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Integrating cloud into the teleport service for modernising: WTA study

WTA explores the benefits and challenges of integrating the cloud into the teleport service mix.

‘Teleport operators needs cloud strategy’, finds a new study by the World Teleport Association (WTA).

The WTA research titled: Clear Skies or Stormy Weather? Cloud Services for Teleport Operators, explores the opportunities for teleports if partnered with cloud service providers – the technical and policy requirements for interconnection- and the needs of cloud service providers from their partners.

The study is based on interviews with the senior executives of large and small teleport operators as well as cloud service providers. It also explores the competitive threat that cloud operators present and how teleport operators can best respond.

Teleports have always been in the business of creating and managing capacity of networks, of transmission systems, of analog and digital processing for shared use by their customers. The study found that as a new and important kind of capacity, cloud services are on the verge of becoming a staple of teleport operations, whether teleports incorporate Amazon Web Services or other third-party offerings in their operations or they provide their own cloud infrastructure, platform and services to customers. They also have the potential to compete for business that has long been at the core of teleport services.

According to WTA, for all these reasons, teleport operators need a cloud strategy. They need to know what cloud capabilities customers could benefit from and where the greatest growth opportunities are. They need to think through how to preserve and strengthen their competitive advantages when going head-to-head with the cloud for specific services, or when integrating the cloud into their operations. They require familiarity with the technical, operational and cost factors of the cloud, and with the skills needed to manage it on behalf of customers.

Speaking about the research findings, Robert Bell, Executive Director of WTA said: “The cloud is a technology development that is now affecting how every teleport customer thinks about their requirements and the expanding options for meeting those requirements.

“Our report provides important insights into the crucial integration of cloud capabilities into the mission-critical services that teleports provide.”

Cloud Services for Teleport Operators is complemented by an ‘Ask an Expert’ video interview with Vince Matherne, Chief Commercial Officer of Encompass Digital Media, available at http://www.worldteleport.org/page/AskanExpert_Cloud.