Industry executives and experts share their predictions for 2019. Read them in this 11th annual VMblog.com series exclusive.
Contributed by Carl Grivner, Chief Executive Officer of Colt Technology Services
2019: Five CSP developments that will make a difference
The telecom and IT market is entering a period of
unprecedented intensity. New technologies such as SDN/NFV are coming online but
are yet to really prove their worth. 5G is much discussed but the fact is that
implementation is yet down the line, and in the meantime, handling backhaul
capacity for the data explosion could cause headaches.
In the data center, enterprises are working hard
to migrate data and begin to realize the full value of their investments, but
that value will only be increased by enabling better connectivity that responds
to the dynamic nature of the cloud. And of course, it all needs to be achieved
securely, with cyberattacks becoming almost inevitable, enterprises are racing
to become more secure, and CSPs are a security backbone they can lean on.
All of this adds up to increasing pressure on CSPs
to outperform and compete as never before.
My predictions for 2019 are all about competition
between CSPs, new innovations from SDN/NFV, 5G priorities, data center
connectivity and network security.
US Communication
Service Providers (CSP) market and competition
A rethink by some of the world's biggest corporate
organizations will turn up the competitive heat between CSPs as they strive to
consolidate or win new large enterprise services business. Blue chip companies are
undergoing some very public digital transformations, to streamline their
organizations and the way they interact with customers.
The B2C model for this, seen elsewhere in retail
firms, is now reflecting into the consumerization of the B2B sector across all
verticals. CSPs who can meet the knock-on demands placed on them by their
customers' customers, for nearer real-time services, better connectivity to
datacenters and better commercial terms, will have the upper hand.
SDN/NFV
The adoption bell-curve of SDN/NFV technology,
incorporating uCPE, will revolutionize the way CSPs interact with their
customers as we predict a move from early adopters to early majority in 2019.
Proof of Concepts (PoCs) are in the advanced
stage, and all CSPs understand the importance of software to really answer the
demand from enterprise customers for greater control over services, which need
to become near real-time. 2019 will be the year when trial partnerships, pilots
and limited rollouts will need to become wider network realities.
5G
5G will enable connectivity for billions more
devices, all of which will generate data and that needs to be processed and
stored somewhere. This will place significant strain on the backhaul networks
which need to be able to deal with the increase in traffic and to do so at
extremely low latency.
5G, much like 4G, will also enable new forms of
content for consumers to stream and this in turn will also drive demand for
cloud connectivity. From a consumer perspective this process is completely
wireless, however we know there is no such thing as a wireless network, so key
partnerships between fiber providers and mobile networks will be the only way
to make 5G a reality.
Data center
Enterprise data management and business analysis,
as Big Data becomes the most valuable asset, now depends on public- private- or
hybrid-cloud infrastructure. As firms figure out their initial data migration
and then data access, backup, storage and disaster recovery strategies, their investments
are only as good as the networks that connect them to the datacenter.
As these data center strategies are considered,
enterprises will also be dependent on connectivity that matches and fulfills
their unique data center access needs. 2019 will be the year where CSPs are
pressurized in WAN to up their game to provide the peaks and troughs of demand
using near real-time dynamic bandwidth that's tailored to the moment.
Network
security
Improved network security will become absolutely
critical in 2019, as enterprises deal with the reality that, in terms of their
own internal networks and assets, an attack is statistically inevitable and
securing their perimeter should be strategically augmented with new data
protection, encryption, access control and SIEM technology.
Recent high-profile issues, including Marriott's
data breach that exposed up to 500 million customer records and
the significant breach
at Equifax underline that cybersecurity needs immediate attention,
especially in the government and financial sectors.
Organizations must understand their risk profile,
the type of attackers and the techniques used to compromise businesses.
Enterprises need to take a layered approach when applying controls across their
organisation. This means controls in the network, servers, applications,
processes and people.
The next logical step is to lock-in the value of
investments in next-gen enterprise systems by ensuring that their CSP networks
are also hyper-secure, in order to complete the security risk chain.
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About the Author
Carl Grivner was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Colt in January
2016. He joined Colt having spent 3 years in Singapore as CEO at
Pacnet, directing the global strategy of one of Asia's leading
end-to-end communications service providers.
Prior to that, Carl
was CEO of XO Communications, a US network provider, for eight years
where he played a key role in transforming the business from a local
exchange carrier to a national carrier.
Carl has held several
executive level positions in the telecommunications and information
technology industry including Chief Executive Officer of Cable &
Wireless plc (Western Hemisphere) where he headed the North American
operations. He also held various senior management positions in
Ameritech and IBM.
He brings over 25 years of international
executive and leadership experience including 12 years' operating at the
level of Chief Executive Officer at major telecommunications companies
in North and Central America, Europe and Asia.