Telco cloud revisited: How 5G core and edge networks are proving key

Analysis Incumbent telecom service providers are consumed by the ongoing quest for substantive new revenue opportunities, beyond the delivery of internet access via wired and wireless broadband infrastructure. The leaders have long held the belief that value-added offerings were the key to sustainable growth.

Once again, that quest has led them to explore potential upside opportunities within the cloud computing arena. Global telco cloud computing revenue is now forecast to reach...

14 December 2020 | Enterprise

How MSPs have coped during the Covid-19 pandemic – and what they need to assess going forward

When the pandemic first hit earlier this year, nobody could have foreseen that we would be in lockdown again by November. With no signs of slowing down, the global health crisis is continuing to create challenges for businesses everywhere, but perhaps the biggest shock was the initial closing of offices when the UK was first told to work from home.

Many small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) were unprepared, scrambling to set up remote network access, cloud applications and the...

23 November 2020 | Case Studies

Alibaba Cloud posts $2.2bn revenues as company says growth is still early

Alibaba Cloud has posted revenues of $2.2 billion (£1.67bn) for its most recent quarter - with group CEO Daniel Zhang saying the cloud business is still in an 'early stage of growth.'

The retail giant's cloud computing arm saw year on year growth of 60%, with the company adding its predominant growth was in customers from the internet, finance and retail industries.

Speaking to analysts following the announcement, Zhang noted the company's previous assertion, on...

9 November 2020 | Alibaba Cloud

The US trade war extends from 5G to cloud – with more disinformation and distraction

Comment We have already witnessed how the US administration’s campaign against Huawei succeeded in reversing the UK government’s original decision to allow Huawei to participate in the UK 5G rollout. Even as questions are being raised about the necessity and the economic consequences of this ban, the US is now stepping up its campaign by focusing on Huawei’s cloud business as well. This comes as a strangely welcome distraction for US cloud players that have recently been found to all...

5 November 2020 | Data & Analytics

Understanding XGVela: Bringing more power to 5G with cloud-native telco PaaS

A platform as a service (PaaS) model of cloud computing brings lots of power to the end users. It provides a platform to the end customers to develop, run, and manage applications without the complexity of building and maintaining the infrastructure typically associated with developing and launching an application.

In the roadmap to building a 5G network, telecom networks need these breakthrough models that help them focus more on the design and development of network services...

26 October 2020 | Architecture

Google Cloud opens up on its edge strategy – and how clouds, telcos and developers all need to work together

Workloads, data and compute power are all moving closer to the edge. For the largest cloud players, who already hold many of the aces, this represents an important opportunity. Yet to do so fully, as Shailesh Shukla, VP and general manager networking at Google Cloud explained, it requires help from telecom providers and developers alike.

Shukla was speaking at The Edge Event earlier today around the hyperscaler's perspective. Speaking with Roy Illsley, chief analyst IT and...

29 September 2020 | Data Management

Oracle touts TikTok as flagship cloud customer after deal approved on US side

Updated The deal has been approved in principle - by the highest authority - and now Oracle has confirmed that social network TikTok will use the company as its 'secure cloud technology provider.'

TikTok, which had been threatened to be banned by US president Donald Trump over national security concerns, had a long list of potential suitors for its US operations before choosing Oracle over other tech behemoths, including Microsoft.

Over the weekend (Sep 19), President...

21 September 2020 | Enterprise

Gartner adds PaaS to IaaS Magic Quadrant in sign of the times – but the leaders remain the same

The script might have changed, but the leading actors remain. Gartner's 2020 Magic Quadrant analysing the leading players in cloud infrastructure as a service (IaaS) has included various flavours of platform as a service (PaaS) in a nod to expanding enterprise use cases. Yet these additions have reinforced the status quo, rather than disrupted it.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) remains top of the rankings, with Microsoft and Google Cloud alongside in the leaders' zone. This is a mirror...

8 September 2020 | AWS

Microsoft Azure ‘most used and trusted’ public cloud, says CCS Insight survey

Cloud migrations are accelerating as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic - and Microsoft is the main beneficiary of this extra demand, according to new research.

The latest report from analyst firm CCS Insight, its latest annual survey on IT investment with more than 730 respondents, found the proportion of businesses with more than half of their IT workloads in the cloud is expected to double, to 56%, in the coming 12 months.

Microsoft Azure was cited as both the...

25 August 2020 | Infrastructure

Alibaba Cloud posts $1.75bn revenues at 59% yearly growth rate, cites Asia Pacific dominance

Alibaba Cloud has secured almost $1.75 billion (RMB 12,345bn) in revenues for its most recent quarter at a growth rate of 59% year over year.

The eCommerce giant, whose cloud division broke the $1.5bn mark in February, attributed the figures to increased contributions from its public and hybrid cloud businesses, reflecting higher average revenue per customer.

Total revenue for the wider company for the quarter ended June 30, 2020, was $21.76bn (RMB153,75bn) at an...

20 August 2020 | Alibaba Cloud