TSaaS — Customized telecom app hosting on cloud

The telecom networks have undergone a massive transformation in last few decades from all-voice circuit-switched network to all-IP packet-switched network that is converging voice and data worlds. The evolution of the telecom networks have also driven the evolution of Service Delivery Platforms (SDP) from in-flexible single-box solution to a flexible, modular SOA governed SDP to cater the ever changing business needs of the Telcos. The fourth generation SDP is taking shape around cloud computing with an expectation to significantly reduce OPEX and CAPEX, and boost the revenue. But this is not happening because in the current scenario where SDPs are hosted on private cloud in Telcos' own premises prohibit sharing and reuse. So Telcos have started transitioning to a hosted model in which VAS applications are hosted in SDP vendor's premises in public cloud. Hosting telecom services in public cloud has its unique challenges, and one of the most important is to provide a multi-tenant telecom application to all Telcos, where each tenant sees an isolated view of the application with his own set of customized features. In this paper we have identified the factors that are stopping us from introducing true customized multi-tenancy in telecom apps and proposed a solution to this problem. We have presented a variant of cloud's SaaS layer called Telecom-SaaS (TSaaS) for telecom public cloud, which introduces a TSaaS-engine to drive the multi-tenancy for carrier grade telecom applications outside the actual business logic. New business models that can evolve around this new architecture are also identified. We have also highlighted the associated risks to watch out for.