As the marketplace becomes increasingly cut-throat, Broadband Service Providers must continuously evolve and innovate at a rapid pace to maintain their edge. This has forced them to stay one step ahead of their clients, constantly adapting to meet their ever-evolving needs.
Gone are the days when Broadband Service Providers had separate entities for Voice engineers (TDM) and Data engineers (Packet). The convergence of these two worlds happened in a blink of an eye. Network engineers and Server engineers were also distinct groups in the past, but the advent of NFV and SDN changed everything. Networking became an application on a server and was integrated into server infrastructure. And now, with the emergence of edge compute and SASE devices, physical one-for-one network functions have been transformed into virtualized ones, with multiple functions consolidated onto a single hardware device. The evolution of technology has truly revolutionized the BSP landscape.
Although this transformation has been widespread, there still exists a world where purpose-built hardware coexists alongside virtualized VNFs. Simplifying operations in the midst of this complexity remains a major challenge.
Innovation need not always be complex. Sometimes it can be as simple as consolidating everything onto a single-pane of glass. This provides a much-needed high-level overview, allowing for quick identification of where issues are occurring, and enabling more specific actions to be taken.
Once the operations team identifies a specific area that requires investigation, the ability to click and expose details should be seamlessly integrated into the single-pane of glass. This empowers the operations team with powerful insights, eliminating the need for standalone solutions and streamlining the investigative process.
The days of being a specific type of engineer are long gone. Running networks now requires powerful tools that provide a simple interface, displaying information that is easy to comprehend. With a single-pane of glass, operations can identify a specific issue from a multitude of potential causes in just 2-3 clicks. This represents a truly powerful innovation in operations!
Broadband Service Providers have been placing a great deal of emphasis on consumer services of late, such as managed Wi-Fi, personal device threat protection, and security camera services.
In order to explore new revenue opportunities within business customer's Local Area Networks, Broadband Service Providers must embrace Operations Innovation. These business customers currently spend billions of dollars annually on standalone, complex solutions for Server and LAN operations. Often, they must hire specialists to manage and operate these solutions locally, which can be prohibitively expensive. In many cases, business customers simply cannot afford these solutions or the personnel required to manage them. As a result, they operate their business with a significant amount of risk in their server network and network infrastructure.
Network Monitoring as a Service (NMaaS) represents a strategic offering that Broadband Service Providers can provide to their business customers. With tens of thousands of independent business Server and LAN networks connected to their public networks, BSPs are well-positioned to provide a seamless solution that ties them all together. These networks are ripe for a new service that can monitor, manage, and optimize their performance, offering businesses unprecedented visibility and control over their network infrastructure.
Operations Innovation requires “multi-vendor, multi-function, simplicity”.