Service Delivery Platforms - reality check

Recently, I've spoke about the Telecom growth strategies. One of the technological drivers anticipating the new growth potentials was an SDP concept - Service Delivery Platform. So far, it hasn't really demonstrated it's full potential in terms of carrier deployments, revenue generation or new services enablement. It's been mostly a vendor pitch for selling their expensive applications stacks which are basically implementing a SOA architecture frameworks into existing BSS/OSS environments. It is also fair to say that such concept has been recognized in number of industry wide initiatives. For sure it has a point from the business perspective, but still slowly picking up. Lightreading has just published a new research paper under the title: Next Big SDP Dilemma . Let's have a look at the main findings:

“Network operators recognize the revenue-earning potential of digital content services, but they’ve typically approached content services in a highly opportunistic and fragmented way, with different parts of their organizations seizing the initiative for particular types of content service, each often supported by its own ‘siloed’ service delivery platform,”

I fully agree, and here is my explanation why: The range of services offered is really extremely broad. By over promising fantastic business results after implementing a new platforms , SW vendors and NEPs have created unrealistic expectations on cost reductions and time to market improvements. Obviously, we are now in the disillusionment phase after the peek of inflated expectations from this technology.

The main problem lays in the fact that there is no single software solution, generic enough to manage all the ideas coming out from product development departments. From the cost perspective, it would make sense to limit the thinking of PD guys into a closed range of products and services with slight variations, that can be deployed by using the SDP concept. From the revenue growth perspective, it doesn't make any sense to limit the innovation as such.

Going further, this idea is reworded in report:
“It’s clear that operators will need a sharper set of content delivery functions that will not add cost or detract from an operator's flexibility by perpetuating functional silos.”

So, the concept is good but it must be made to work as promised, at least in the limited set of scenarios. It shouldn't cost you more than current operations and also, it should really add value to product development and life cycle management.

Key findings of Content Delivery Platforms: The Next Big SDP Dilemma include:

• Content providers are setting the pace in content service creation, developing new "off-portal" content services that operators are finding difficult to challenge

Initial telco ideas for locking up users into their own portals was plain stupid. Who would want to browse your operators portal via the WAP protocol, when there is the information wealth at your fingertips, just out there on the Internet. Recent development has shown that no matter how hard telcos tried, they are still only infrastructure providers and interesting content is somewhere else (at lease when it's about the web surfing). Microsoft, Google, Facebook or MySpace have already won this battle.

• The mobile Internet has begun to free itself from operator’s constraints, allowing mobile devices to access the Internet through browsers, rather than an operator's WAP portal

This liberalization of content just had to happen sooner or later. Why would you need your own operators news site, when there is a Mobile CNN or Google Reader adapted for your iPhone or SmartPhone.

• Operators need their content delivery infrastructures to support a "three screen" (PC, TV, and mobile) capability

Yes, that's it. Operators still have the unique opportunity to integrate our user experience across three different terminal forms but I am not sure for how long. Now it's up to them to use this initial advantage of having natural access to the broad customer base. Business models are already set up perfectly, since there is a well established billing machine that consumers believe to. SDP can play the great role here by managing the content and applications centrally, but deploying them in a terminal specific manner, providing the integration platform for interworking of different terminal equipment and finally, reducing the cost of managing the product long tail.

• Operators should consider outsourcing value chain roles and infrastructure functions

Go on telcos, crowdsource the product development finally. We (telcos) are the basic platforms providers. We should realize it and act accordingly. Platform is only a foundation for building the value added services on top of it. We need to break down the walls, open up the traditional network infrastructure and let the thousand flowers flourish. Just look at what happened to the PC market when Basic was introduced - an easy way for users to add value to the platform. Mainframe was gone, PC was in every office and home, Microsoft was born and world has changed dramatically.

I can envision the same development for telecom industry if there will be enough risk takers to expose the expensive equipment to the crowd of developers in a systematic and well documented manner. Parlay interface was the initial attempt but only in a very limited environment and limited set of services. Imagine a world where developers will be able to add their applications and services to the IPTV platform of operators worldwide, without even asking for permission. That will be the next quantum leap in telecoms innovations. Only than telecoms will not be called telecoms any more.