IBM, HP make major telecom cloud plays

Cloud computing up to now has mainly focused on the data center and Web-style applications, but the same concepts are coming to the core of the communications market as well.

Today, HP unveiled a new "communications as a service", or CaaS, platform that it says will help service providers offer small and medium business customers cloud-based communications services, complete with utility-style pricing.

IBM, meanwhile, said today it landed a deal to provide a cloud computing environment for Korean mobile operator SK Telecom, focused on helping developers build applications to reach more than 24 million customers.

The two announcements not only show the potential for cloud-based approaches to target all sectors of the communications market – from enterprise apps to consumer services – but also demonstrate the evolution of service delivery approaches.

Not even a year ago, both HP and IBM – not to mention other IT players as well as traditional network equipment vendors – were largely pitching service delivery platforms (SDPs) and Web 2.0-style development as their main marketing touch points; today, largely the same packages of hardware, software and services have gained the "cloud" and "as-a-service" labels.

HP is initially focusing its communications-as-a-service activity on four key applications that service providers can offer smaller enterprises: self-service interactive voice response; video surveillance; unified communications; and IP contact centers. HP will offer the software to drive the first two solutions and will rely on partners for the latter two.

HP formally announced HP CaaS today in a Hamburg, Germany, though it will pitch the new capabilities to telcos worldwide. Underpinning the solution is HP’s Aggregation Platform for Software as a Service, which service providers would deploy as a mediation layer between its service layer, OSS/BSS systems and the SMB customer’s IT environment. The aggregation platform helps automate provisioning, activation, mediation charging and service assurance – a level of automation necessary if service providers are to roll out CaaS to smaller customers on a self-service basis, according to Ottavio Carparelli, HP’s director of communications and media solutions.

More information on HP CaaS is available.

IBM, meanwhile, today detailed a new cloud computing win with SK Telecom – with a goal of working with developers to deliver at least 20 new mobile services, including news feed and photo services, by the end of this year.

IBM delivered the so-called developer "platform-as-a-service" for SK Telecom in whole, providing all the servers, storage and middleware required to build the development test bed.  The developer portal is part of a larger plan by SK Telecom to convert its entire IT infrastructure to a cloud model in the coming years, IBM said.

The SK Telecom developer cloud service was built using about 80 IBM systems, including System x and blade servers; Xen virtualization technology; and IBM middleware and service management technology. One key platform is IBM's Tivoli Service Automation Manager, which enables software to be leased and installed seamlessly, and virtual machines provisioned accordingly.

More information on IBM's cloud platforms can be found at ibm.com/cloud.