Major telcos will be strong force in cloud computing

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA: The major global telecommunications companies will become strong players in the cloud computing market as interest from previously cautious end users increases rapidly over the next two to three years, Ovum has predicted.

A new report* by the independent telecoms analyst states that AT&T, BT, Orange Business Services and Verizon Business have made considerable progress in the arena in just over a year, and in terms of services, can now compete with established players from the IT industry.

According to the report, these companies have led a ‘competitive march’ from telecoms into cloud computing, and now have widely acknowledged credibility in the field.

Peter Hall, report author and Ovum principal analyst, said: “The major telcos have a long heritage in providing managed data center services and hosting, and have combined this with their networking and security expertise to meet the needs of customers for cloud computing services.

“All of the players reviewed in the report see cloud computing as leveraging their core competencies and Orange has coined the term ‘IT operator’ to reflect its new role in IT services by analogy with its traditional role as a network operator. We believe that the global and major regional telcos will become strong players across the full spectrum of cloud computing services including Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS).

“But it’s still early days and telcos that have not yet developed a cloud computing strategy should not feel that they have missed the boat as the market is still embryonic and many end users are still cautious about cloud computing. However, we expect to see interest pick up quite rapidly over the next two to three years, so the time is right for many telcos to be developing a strategy and roadmap for their entry to the market.”