Why is cloud-network integration so popular?

Cloud-network integration is one of the hottest topics in the telecommunications industry today, and it is also a development strategy that leading global operators are actively promoting. For example, China Telecom embarked on the digital transformation journey of cloud-network integration as early as 2016, and released the "Cloud-Network Integration 2030 White Paper" in November last year, proposing the development principles of "network as the foundation, cloud as the core, network follows the cloud, and cloud and network are integrated", and clarified the three-stage development route of "cloud-network collaboration, cloud-network integration, and cloud-network integration".

So why is cloud-network integration so popular? Why are operators vigorously promoting cloud-network integration?

[[384222]]

Netsuite Cloud: Making it easier for enterprises to migrate to the cloud

The initial data of a certain unit was deployed on a private cloud. Later, as the office system moved to the cloud, it had to reapply for a dedicated line to the office cloud, which took more than a month to activate. Later, as video data continued to increase, the video business had to be moved to the video cloud, so it was necessary to apply for a dedicated line again, which took more than a month to activate.

In the early days, a certain enterprise only put its portal website, online customer service and other Internet applications on the cloud. Later, its internal information systems such as office systems and general business platforms were put on the cloud. Then its core production systems and control systems also began to be put on the cloud. With more and more businesses being put on the cloud, many worrying problems have arisen: some important businesses have put forward higher requirements on the network speed, latency and reliability, but the traditional cloud dedicated line is still the same thick pipe, which cannot distinguish different businesses and cannot provide high-quality experience guarantees for important businesses; all data are online and in the cloud, and security risks are also increased.

Looking at the above examples, under the current trend of digital transformation, cloud computing is developing in full swing in thousands of industries. However, as the process of cloud computing for enterprises accelerates, problems such as slow cloud activation, poor business experience, and weak cloud network security have also become prominent.

What are the main reasons for these problems? For a long time, cloud and network systems have been separated from each other, cloud and network resources cannot be connected, and the operating systems of cloud and network are independent of each other.

How to solve this problem? The answer is to make the cloud and the network interconnected, and to make the network adapt to the cloud. Specifically, it can provide convenient network access for enterprises to go to the cloud, help enterprises quickly open the cloud network through a unified cloud network operation platform, so that enterprises can truly achieve agile cloud access, and provide differentiated network capability guarantees according to the needs of different cloud services.

For example, through a unified cloud network operation platform, enterprise users can order cloud and dedicated lines in one stop, without having to order cloud and network separately, eliminating multiple intermediate circulation links, thus solving the problem of slow service activation; through network slicing technology, different cloud services within the enterprise are differentiated, which not only provides users with a stable business experience, but also solves the problems of complex operation and maintenance and high costs caused by configuring one dedicated line for one business of the enterprise; through automation and intelligence, the cloud network can achieve elastic scaling, rapid fault detection, automatic traffic switching, dynamic optimization of global resources, etc., to meet the flexible and changeable needs of cloud services; and a cloud-network integrated security system is used to ensure cloud access security.

Network promotes cloud: control the advantages of cloud network entrance

Cloud and network have different genes, coming from the IT and CT fields respectively. Operators naturally have network advantages, while OTT cloud giants such as Amazon and Alibaba have cloud capability advantages. From a market perspective, facing the opportunities of industry digital transformation, operators and OTT cloud vendors will inevitably encounter a new competition on the road of cloud-network integration. On the one hand, telecom operators are making full use of their network advantages to expand into cloud services; on the other hand, OTT cloud giants are also using their cloud advantages to gradually extend into the network field. They first provide cloud to enterprises, and then gradually grab the operators' cake by building their own backbone networks and providing dedicated lines through SD-WAN. So how can operators remain invincible in this cloud-network integration competition?

As mentioned above, with more and more enterprises migrating to the cloud and higher and higher requirements for the cloud service experience, operators are committed to building high-speed, reliable, secure and economical networks, making full use of the network advantages that OTT cloud vendors cannot match, and building differentiated cloud network competitiveness through the "network promotes cloud" route, thereby bringing more applications to their own clouds to expand new businesses.

For example, some leading operators have launched cloud-network convergence products, providing multiple access methods to the cloud such as OTN, IPRAN, and PON according to different customer groups or business needs, so as to make full use of the wide coverage of existing network access resources to help enterprises quickly and conveniently access the cloud; they also connect multiple clouds and multiple access networks such as OTN, IPRAN, and PON by newly building or integrating cloud backbone networks, so that enterprises can access multiple clouds by accessing the cloud backbone network through one access point, eliminating the need to open dedicated lines to access different clouds separately, which saves network resources and helps enterprises save costs; for some enterprises with concentrated cloud needs, we have also launched quality services of private network access to private cloud, providing cloud services for enterprises to build separate industry cloud private networks.

As more and more businesses move to the cloud, in order to meet differentiated business models, disperse cloud risks, and improve bargaining power, more and more enterprises have the need to connect to multiple clouds. According to relevant statistics, most enterprises use more than three cloud service providers on average. Operators have not only improved the convenience of cloud access for enterprises and reduced cloud access costs through wide-coverage cloud access and "one-line multi-cloud on-demand" cloud access services, but also helped operators achieve growth in dedicated line business revenue. More importantly, operators can firmly control the cloud network entrance, first provide users with operator "dedicated lines", and then allow enterprises to order different clouds (including OTT public clouds, operator public clouds, etc.) from a unified cloud network operation platform, providing one-stop cloud network services, thereby winning a dominant position in the era of cloud-network integration.

Cloud-network and application integration: enabling digital transformation of industries

As we all know, cloud-network integrated infrastructure is considered the cornerstone of the digital economy and an important driver of digital transformation in all walks of life. Faced with the tide of digital transformation, massive digital applications naturally require cloud-network integrated infrastructure and enabling platforms. For example, AI quality inspection, remote control, AR/VR and other applications in factory digital transformation require cloud (edge) network integrated infrastructure to ensure low latency, high reliability, and large bandwidth network capabilities, and also need to use cloud network capabilities and AI capabilities through open digital platforms to promote factory automation and intelligent upgrades.

The ultimate goal of cloud-network integration is to enable digital transformation in all industries by integrating AI, big data and other capabilities on an integrated cloud-network infrastructure, and aggregating and innovating a variety of industry applications through a unified, open digital platform. In other words, this is the deep integration of cloud-network and applications. Customers can customize application requirements on demand through a unified and open operating platform, and the cloud-network can flexibly and agilely respond to application requirements by scheduling resources, adjusting networks, and calling ICT capabilities, thereby truly realizing the integration of cloud-network and applications.