My view on the converged Infrastructure for IT and Network journey…

Combining the infrastructure of the telecommunication IT and telecommunication Network topics to a combined world is a logical step as the technology of both domains are coming together. Telecommunication is going more and more the way to full IP with LTE and also using standard x86 hardware for running the core elements that allow to use the same technology for both worlds.

On the other side telecommunication companies grant their user every year more and more service, like higher mobile data throughput or increased data packages for the same, or even less revenue that result in an increasing cost pressure that keeps telecommunication companies in the constant pressure to optimize the cost structure.

Therefore, going the way to a combined world is not the question. It is more the question when to start the journey. And it is a journey, as most telecommunication operators will not have to luxury to start a complete converged greenfield approach sand it is also not needed to think and try directly to reach the final stage with a full converged OSS & BSS stack on a hyper converged cloud infrastructure. There are more the smaller and easy to implement synergies that support fast improvement of services, less overhead and cost savings.

As an example, there can be seen the field / onsite service. If there is already a field service for supporting the different mobile sites in place, including toolset, staff, storage facilities, etc. in place, why not including the IT onsite support for the retail stores? Adding some more locations and spare parts to a fully implemented service should not be the problem.

Or as an another example, combining security and process topics together, reduces the internal and external overhead, as the similar topics can be managed together, in the best case by the same persons. That will free up some time that can be used for creating value.

Also on the technology and operation side, moving the servers and applications to a shared virtual environment directly helps to reduce complexity and operational effort. In parallel a combined virtual stack can be the first and also needed step to make everything ready for a direct and/or future usage of cloud services, as with consolidating everything on a virtual stack, the different servers are already becoming standardized and virtual and therefore ready to move to cloud….

 By going further, the journey, there are also further potentials for optimization. That can start from one toolset for IT and Network for the topics of monitoring, reporting and service management or one combined operation center that is taking care of 24/7 operation, monitoring and incident management.

And of course, then when 2.0 is reached, the journey can really continue to the 3.0, which will be no longer combining, but a real fusion, where there is no longer a separation between the one and the other.

I am personally happy, as Huawei and Sunrise together has just started the journey, I am sure we will learn and reach a lot on that journey