Four years ago, the idea of cloud native in telecom was mostly aspirational—an ambitious leap from legacy architectures toward agility, automation, and scale. Today, while the journey is well underway, the destination is still far off.
At the recent Telco to Techco session, Philippe Ensarguet, VP of Software Engineering at Orange, took to the stage to assess the industry's real progress—and expose where it’s still struggling.
Telcos Are Still Caught Between Two Worlds
Many telecom functions are now containerised, but Philippe makes it clear: that doesn’t mean they’re cloud native.
“The ‘C’ in CNF must stand for Cloud Native, not just Container.”
Cloud native isn’t just a new way to package software—it’s a new way of building, deploying, and managing it. And that shift is proving to be far more complex than simply adopting Kubernetes or moving to public cloud.
Legacy virtualised network functions (VNFs) weren’t built for the dynamic, distributed nature of cloud platforms. Trying to retrofit them often results in complexity without the expected benefits.
What’s Working: Areas of Maturity
Despite the challenges, some progress is undeniable:
✅ Infrastructure Automation
Telcos like Orange have built robust cloud native platforms based on open technologies. The ability to scale infrastructure efficiently and reliably is now a reality.
✅ GitOps & Lifecycle Management
Cloud native lifecycle tooling—especially GitOps—is maturing. Orange, for example, manages diverse vendors through a unified GitOps-based integration platform called Network Integration Factory Tooling Zone.
✅ Open Source Participation
Open ecosystems are no longer optional—they’re essential. Orange is actively involved in Project Sylva (under Linux Foundation Europe) to define open, telco-grade cloud infrastructure.
What’s Still Holding Us Back
🛑 Skills Gap
Cloud native demands both hard skills (microservices, APIs, automation) and soft skills (agile mindsets, DevOps culture). These aren’t always easy to find—or to develop—in traditional telco teams.
🛑 Vendor Maturity
While some vendors are rearchitecting their software, others are just lifting old VNFs into containers. Philippe emphasises that cloud native transformation must go deeper.
🛑 Distributed Complexity
Managing services across private cloud, edge, and public cloud creates orchestration challenges. Real-time and asynchronous network functions must coexist—something telcos still struggle with operationally.
Why Cloud Native Still Matters
Despite the friction, the reasons to go cloud native haven’t changed. If anything, they’re more relevant than ever:
- Scalability for on-demand growth
- Agility for faster feature rollout
- Resilience for improved service continuity
- Efficiency to reduce infrastructure and operational costs
- Innovation via open APIs and open source ecosystems
- Multi-cloud flexibility and reduced vendor lock-in
Final Word
Philippe’s closing message was both grounded and optimistic. Yes, the journey is complex and sometimes slow—but cloud native is no longer a buzzword. It’s becoming the backbone of the telco techco transformation.
“The next few years will be about closing the gap—not just between CNFs and legacy systems, but between ambition and execution.”
A detailed article is available on Mobile Europe website here. The video of the conversation is embedded below:
Related Posts
- Operator Watch Blog: Orange Africa & Middle East (OMEA) to Reach Net Zero by 2040
- Operator Watch Blog: Energy and Carbon Footprint Reduction are a Priority for Orange
- The 3G4G Blog: What is Cloud Native and How is it Transforming the Networks?
- The 3G4G Blog: Transitioning from Cloud-native to Edge-Native Infrastructure
- The 3G4G Blog: Reigniting Growth in the Telecom Industry with AI and Cloud
No comments:
Post a Comment