A Rosebud by Any Other Name

Equipment makers are also planting the seeds for future IMS transactions by delivering components, such as application servers, that function outside the IMS specification but that can easily conform to the IMS architecture when core components, such as session control and subscriber data management are put in place around them. The trend these days is an application-driven approach to IMS adoption. Operators are delivering new services that rely on servers and session control equipment that are hybrids of IP and IMS. As operators became more comfortable with IMS or are deriving a critical mass of revenue from these hybrid platforms, they will begin to switch over to the now-dormant IMS portions of these products.

The truth is that the only scenario that exists in which telecommunication operators do not adopt IMS is one in which they are relegated to simple transport providers. Without a horizontally oriented architecture that is capable of rapid service introduction and orchestration to create composite services, the only thing teleco operators will be suited for is carrying the traffic of Over The Top (OTT) players and other Internet-based service providers. That’s certainly a potential scenario, but it’s also a scary one for both operators and the equipment makers that supply them with infrastructure gear.

So, the next time you hear that IMS is dead or that the jury is still out on the architecture, take a moment to think about Marion Davies – the real one. The only way to stop the perpetuation of a myth is to dispel it with a shot of reality.