Nokia introduces its software-as-a-service (SaaS) for communication service providers (CSPs) approach to strengthen business outcomes for CSPs through a highly flexible, fully automated, lower-cost software model.
Offering SaaS for CSPs is a natural evolution of everything-as-a-service, a key element to Nokia’s overall strategy. It reflects a culmination of steps Nokia has taken in recent years to enhance CSP network operations, including rearchitecting its software applications to make them fully cloud-native and deployable in any cloud environment, edge, public or private.
Raghav Sahgal, president of cloud and network services at Nokia, said, “The convergence of 5G, cloud-native software and SaaS creates a great and fast-growing opportunity for Nokia. With the groundwork we’ve already been laying, our SaaS delivery framework is in a very strong competitive position. It enables a combination of rapid time to value with on-demand access for Nokia SaaS applications and low cost of ownership, based on a pay-as-you-go / pay-as-you-grow commercial model. This is a multi-year journey and we are going at it aggressively.”
To seize the 5G opportunity, CSPs need to shift away from the legacy practice of deploying customized software for analytics, security, network management, and other functions, that run on costly, complex, on-premise infrastructure. To drive that shift, Nokia’s approach to SaaS for CSPs is about improving value and reducing complexity by providing innovative software consumed purely on demand through a subscription; by avoiding the need to perform on-site software maintenance and updates; and by accelerating CSPs’ ability to launch new services faster.
For the 2021-2025 period, Nokia is targeting a SaaS addressable market, comprised of CSPs and enterprises, with a value of $3.1 billion and an annual growth rate of approximately 25-30%. As part of the line-up of SaaS services, Nokia Data Marketplace (NDM) is now commercially available with other SaaS for CSP services to be announced in early 2022.
NetGuard Cybersecurity Dome that enables CSPs to assure 5G networks and monetize security tied with services like 5G slicing and Nokia Anomaly Detection, a machine learning service aimed at finding and remediating network anomalies before they affect network customers, will both be commercially available in early 2022 as well.
