The Inevitability of Cloud-Native Despite the initial perception that cloud-native networks may not suit telcos due to their complexity, the reality is that cloud-native is becoming the backbone of 5G networks—especially 5G Standalone (SA) and Cloud/OpenRAN architectures. The shift to cloud-native is inevitable, and failing to adapt will have significant consequences. In the long term, cloud-native is not something CSPs can afford to opt out of. However, there remains a risk that telcos may fail to fully embrace the opportunities cloud-native offers. Attempting to force-fit today’s operational environments—built around traditional hardware-based networks—onto cloud-native infrastructures can lead to increased complexity without delivering the intended benefits. This approach risks creating networks that inherit the complexities of the cloud without reaping the rewards of agility and scalability. Some of the consequences of this are already evident in the limited success of virtualized networks based on VNFs. Physical networks were replaced by virtualized equivalents of these functions, introducing a layer of virtualization complexity but with limited gains in terms of innovation, agility and underlying infrastructure cost. Second Order Benefits Cloud-native networks go one stage further in terms of benefits, with the potential to completely disaggregate the network from the underlying infrastructure. This delivers networks […]