new revenue streams with a platform that includes the cloud compute infrastructure, networking, and intelligent solutions that can enable rapid service innovation and automation at a massive scale.

What are the new opportunities for communication service providers?

As new mobile broadband services emerge, telecommunications operators have tremendous opportunities to create new service revenue with industry 4.0 solutions. These new opportunities include providing solutions that would transform industries, from agriculture and healthcare to manufacturing and distribution.

While enterprises embrace 5G wireless, edge compute, and smart devices to power ultra-low latency applications that revolutionise their business processes and operational efficiencies, operators around the world mull over the idea of monetising the value that 5G brings.

How can Azure for Operators help businesses monetise 5G value?

This is where Microsoft Azure truly shines in the picture. With a broad range of in-house and partner solutions, deployable in hybrid and multi-cloud environments, Azure allows operators to architect services that suit their motive operations and meet the evolving needs of their customers.

This includes everything from deploying private and public 5G networks to applying advanced artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities to data generated by millions of connected devices. Azure for Operators offers the full ecosystem of technologies, partners, and cloud solutions that enable operators to power the digital transformations at the heart of the next industrial revolution.

Are there any latest updates related to Azure for Operators?

In March 2022, Microsoft reinforced its hybrid cloud offering Azure for Operators with an update that focuses on seamlessly running 5G technology on the global cloud network. The announcement came at the MWC mobile communications conference in Barcelona, Spain, when Microsoft announced that it has partnered with AT&T to offer a private 5G network that will have the capacity to handoff roaming devices to the wireless network of the carrier.

The new update that was revealed a couple of months ago further included the latest Azure Operator Distributed Services which will help communication services providers the ability to run the network core. Microsoft also introduced Azure public multi-access edge compute (MEC) and Azure Private 5G Core to facilitate the cloud network's edge.

What is Azure Operator Distributed Services?

Azure Operator Distributed Services can be described as a hybrid cloud platform that can combine Azure's analytics, monitoring, security, and AI capabilities with the AT&T Network Cloud. It further includes the new packet-core-as-a-service application for mobile networks called Azure Operator 5G Core.

Telecommunication operators looking to achieve meaningful results from digital transformations can use Azure Operator Distributed Services as they meet all their required security, manageability, observability, resiliency, and performance needs. The service further allows operators to run all their workloads such as RAN, BSS, OSS, mobile and voice core, etc. on a single hybrid platform.

Communication service providers can streamline their complex business operations by leveraging the capabilities of Azure Operator Distributed Services. Telecommunication operators can also simplify management, augment policy-making and automate processes through a unified cloud management platform powered by Azure Services.

Azure Operator Distributed Services further grants the scalability and flexibility to communication service providers to support customer deployments at the edge of the network, the edge of the cloud, or the enterprise edge. These businesses can also develop new services to monetise their network while leveraging customer insights to facilitate proactive decision-making.

Conclusion

Many experts believe that the cloudification of communications services will be the most consequential decision of this century. The operators who were eyeing the cloud with caution now see a bright future in it thanks to Microsoft. Azure for Operators is truly the next big step in helping real-time communications services to create new revenue streams and leverage the power of the cloud.