Telecom grade cloud computing: Challenges and opportunities

Cloud computing and virtualization are two key technology priorities for telecom service providers. Besides total cost reduction, there are many strategic objectives while adopting cloud technology into the telecom sector. Telecom service providers core assets and strength lies in their communication networks, but these alone are not enough to maintain the industry in the higher level that it once enjoyed. Combining cloud computing technology and networks, telecom service providers can become a significant force in the cloud providers domain and more importantly to return to the growth path. This work evaluates the new challenges and opportunities that are offered by the adoption of cloud and virtualization technologies in telecom sector and its impact on industry value chain and the operational model. Results indicate that even though there are many technical and non-technical challenges still existing, security is still considered as the primary concern that forces cloud into back foot. This study also brings out the fact that, like all other technologies involving in business, cloud technology also brings in many new advantages as well as few disadvantages. Whilst several studies and research works have been done on cloud computing for IT sector, limited research work has been found on cloud computing for telecommunication. Also, majority of the research done in this area is based on industrial research perspective. The significance of our work comes in this context.