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By Sanjay Mewada
For over 60 years the telecom business has focused on the Network, the domain of “big iron” — switches, routers, antennas, and towers. Service Providers have invested billions of dollars in it, and it still requires a fantastic human effort to maintain, upgrade, and enhance. In most cases, it is still the foundation of differentiation and the biggest barrier to entry in a connectivity-driven communications industry. The Network has understandably been paramount in a business model which, until recently, was about renting it out to users on a per-minute basis.
However, something has gradually changed over the last 30 or 40 years. The introduction and gradual rise of the computer and IT infrastructure in the telecom environment has changed the entire focus of the industry. Today Information Technology (IT) is playing a critical role in creating, delivering, and managing services. IT is becoming just as important — and with some service providers — more important than the Network itself.
In some ways the evolution of Network and IT within Service Providers reflects the evolution of the role of telecom and datacom managers within the enterprise/business market. Fifteen years ago, telecom and datacom managers were peers with the telecom manager running the voice network and the datacom manager running the LAN network. That relationship shifted dramatically in the enterprise with the datacom manager often becoming the Chief Information Officer (CIO). Not only did this role involve running
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Today Information Technology (IT) is playing a critical role in creating, delivering, and managing services. IT is becoming just as important — and with some service providers — more important than the Network itself. |
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the trends are similar.
As Network and IT begin to redefine their roles, both an opportunity and a challenge is created for OSS and network systems vendors. The fact is that most OSS have not kept pace with this fundamental shift within the Service Providers. OSS has traditionally been “network-centric” — that is, it is focused on supporting infrastructure at Layer 3 and below of the OSI model. An OSS that cannot support both Network and IT infrastructure from Layers 1 though 7 causes misalignment between the Network and IT domains. Where misalignment exists, it costs
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the LAN network but it also involved management and ownership of the firewall, security, the website, the e-business platform, and the virtual storefront. The center of gravity shifted decisively in favor of the new CIO, due to the centrality of IP and IT inside the organization. In the meantime, the telecom manager continued doing the same thing — running the voice network and connectivity services.
The evolution of Network and IT is not quite the same in the Service Provider world, but
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Service Providers a great deal.
Here are the five most important symptoms of IT/Network misalignment. If these sound familiar, then they are probably caused by an OSS that is incapable of modeling IT infrastructure inside your organization.
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