Signs of the Cloud

By Marc Hayden

The Cloud – the communications industry continues to talk about it and CSPs continue to wonder about it.

At CHR, we’ve been monitoring cloud activity for the past few months. Data centers seem to be in hot demand, as evidenced by Verizon acquiring cloud services company Terremark, Cincinnati Bell buying CyrusOne, AT&T acquiring USinternetworking, and PAETEC acquiring XETA Technologies, to name a few. But why hosted services, and why now?

In a recent report, e*Tezeract shows PSTN subscriber compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for 2009-2014. It’s a grim picture for North America and Western Europe, which can expect to see -1 to -2 percent CAGR annually over the course of the next three years.

With annual revenue per user (ARPU) on most services declining, there’s a new sense of urgency for CSPs to figure out how to earn a greater share of the customer’s wallet as well as find ways to sell more services to that customer. A CSP, especially in a rural setting, must find a way to remain relevant to customers and to expend its relevancy to businesses as the use of Internet-delivered services – like IPTV and VoIP – continue to erode a telco’s distinctiveness. To prevent themselves from becoming the 'pipe' through which everyone else travels, CSPs need a game plan to up the ante.

If you’re wondering how CHR is planning to address this for the rural players, be sure to attend the panel discussion “Monetizing the Cloud: Turning XaaS-Related Services into a Profitable Business" during the Carrier Cloud Forum at Interop in May. Here I’ll be addressing CHR’s approach to helping the rural players win with the cloud.

Marc D. Hayden is executive vice president, Client Services, at CHR Solutions. Prior to CHR, Marc was the managing partner of Force Multiplier International, a global consulting company focused on strategic planning and market development.