CAMBRIDGE, Mass., March 25, 2011 -- The arrival of off-the-shelf, pre-integrated cloud platforms is making it easier for network operators to roll out and deliver effective cloud-based services to their enterprise customers, a development that is likely to have a positive effect on cloud service profitability, according to the latest report from Heavy Reading Service Provider IT Insider (www.heavyreading.com/servsoftware), a paid research service of Heavy Reading (www.heavyreading.com).

The Cloud Platform Makeover: Buy It, Don't Build It looks at telco requirements for a service provider cloud platform and how vendors are meeting those needs. The all-new 29-page report identifies and analyzes the key components of carrier-grade cloud platforms and details the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to cloud platform creation. The report also profiles and analyzes pre-integrated cloud platforms from 10 leading vendors.

To request a free executive summary of the report, or for details on multi-user licensing options, please contact Jeff Claudino at claudino@lightreading.com.

For a list of companies analyzed in this report, http://img.lightreading.com/ssi/pdf/ssi0311_companies.pdf

To take advantage of the opportunity to deliver cloud services to enterprises, communications service providers must put in place a cloud platform with cloud automation, management and advanced orchestration capabilities, says Caroline Chappell, research analyst with Heavy Reading Service Provider IT Insider and author of the report. "Since so many vendors are now pre-integrating such functions in products aimed at service providers, service providers no longer have to follow the route of first movers in the cloud services market and build their own cloud platforms," she says.

Network operators increasingly will need to support advanced cloud scenarios, such as cloud bursting, virtual private clouds and cloud disaster recovery, Chappell notes. "This requires them to connect IT virtualization – the basic cloud automation function provided by all cloud platforms – with the MPLS/VPN edge of the data center cloud and the rich set of network services between the two."

The arrival of robust off-the-shelf products means telcos no longer need to build their own cloud platforms, which could mean the end of Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) offerings, Chappell says. "IaaS is becoming a commodity service, and it may even become a redundant service as cloud service consumers interact directly with virtualization-aware applications rather than virtual machines," she explains.

Other key findings of The Cloud Platform Makeover: Buy It, Don't Build It include:

    * The need to bring IT together with the network in support of advanced cloud orchestration scenarios is driving the formation of three market-leading IT/network vendor partnerships: VCE Company, HP and Alcatel-Lucent, and IBM and Juniper.

    * Startup cloud platform vendors are driving innovations around cloud security, cloud bursting, cloud marketplaces and the virtual private cloud.

    * Cloud platforms must move beyond support for IaaS as this becomes a commodity and, in a world of virtualization-aware applications, a redundant service.

The Cloud Platform Makeover: Buy It, Don't Build It is available as part of an annual single-user subscription (six issues) to Heavy Reading Service Provider IT Insider, priced at $1,595. Individual reports are available for $900 (single-user license).

To subscribe, or for more information, please visit: www.heavyreading.com/servsoftware. For more information on all of Heavy Reading's Insider services, please visit www.heavyreading.com/research.

To request a free executive summary of the report, or for details on multi-user licensing options, please contact:

Jeff Claudino
Director of Sales
Insider Research Services
619-229-9940
claudino@lightreading.com

Press/analyst contact:
Jennifer Baker
Marketing Director, Light Reading Communications Network
617-871-1910
jbaker@lightreading.com

About Heavy Reading (www.heavyreading.com)

Heavy Reading is an independent market research organization offering quantitative analysis of telecom technology to carriers, service providers, and vendors. Our remit is to provide the comprehensive competitive analysis needed today for the deployment of profitable networks based on next-generation hardware and software. This information is compiled via exhaustive surveys of both vendors' products and service-provider decision makers.

About Light Reading Communications Network (www.lightreading.com)

Founded in 2000, the Light Reading Communications Network is the world's leading research-led integrated media company serving the global communications market. Lightreading.com is the ultimate source for technological and financial analysis of the communications industry, leading the media sector in terms of traffic, content, and reputation. Light Reading's research arms, Heavy Reading and Pyramid Research, provide the most comprehensive communications research, market data, and technology analysis in close to 100 markets around the world. Light Reading produces nearly 20 targeted communications events including TelcoTV, and TelcoTV Asia, Ethernet Expo New York and Ethernet Europe, and The Tower Summit @ CTIA, as well as focused one-day events tailored for cable, mobile, and wireline executives in the US, Europe, India, and China. Light Reading was acquired by United Business Media in August 2005 and operates as a unit of TechWeb.

About UBM TechWeb (http://www.ubmtechweb.com/)

UBM TechWeb, the global leader in technology media and business information, enables people and organizations to harness the transformative power of technology.  Through its core businesses – media solutions, marketing services, and professional information – UBM TechWeb produces the most respected and consumed brands, applications, and services in the technology market. More than 14.5 million business and technology professionals (CIOs, IT and IT Support managers, Web and digital professionals, software and game developers, government decision makers, telecom providers and business executives) actively participate in UBM TechWeb's communities. UBM TechWeb brands include: global face-to-face events such as Interop, Game Developers Conference (GDC), Web 2.0, Black Hat, and Enterprise Connect (formerly VoiceCon); large-scale online networks such as InformationWeek, Light Reading, and Gamasutra; research, training, and certification services, including HDI, Pyramid Research, and InformationWeek Analytics; and market-leading magazines such as InformationWeek and Wall Street & Technology.  UBM TechWeb is part of UBM, a global provider of media and information services for professional B2B communities and markets.

SOURCE Heavy Reading