NaaS Insights

OSS/BSS stacks can be incredibly complex and cumbersome beasts, especially in large carriers with many different product, process and network variants. We don't make that task any easier by creating many unique product offerings to take to market. And this time to market can be a significant competitive advantage, or be a serious impediment to it. NaaS, or Network as a Service, is a novel approach to increasing flexibility in our OSS/BSS stacks, inserting an API layer that provides a separation of concerns.

Our guest on this episode, Johanne Mayer, is so passionate about the benefits of NaaS-based transformations that she's formed a company named NaaS Compass to assist others with their transformations. She provides the hard-won experience from being involved with NaaS transformations at organisations like Telstra.

Prior to embarking on this latest venture, Johanne ... 

LinkedIn article

From James Crawshaw:  There are multiple interpretations of the term Network-as-a-Service (NaaS). Here is mine: NaaS uses vendor-agnostic, TM Forum APIs to hide network details and expose these to OSS/BSS systems as service abstractions. The NaaS architecture should:
1) Reduce IT integration costs (AT&T has estimated a 20% cost reduction).
2) Reduce the time to bring new services to market (AT&T has estimated a 50% reduction in time to revenue).
3) Enable telcos to expose their network capabilities more easily to third parties (enterprise customers, cloud service providers, developers, etc.) opening potential new service offerings and revenue streams.
You can read more about NaaS in my latest report (subscription required).
https://lnkd.in/drSRx6Z
#telecom #OSS #software

Today service providers buy spectrum and goods, repackage these and sell products and services directly to customers, they have a direct line of sight.  But applications requiring edge and 5G such as connected cars, remote surgery, robotics won’t be repackaged and sold to customers.

Service providers need to become part of the enablement by exposing their network capabilities including but not limited to edge and 5G via APIs to developers if they want to compete with the Hyperscalers.  Service providers should look at Network as a Service (NaaS) transformation to expose their network capabilities to their IT and external developers and benefit from automation and the API economy concept for networks.

Layer123: (1217) Best practices to achieve a NaaS-based autonomous network - YouTube 

A new architecture is nice to have but what are the impetus and drivers for change justifying the implementation of ETSI's Zero-Touch Service and Network Management architecture. 

... 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYt3Bn1NQeM 

In a global first for the telecommunications industry, an online series of Network as a Service (NaaS) transformation training courses has been launched by NaaS Compass.

Industry NaaS pioneer Guy Lupo: “If I would have had this training when we did NaaS in Telstra I would have been able to not only accelerate our execution, but also create a repeatable and scalable on- boarding process saving months of labour and costs.” ....

NaaS Compass unveils NaaS transformation training courses (disruptive.asia)

BT and Vodafone led a TM Forum catalyst (Proof of concept) demonstrating a complex service problem management for composite multi-CSP services can be simplified through the TM Forum Service Problem Management API.

We will also be showcasing how deploying a NaaS Orchestrator on top of an existing fault management and service assurance stack is a credible route for CSPs to take in their adoption of the NaaS standards, with little to no impact upon their current business operations in that area.

Automating service problem management business operations using the TM Forum NaaS APIs

AT&T championed a TM Forum Catalyst (Proof of Concept) project introducing Network as a Service (NaaS) platform to enable “complex” network transformations for the purposes of network monetization and decoupling Operations Support Systems (OSSs)/Business Support System (BSSs) from the network. This platform will leverage abstraction layer services to provision wavelength services using TM Forum Open APIs... 

See the short AT&T video on why NaaS and further down the page an explanation of the estimated savings from this catalyst. 

Automating NaaS Lambda (λ) services | TM Forum | TM Forum

Faisal Khan wrote "Just wanted to know the opinion are there are a lot experienced people here and I am new to the TM Forum !

As I was browsing this article of TM forum,  which is from 2017, it says that

"digital transformation is typically more closely associated with the IT organization than the network division".... 

Network vs IT role in Digital Transformation. | TM Forum Community 

Note that Faisal was a reviewer of the NaaS Transformation Technical course and said "A good course on anyone looking for NAAS concepts." 

Building a Network Which is Programmable

Digital transformation is undoubtedly the challenge of this generation of Telco executives, and how well we handle it will determine the shape of the Telco industry for decades to come. Telco companies are now betting on a network as a service (NaaS) architecture. This is a massive undertaking that requires a digital transformation of the network, underlying operational and business support systems (OSS/BSS) and processes, and people. ...

Transforming the Telco: 5G Network as a Service | by Joshua Yeung | 5G Technology Development and Future Applications | Medium

Presentation from Guy Lupo on Network Refactoring during TMF event in Beijing. How to transform the network from technology domains to autonomous domains. 

(1204) 20200115-Network-Refactor-TMF-Beijing - YouTube

We’ve been busy bringing together Networks and IT capabilities to reap the rewards of a transformed network.

Combining two traditionally separate functions – Networks and IT – is a long journey dependent on the partnership of technology, process and people but opens up a world of possibilities. In order to achieve this unity, we’ve been working through our Networks Evolution 2020 and Digitisation strategic programs – a unique opportunity to provide our customers with the best possible experiences as we simplify our product offerings, support more data, more devices and more connectivity.

Network as a Service (NaaS) is a key factor in this ambition helping us to deliver our T22 transformation. But what exactly is NaaS? ... 

Network transformation leading the way | Telstra Exchange 

Johanne Mayer, Telstra NaaS Evangelist presentation during Layer123 Zero-Touch Automation Congress in Madrid. 

(1204) 9 How NaaS enables Zero Touch Automation, Johanne Mayer, Telstra - YouTube 

In this interview, Ihab Mahna, solution architect with EXFO and Guy Lupo, head of networks as a service at Telstra, discuss the merits of test orchestration and monitoring troubleshooting where Open APIs are key. Lupo highlights that standardization is key to the scale of the entire telecoms industry. Replication of processes for testing purposes is not the key for reducing operating costs and achieving the scales needed.

(1204) OPEN APIs are key, but not the total solution - YouTube

The Australian operator's grand plan is to get rid of as much spaghetti as possible, replacing it with something more akin to lasagne. Under a project called NaaS 2020, it has started a major clean-up of its business and operational support systems (B/OSS) and has thrown its considerable weight behind the TM Forum's open APIs initiative as an answer to the problem of growing service complexity. ....

Telstra Preps Service Catalog in Bid to Be Telco AWS | Light Reading

As part of its Network Evolution 2020 and Digitization strategy, Australian communications service provider (CSP) Telstra is betting on a network as a service (NaaS) architecture. This is a massive undertaking that requires digital transformation of the network, underlying operational and business support systems (OSS/BSS) and processes, and people.... 

https://inform.tmforum.org/casestudy/bringing-telstra-naas-life/-naas/

TM Forum’s Open API Project team is working on several API component suites which show how specific APIs can be used together to address business challenges. Now the team is rolling out a NaaS (network as a service) Component Suite aimed at automating the end-to-end lifecycle of network services.... 

Packaging Open APIs for NaaS - TM Forum Inform

We received a briefing from Telstra about its "Networks for the Future" strategy incorporating network-as-a-service (NaaS), which involves a radical redesign of how OSS/BSS communicates with network domains. Telstra's new NaaS architecture provides a master service directory, a selected list of TMF APIs and defines network domains (e.g., transport, IP, access, media, etc.), managed by network and service management platforms, as service capabilities. Alternatively, as Guy Lupo, head of NaaS, Network 2020 Transformation puts it: "The NaaS is an API gateway concept that exposes the capabilities of the network, as a service." ...

Telstra's Networks for the Future | Light Reading