Distributed Cloud Infrastructure

Appledore forecasts the DCIM market, excluding virtualization infrastructure, will grow from $1.3bn in 2024 to $1.9bn in 2028.

The reinvention of telecom operators as cloud-based businesses will have profound effects on the wider industry. Not only will it be key to new levels of agility and speed, but it will enable new sources of revenue, new types of customer experience, and new ways to differentiate. But telecom has unique and demanding characteristics that make the realization of a “telco cloud” particularly challenging.

In this comprehensive 30+ page Market Outlook, Appledore looks at the key foundation for this cloud-based future, the distributed cloud infrastructure (DCI). DCI is the foundational layer of Appledore’s NAS taxonomy, on which the cloud network functions will run, and on which the operational processes of the telco will be automated.

The report looks in detail at the market for the DCI management function (DCIM), looking at the typical software stacks that are available to support the cloud-native network. Each stack reflects different design choices that are available to the telco, with design choice needing to be driven by the business requirements of each telco, and potentially each telco use case.

However, telco does have some unique challenges and needs that DCIM needs to address. These are are outlined in this report. The report also looks at the different commercial models for DCI/DCIM support for cloud networks, including Public Cloud, Private Cloud and Hybrid Cloud.

The report will help those in CSPs and their vendor ecosystem, needing to understand the choices available in implementing a Distributed Cloud Infrastructure and its DCIM management capability. Short profiles of notable players in telecom DCIM in the report include: AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, Rakuten Symphony, Canonical, Red Hat, Wind River, SUSE and VMware. See also Appledore’s previous reports for vendors and operators on the model for success with Telco Cloud: Telco Cloud for Vendors: A Blueprint for Success and Telco Cloud for Operators: A Blueprint for Success

Scroll down to see the full table of contents of this report. 

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