Telcos Cautiously Consider the Enterprise PaaS Market, Heavy Reading Reports

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., June 7, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- As the enterprise platform-as-a-service (PaaS) market grows, telcos must think carefully about their entrance to the market to avoid losing out to cloud providers, according to the latest report from Heavy Reading Service Provider IT Insider (www.heavyreading.com/servsoftware), a paid research service of Heavy Reading (www.heavyreading.com).

Enterprise PaaS: What's In It for Telcos? looks at the enterprise PaaS market and the drivers for and benefits to enterprises as they seek to adopt PaaS. It discusses the evolution of enterprise PaaS and the opportunity for telcos to offer PaaS as part of a cloud stack of services. It provides a comparison of key PaaS providers, some of which would be telco competitors in this market and some of which are potential partners. The report concludes that while the enterprise PaaS market is immature at present, those cloud service providers that can begin to attract a substantial development community will reap benefits in the uptake of related cloud services.

For a list of companies analyzed in this report, http://img.lightreading.com/ssi/pdf/spiti0612_companies.pdf

"In the digital services – or 'app' – era, a strong application development capability has never been more important to an enterprise's ability to attract customer attention and compete efficiently," says Caroline Chappell, Senior Analyst at Heavy Reading and author of the report. "Enterprises are making big demands of their developers as they deal with a wave of business and technology change, from changing timescales for business decision-making to the implications of mobility, from the impact of IT consumerization and social networking to the need to drive value from big data."

Although telcos are treading cautiously when it comes to enterprises PaaS, it is a highly strategic service for cloud providers playing in the enterprise marketplace, Chappell explains. "In a highly varied and rapidly evolving PaaS market, telcos must think carefully about their PaaS strategy," she continues. "Presently, the business case for a PaaS is clearer for enterprises than for telcos. But without this strategic layer of the cloud stack, telcos may find they lose out at other levels to cloud providers that have invested in taking enterprise application development to the cloud."

Key findings of Enterprise PaaS: What's In It for Telcos? include:

• Enterprise PaaS is the least understood, yet arguably most strategic, of the cloud services defined by NIST, since where applications are developed in the cloud strongly influences where they run.
• The opportunity for enterprise PaaS is substantial as enterprises grapple with an increasing number of challenges around next-gen, big data, social networking and mobile-driven app development.
• Mainstream IT companies such as IBM and cloud technology providers such as VMware are beefing up their enterprise PaaS capabilities with the aim of owning this market.
• Telcos need to carefully consider the business case for – and the role they can play in – enterprise PaaS, given the level of competition they face.

Enterprise PaaS: What's In It for Telcos? is available as part of an annual single-user subscription (six issues) to Heavy Reading Service Provider IT Insider, priced at $1,595. Individual reports are available for $900 (single-user license).

To subscribe, or for more information, please visit: www.heavyreading.com/servsoftware. For more information on all of Heavy Reading's Insider services, please visit www.heavyreading.com/research.

To request a free executive summary of the report, or for details on multi-user licensing options, please contact:

Jeff Claudino
Director of Sales
Insider Research Services
619-229-9940
claudino@lightreading.com

Press/analyst contact:
Jennifer Baker
Marketing Director, Light Reading Communications Network
617-871-1910
jbaker@lightreading.com

About Heavy Reading (www.heavyreading.com) Heavy Reading is an independent research organization offering deep analysis of emerging telecom trends to network operators, technology suppliers, and investors. Its product portfolio includes in-depth reports that address critical next-generation technology and service issues, market trackers that focus on the telecom industry's most critical technology sectors, exclusive worldwide surveys of network operator decision-makers that identify future purchasing and deployment plans, and a rich array of custom and consulting services that give clients the market intelligence needed to compete successfully in the $4 trillion global telecom industry. As a telecom research arm of the Light Reading Communications Network (www.lrcn.com), Heavy Reading contributes to the only integrated business information platform serving the global communications industry.

About Light Reading Communications Network (www.lrcn.com) The Light Reading Communications Network combines the most trusted telecom research brands with award-winning online communities and a rich events portfolio to deliver the only integrated business information platform serving the global communications industry. With the power of this platform, leaders who build, deploy, finance, and regulate next-generation telecom networks are able to make more informed decisions on emerging market and service opportunities. Light Reading Communications Network is a division of UBM TechWeb (www.ubmtechweb.com), the global leader in technology media and business information.

SOURCE Heavy Reading