But of course, in an app-heavy mobile environment, the question of how much communications service providers have to do in all of this inevitably emerges. However, the IBSG folks assert that the CSPs can serve as a "natural fit" to deliver this collaborative mobile cloud environment. The ability to enable fixed-mobile convergence is something that non-CSP players can't provide, and can only replicate. Meanwhile, CSPs can create mobile cloud offerings that help to capitalize on the mobile lifestyle, and can provide insight into the entire process that over-the-top players can't.
And the cloud can play a major part in CSPs' fight for the keys to the converged future in a number of ways. Not only can CSPs build and enable usage of these centralized data resources, but they can also leverage the cloud to bill for this new and rapidly shifting spate of sources, as well.
Increasingly, billing-as-a-service (BaaS) has become a key strategy for both upstart and traditional billing vendors looking to offer their clients greater flexibility, lower costs, and decreased time-to-market for new services. Companies from Zuora to Redknee to MetraTech have made the advantages of a cloud-based billing model known, and the rapid pace of change in the world of converged communication makes all of these benefits that much more attractive to service providers looking to remain competitive. Analyst firm Innovation Observatory announced recently that they predict the cloud-based telecom billing market to swell to USD 1.4BN by 2015, with BaaS providers controlling some 11% of that market.
Classic concerns about the safety and reliability of the cloud haven't gone away by any stretch, but the sheer variety and complexity of the cloud environment, combined with a 
rampant craving for content and data to be available anywhere, do create a compelling proposition: What's better-suited for access from anywhere than information that is stored nowhere and everywhere at once?
In the new converged environment, the cloud is worthy of consideration as both a tool for facilitation and a tool for cost reduction. Perhaps it's time for CSPs to drink their own champagne while simultaneously serving it up to their subscribers.
Then again, with the way end-users are constantly moving, perhaps even metaphorical champagne is a bad idea.
