Martin Taylor, the CTO of Metaswitch Networks says CSPs and hyperscale companies are locked in permanent co-opetition which is a state of affairs only to be expected given that the network edge, which is inherently part of a CSPs network, is now so vitally important and an environment where the industry wants third party developers to come and deploy applications.

He says that for CSPs themselves to attempt to build a platform that would attract developers would take years, be difficult to the point of impossibility and many will fail to do so. Thus the only logical course for a CSP to take will be to partner with the hyperscalers to provide the vital edge platform.

The Platform as a Service capability that the hyperscalers bring to the party will attract developers while the uniformity across a global footprint and the co-location with telco facilities that give low latency for edge computing are the province of the CSPs. Managed properly that could be a marriage made in heaven.

That's one side of the equation. On the other it's a given that CSPs/DSPs will be in head-to-head competition - probably forever.

Martin Taylor also believes that the whole telco procurement process is no longer fit for purpose as it stands because it has been overtaken by events and is no longer relevant as the move to a cloud native world accelerates.

It is an outmoded model that originated around the purchase of a box that conformed and performed to a rigid set of requirements and standards. That no longer pertains. In a software-centric virtualised, cloudified and transformed network environment requirements do not remain static for five years or more until the next procurement trundles round, but evolves and develops organically and that means ongoing partnerships have to be forged between CSPs/DSPs and vendors.

Filmed at: Great Telco Debate, London, December 2019