The Future of Open Source in Communications

By Sun Microsystems’ Darrell Jordan-Smith

I’m excited to have the opportunity to tackle an issue we're discussing with greater frequency with our customers and truly has our industry buzzing – the application and impact of open-source technology in the telecommunications industry. No matter if your company has dived head first into the open-source movement or stayed on the sidelines as things have unfolded, it's tough to argue against the fact that open source is being closely examined in just about every industry right now, including our own. Most recently it was a hot topic at this year’s NXTcomm show.

Examples of open source proliferation abound. Carriers and network equipment providers are embracing open source from BSS/OSS systems to network infrastructure. Recently, British Telecom dropped a market-leading CRM system (Siebel) and agreed to distribute a well-known open-source CRM product (SugarCRM) to its 1.2 million business customers. Nortel acquired Pingtel, a founding member of SIPfoundry, an open-source community for promoting SIP-based unified communications systems.

Whether or not the term “open source” has entered your company’s vocabulary, there is no doubt that open source is a disruptive technology, especially for an industry as rooted in tradition as telecommunications. Open source revolutionizes the competitive landscape. Newer market players are developing innovative services and products based on open-source technology that enhance the user experience at a lower TCO, causing traditional telco companies to, at minimum, explore open-source technology to remain competitive – or be left behind.

The industry today is facing the commoditization of voice services and infrastructure, and steep competition from cable providers and startups. The inherent qualities of open-source technology, which include flexibility and security, give companies the ability to cheaply and easily create new and innovative service offerings that will enhance revenue at a lower TCO. Further, interoperability demands have driven telcos to move away from legacy platforms to standards-based infrastructure and operating systems. Open-source technology’s open nature makes it the top choice for achieving truly interoperable systems and avoiding vendor lock-in in a cost effective way.

We have already seen open source permeate the mobile industry, most recently with the rise of open networks. Think Google’s much hyped Android or Samsung’s Symbian OS, its open mobile operating system. The floodgates have been opened to developers to create new applications and cheaply offer them to end users, grabbing a piece of the revenue pie from the mobile carriers. What Google and Samsung realized is that the mobile industry is moving toward open platforms, so they may as well lead the charge. Non-mobile service providers also have an enormous opportunity to inexpensively and quickly develop and bring to market new services that will increase ARPU.

From another perspective, open source applies Internet industry economics to the telco industry. Most Web services rely on open source. In the case of the Internet, free services have already arisen and revolutionized the industry. Now users have become accustomed to free or low-cost Internet services and will come to expect this from their telco service provider as well. The use of open source hardware and software will drive down prices for telcos and better position them to offer low cost but profitable services. The bottom line is that open-source technology is not just the new kid on the block nor is it the next big thing. It is actually today’s big thing and has already matured for practical application to your business.

Sun has long been a leading contributor to the open-source movement and this year saw our stake in the open-source game grow exponentially with our acquisition of MySQL. So for those of you asking yourself, “Where do I start?” here’s some advice from the front lines:

• Focus on the areas that make the most sense for the core telecommunications businesses. This includes databases, which hold subscriber data and user-generated content; application middleware (SIP application servers, messaging servers, portals, etc.) and core communications infrastructure like routers and switches.
• Choose vendor partners who are respected and established software and hardware corporations who really understand the open-source concept and how business’ bottom lines work. They will be the ones to offer open-source solutions that truly map back to business benefits.
• Be sure to incorporate your open-source product into an open architecture. This way you avoid vendor lock-in if you need to switch vendors at some point down the line.

At the end of the day, innovation drives profitability and enables competition. If you don’t innovate with open source, you might be left in the dark.

Darrell Jordan-Smith is vice president, Global Communications and Media Practice at Sun Microsystems Inc.(JAVA).