Businesses have everything to gain from the cloud
In the telecommunications sector, cloudification is more than a buzzword today — it is reality. As tech expands and governments, enterprises and individuals alike grow increasingly dependent on connectivity to operate, cloudification becomes an essential component in delivering efficiency, scalability, and optimising costs.
Today, with digital transformation of enterprises well underway in the Middle East and beyond, telecom operators are perfectly positioned to create new business opportunities for themselves and their customers by taking connectivity a step further and turning it into full- fledged ICT solutions providers with cloudification as the cornerstone.
Beyond the benefits of offering cloud- services by telcos — in terms of greater operational efficiency on every front— cloudification caters to customers’ increasing expectations for services- on- demand.
Enterprise customers have come to depend so heavily on connected tools, services and solutions that operators must take a cloudification approach in ensuring connectivity remains within reach for customers in the digital era.
Operators’ role will be transformed as telecoms and IT become more integrated than ever before. They will play a key part in supporting industries by providing the services and solutions to support industrial development in the digital era. In turn, operators will need to establish new business models that will take them beyond connectivity with networks that are more robust and intuitive.
Next- gen technologies
As data traffic increases exponentially and customer demand continues unabated,. cloudification enables this to happen by delivering shared computing resources on demand through public and private networks. Especiallywith regard to next- gen technologies and the largescale virtualisation propelling them, cloudification is an essential step in operators’ evolution.
As services become available at the edge of networks, the progression to cloud will do more than increase scale and efficiency for telcos. It will reshape and transform businesses while opening new revenue streams for enterprise customers.
As such, telcos have the opportunity to create new business uses by extending their services beyond connectivity to a range of industry verticals with applications such as AI, real- time automation, remote operations, maintenance sensing, enhanced video services, and much more.
Through edge computing in particular, digital tools and services can operate at greater speeds, with less latency and with weaker network connections. Information can be processed easily and faster, as edge computing deployments eliminate the need for all IoT devices to be connected to a central cloud at all times. Or to pass through a data centre for cloud processing.
As a result, services are delivered quicker, with less resources used in the process.
One of the most tangible ways in which cloudification and edge computing have jointly altered business operations for enterprise customers can be seen in the way we work. Today, businesses can assemble virtually and connect across countries and continents, working more efficiently in the absence of time, location or accessibility constraints.
In turn, they are more collaborative, resourceful, and productive than ever before, thanks to the conveniences afforded to themby cloudification.
Access to advanced tools
Beyond the human advantages of large- scale cloud computing, enterprises are also experiencing considerable increase in the computing power available to them, and at a much lower cost. This availability of immense, affordable computing capabilities helps level the business playing field by giving enterprises of every size and stature access to the advanced tools and ubiquitous connectivity to succeed in today’s digital business landscape without many financial limitations standing in the way.
The advantages are equally beneficial for enterprises as they are for the operators enabling these vital components of network evolution. Innovations like these are ushering in the age of Smart business and laying the groundwork for a connected smart future fromevery angle. They are disrupting entire industrieswith the tools thatwill help shape the future — and they are deeply rooted in this era of cloudification.
■ Farid Faraidooni is deputy CEO, ICT Solutions, of Emirates Integrated Telecommunication Company.
services become available at the edge of networks, the progression to cloud will do more than increase scale and efficiency for telcos.