Network lifecycle automation:
the industry view based on Forrester research
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Ranking of priorities evolves over time, but the issue of network monitoring features remains near the top
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Today’s wireless carriers face many strategic challenges in automating and optimizing their network lifecycle for 5G. But network lifecycle automation (NLA) looks set to offer a huge competitive edge to carriers as 5G is rolled out. So how are companies preparing?
We commissioned Forrester Consulting to survey 104 senior wireless strategy decision-makers from large companies around the world to investigate their understanding of the many conceptual and technological facets of NLA, and how they plan to adopt it.
Ahead of a more comprehensive report, here’s a preview of some of our findings.
How can businesses achieve the same application QoE in the home office as they expect from the corporate office?
How did the new normal accelerate digital transformation as businesses moved to adapt?
What network challenges are businesses seeing as they go 100% remote for the first time?
Infrastructure Priorities
Complete/Integrated Process
14%
Reduced Network Complexity
15%
Configuration
17%
Security
26%
Network Stability
36%
61%
Better Productivity
How would you describe your organization’s understanding of network lifecycle automation?
In your own words, how would you describe your organization’s understanding of network lifecycle automation?
1
2
Which of the following best describes your company’s wireless network management tools?
Choice of a vendors reflects the scattered network management landscape
Which of the following best describes your company’s wireless network management tools?
3
A collection of tools that address various parts of the infrastructure
End-to-end from
single vendor
End-to-end from
multiple vendors
Answers show maturity in respondents’ decisions to invest in automation functionalities
What stage is your technology organization at in adopting the following?
4
What stage is your technology organization at in adopting the following?
Using automation capabilities to deploy 4G and 5G services
Automation in the data center
Automating changes across the entire network, densification, site configurations, etc.
Automating network operations and optimization
Creating self-service capabilities for customers to spin up new services or extinguish at the speed of the business
Automating the creation of new software services on customer site
Decreasing or removing
Interested but no plans to implement
Implemented, not expanding/ upgrading
Expanding or upgrading implementation
Planning to implement in the next 12m
The main impacts from actual network management tools are increased capex and decreased performance
How have various technical challenges impacted your business?
5
How have these challenges impacted your business?
Increased capital expenditure
Decreased performance
Reduced end user productivity
Security risks
Decrease in customer satisfaction
Inability to meet business/strategy goals
Less time spent on innovation
Increased cost of operations
Increased time spent on administrative tasks
It has had no negative impact on our business.
Don’t know
Start here
Base: 104 telecom strategy decision makers; source: a commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Infovista, September 2020
Strategic planning scenario analysis emerges as most important area of automation among respondents
When evaluating solutions for your network lifecycle automation, which of the following capabilities/ functionalities are most important to you?
6
Automation of strategic planning scenario analysis
Positive customer/user experience
End-to-end service assurance
Optimization
Automation of detailed network design
Active testing
Network benchmarking
Machine learning based network testing
Autonomous network troubleshooting
Quality management
Don’t know
When evaluating NLA solutions, which of the following are most important?
How network lifecycle automation could boost telecoms in the 5G era
Blog
WE ASKED
Base: 104 telecom strategy decision makers; source: a commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Infovista, September 2020
WE ASKED
Base: 104 telecom strategy decision makers; source: a commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Infovista, September 2020
WE ASKED
Base: 104 telecom strategy decision makers; source: a commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Infovista, September 2020
WE ASKED
Base: 104 telecom strategy decision makers; source: a commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Infovista, September 2020
WE ASKED
Base: 104 telecom strategy decision makers; source: a commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Infovista, September 2020
WE ASKED
A commissioned survey conducted by Forrester Consulting
Not shown: responses of those who expressed no interest
Better productivity is the obvious goal but do today’s tools deliver?
Productivity is the obvious benefit that comes to mind when one thinks about automation. But productivity gains go beyond saving time by automating processes and workflows; the ability to eliminate errors through standardized workflows and the ability to focus engineers on challenging but rewarding activities rather than manual, tedious and repetitive tasks also play a big role in improving the overall productivity.
(Note: answers were free-text but we gathered them together and assessed which of the broad areas here they most closely tied in with to create the bar chart).
Network monitoring is and will remain of critical importance. But achieving it will get more and more complex with new technologies piling up and 5G adding its own set of challenges. Automation will play a massive role in reducing or managing that complexity, to cope with network evolution and enable its next phases and the generation of new revenue streams from 5G-specific services.
Lucky are the CSPs who manage their network with a single vendor, providing the various solutions are well integrated to provide end-to-end visibility across domain, technologies and network vendors, in a simple, intuitive and efficient way. For everyone else, the time has come to rely only on open and interoperable components.
Automation has many definitions and many purposes. From managing data flows, to the reduction of manual processes, and applying automation based on advanced analysis that adapts the network to constantly changing factors, many of the benefits are clear and well understood by the telco industry.
Any CAPEX investment should lead to a measurable performance improvement. The fact that both increases in CAPEX and degradations in performance are identified as consequences of these challenges highlights the necessity to improve.
Logically, this maps perfectly with the analysis of the most damaging technical challenges. In addition, all stages of the network lifecycle are represented in the podium, highlighting once again the need for automation benefits to run across the lifecycle through interoperable solutions.
Operators, both fixed and mobile, are struggling with huge traffic levels, high rates of traffic growth, and the rollout of 5G, which requires a denser network (up to 20 times as many base stations than 4G). In turn, this requires rapid rollout, rapid site verification and quick time to be in service, as well as moving to new cloud architectures.
These are all complex and voluminous changes, which can only be properly addressed through automation. Automation is required to speed up data management, data analysis, and task and workflow management, as well as decision automation. With automation, operators can become more proactive, more predictive and find operational efficiencies that will improve the bottom line.
Much of the industry is becoming acquainted with these changing imperatives, as borne out in the findings of this survey. Let’s take a look.
Why is automation so crucial?
Automation
Interoperability
Cloud-native
Learn More
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Infrastructure Priorities
