Service providers are facing a ‘perfect storm’ of challenges as they look ahead to 2022, according to Alianza’s VP of Sales, Camille Issa.
Speaking with UC Today, Issa said that the pressures of aging infrastructure, eroding margins, and an aging workforce are all obstacles that need to be addressed by service providers if they are to remain relevant.
“These three factors create a perfect storm effect,” Issa said.
“By moving to the cloud, service providers can have healthy and predictable margins, reduce reliance on legacy technology, and apply their skilled labour to more strategic initiatives.
“In addition, they future-proof their network and avoid kicking the can down the road by replacing hardware with hardware, only to face the same challenges and exorbitant capital expenditure for replacement in another five to seven years.”
Issa said that the biggest of the three challenges for providers is moving away from legacy systems that are reaching end of life. These platforms are, in some cases, 40 years old and only going to become harder to support and maintain.
The second challenge is slipping revenue and subscriber bases, with users ditching landlines in favour of mobile phones. This drop in revenue comes as service providers face the same cost structure, resulting in the eroding of margins — with the gap only widening.
Alongside this, many employees qualified to maintain the technology are now retiring, with Issa arguing that it does not make sense to train younger employees on such dated technology.
Taking the First Step
Issa said that many service providers are caught in limbo: knowing all the above to be true but unsure how to take their first steps to the cloud while keeping the lights on. This is often driven by fears of service disruption, which could upset customers.
Alianza specialises in helping service providers take that first step by helping to ease their migration, Issa said.
“We have migrated providers from virtually every switching platform on the planet,” he added.
