When it comes to Digital Transformation, service providers choose Blue Planet
Service providers and network operators are finally breaking the cycle of failed attempts to modernize and automate their network services. Joe Cumello details how a growing list of global CSPs and network operators are using Blue Planet to create a transformative customer experience.
Sure, the title of this blog might be a little much, but we’re like a proud parent at the moment. The telecommunications space finally has a proven path to digital transformation – one that does more than just iterate on existing strategies, and instead truly innovates the automation of the services management lifecycle. And Blue Planet is the platform of choice, but before I get into that, let’s set some context.
In 2012, data center concepts like SDN started being discussed in the context of the telecommunications network. Soon we were talking about service orchestration, NFV, open source, and so many other ideas that, honestly, failed to take hold – at least in the way they were originally conceived. Why?
Well, it turned out (and we all knew it) that the telecommunications network was so much more complex than a data center network that there was no way to simply translate those concepts carte blanche to vast multi-vendor broadband access, wireless, aggregation, metro, regional, submarine, and long-haul networks.
Add to that the fact that the legacy OSS vendors were earning big profit margins on software professional services contracts. These professional services were required to support the incredible amounts of customized software they had developed and woven throughout services providers’ operations.
It turns out that a wholesale reimagining of the back-office from end-to-end wasn’t going to work. That was too hard, and some very public projects failed along the way. Something was needed to break that cycle.
Instead, customers started taking “ice cream scoops” of functionality out of their OSS stack and replacing them with new innovations that would enable them to automate and speed up the ideation, development, and delivery of services. They did this because we all eventually figured out one thing along the way: the killer app in a cloud and content driven world is actually the customer experience.
Customers innovate with Blue Planet, they iterate with legacy OSS vendors
Fast forward to today, and this story is better told by our customers. We heard “show me”, and we have with companies like Telstra, which went from needing 10 separate screens to evaluate and manage new service paths to allocating new capacity in just six clicks on a single screen.
We heard “prove it,” and we did with Windstream, which saw provisioning time and costs drop 80% and 60% respectively when it adopted Blue Planet to automate its managed SD-WAN Concierge™ services.
We heard “where’s the business case?” and demonstrated how Blue Planet helped Etisalat introduce bandwidth-on-demand capabilities, and reduce the time it takes to introduce new services by 70% to 90%.
What do you do if you are building the nation’s first cloud-native, OpenRAN-based, virtualized 5G network from scratch like DISH Network? You pick Blue Planet.
How about if you’re one of the world’s biggest CSPs like BT and you want to deliver enhanced digital services to multinational enterprise customers, while moving to a cloud-first model? You pick Blue Planet.
Finally, what if you're revamping your multi-vendor IP and Optical transport network to a converged edge-based architecture and need an orchestrator that can handle it all? You pick Blue Planet.
Having recently surpassed 200 customers globally – including some of the world’s largest CSPs, enterprises, and data center operators – Blue Planet is helping turn the corner in digital transformation through service lifecycle automation that everyone used to talk about, but are now willing (and able) to implement. Here is a sample of our deployments worldwide. Click on each to dig deeper into how Blue Planet helps CSPs automate the service lifecycle.
OK, so hopefully we have established that customers who want to digitally transform, to embrace a cloud-centric model, and to create a truly unique customer experience are selecting Blue Planet. But why?
Building a service lifecycle blueprint
Since 2012, Blue Planet has been strategically tackling each challenge along the path to the ultimate end-goal: helping our customers digitally transform and create an incredible customer experience. Our Blue Planet team has maintained an unwavering focus on solving the problem of end-to-end service lifecycle automation – from service order management, to orchestration, to assurance. We have built the Blue Planet product portfolio through a combination of organic development and best-of-breed acquisitions, which have been integrated to create some of the most innovative solutions available in the market today.
There are key attributes to our approach that have been critical to our automation customers. Automation software must be open, modular, and vendor-agnostic. Customers don’t want to be locked in. They want to be able to purchase software and evolve it with their vendor and integrator partners, or on their own. They want choice. Furthermore, they are looking for a true product-based solution – not another customization headache. All of Blue Planet’s products are backed by clear roadmaps to smooth the road to true end-to-end service lifecycle automation.
Without all these software pieces in place, true automation and agility is tough to come by. Every new service introduction becomes yet another OSS customization project. Every service change request an exercise in process management.
Blue Planet is an end-to-end open, modular, and cloud-native platform backed by a global team of delivery experts and our broad Blue Orbit ecosystem of partners. Simply put, their job is to support your digital transformation efforts and to ensure that you’re delivering incredible outcomes and customer experiences – because at the end of the day, that’s what truly matters in building a thriving platform for connectivity and content delivery.
Want to learn more about the service providers that are choosing Blue Planet? Meet our customers.
