The emergence of the cloud is a tremendous opportunity for operators to boost subscriber user experiences and their own bottom line through building and connecting clouds. Ericsson’s Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), Arun Bhikshesvaran, will outline how this can be done as part of the major Interop IT conference and expo in New York.

Bhikshesvaran will deliver a keynote during the Cloud Carrier Forum workshop on October 5. With mobile broadband and on-the-go data demands now driving the journey towards the Networked Society, he says the cloud should already be topping agendas in operators’ boardrooms across the world.

"Put simply, the cloud is of prime importance to the future of the ICT business, incorporating communications, information and entertainment," he says. "It is also user driven. Demand for seamless experiences will dictate how the cloud develops. This is about the quality of experience, ease of use, reliability, and acceptable cost for new services or existing services moving to the cloud.v

Arun Bhikshesvaran

Bhikshesvaran says the cloud is a key focus area for Ericsson.

"The term ‘the cloud’ can in itself be a little confusing to some, because it means so many different things. But the cloud actually covers all aspects of Ericsson’s business. For a long time now we have been investing and working to enable the cloud growth in many ways.

"This means excelling in software to provide cloud services, as well as building and running the cloud computing infrastructure. It also means connecting to the infrastructure, because no matter how good the service platform is, you have to get to it, and get to it in the fastest, highest quality way possible. This also has an impact on how content is distributed in the networks.

"As CMO, the cloud is one of my personal priorities as it really will be a key element in the wonderful changes that we will enjoy in the Networked Society. We take the cloud very seriously."

Bhikshesvaran says he will outline this holistic approach, and his cloud "C" list, when he addresses the Cloud Carrier Forum. (See information box).

"Operators are starting to understand that it’s a new game and the rules have changed," he says. "Connectivity can easily be extended with cloud-based services at the other end of the pipe, to provide value to the customer.

"The main benefits to subscribers will be improved quality of experience. Ericsson has been in the business of delivering communication services to multiple end-points, whether to fixed end-point or mobile networks, for generations. That is the very solid foundation on which our cloud approach is built."

Bhikshesvaran says Ericsson can also work with operators on Operational Support Systems (OSS) and Business Support Systems (BSS) to improve business models by working with over-the-top players offering cloud services, as well as enabling the provision of bundled services.

Geoff Hollingworth, the Head of IP Services Strategy for Ericsson’s Region North America, will also address the event in the panel discussion "Building the On-demand Cloud Infrastructure."

Interop New York runs from October 3-7, with the Cloud Carrier Forum on Wednesday October 5.

Bhikshesvaran’s Cloud "C" list

Connectivity - the cloud can’t exist without it. Bhikshesvaran says: "This has to be reliable and responsive. One example of our work in this area is the partnership with Akamai in the area of mobile cloud acceleration. This is taking the connectivity platform that we provide and enhancing it with special purpose software and/or hardware."
Composition - what kind of services are delivered? Are they bundled? Bhikshesvaran says: "How do different services interact with each other? How do you make it simple and transparent for consumers of the services?"
Consumption - how are the services consumed? What platform is used to give a nice end-user experience? Bhikshesvaran says: "Through joint ventures with ST-Ericsson and Sony Ericsson, Ericsson is playing critical roles in enabling different platforms on which these different cloud services can be consumed. A tangible implementation of an end-to-end consumption product that Ericsson is delivering to the market is through Connect to Learn program where we are serving some 5,000 children in Africa based on this model, leveraging our partner Novatium."
Control – how do you guarantee a quality of service experience? Bhikshesvaran says: "How do you ensure that people get what they pay for? Robust OSS and BSS systems, along with policy management infrastructure, is essential to guarantee reliability."
Commerce - when subscribers buy content or additional bandwidth. For example, movie rental. Bhikshesvaran says: "Such ‘ordinary’ transactions have a very powerful role when it comes to cloud services. Ericsson is, and has been, playing a key role in enabling important cloud-based services such as the purchase of off-portal content for many years in different parts of the world via Ericsson IPX. We are now integrating that with our mobile money services to enable person-to-person transfer and extend into M-commerce. Both of the above services have been delivered using cloud infrastructure."
Computing - basically the infrastructure of virtualization of the service, using the right kind of service composition engines combined with connectivity.