Cloud-native technology is well proven in cloud-enabled services and platforms, and it’s quickly becoming the de facto standard for telecommunications operations, but network operators are still in the early stages of adoption, according to analysts at ACG Research.

Cloud-native technology, defined by its agile methodology and containerization of services and workloads, is the only and right approach to get a large number of enterprises onto mobile networks at a massive scale, said Zeeshan Najmuddin, analyst at ACG Research.

These capabilities, however, won’t show up in any meaningful way until operators deploy standalone (SA) 5G networks running on a 5G core. That transition, which separates 5G traffic and operations from legacy 4G LTE infrastructure, will equip operators with the resources and service capabilities to deliver true 5G.

Part of that journey involves significant specialization and integration work for network operators and enterprises, but Najmuddin is confident that those advancements are happening at a steady enough pace to reach maturity in the next couple years. 

Cloud-native development is breaking down barriers between network operators and enterprise IT shops, and effectively minimizing problems related to application delivery, costs, and the capabilities required to extend those enterprise applications beyond the walls of their physical footprint, according to Najmuddin. 

“We’re talking about a standardized, decentralized, and network-aware approach where enterprises now manage a non-enterprise controlled network,” he said. “What’s super important right now is enterprises now realize that they can control both 5G applications, and services, and private wireless,” and through that comes the ability to develop cloud-native apps.

“Those operational needs are very key in industries where you have a lot of things and you want to have a lot of business analytics [because] those analytics drive profitability and drive operational readiness,” Najmuddin said. 

Network operators’ 5G core investments will be paid by enterprises and oriented around services, he explained. “We’re looking at a business model in the future where there will be wholesale access and then there will be a services component.”

While network operators have established labs to do testing with enterprises, Najmuddin believes that siloed approach is going away in favor of a more scalable and repeatable framework anchored in cloud-native technology. Cloud-native development increases the freedom of enterprises and wrests some of that control back from network operators, he said.

These changes raise “that cloud-native development paradigm as the path forward on both sides of the interface,” said Paul Parker-Johnson, chief analyst at ACG Research. While enterprises are still getting a handle on this new approach, carriers are developing the skills and knowledge required to make themselves more valuable to enterprises with the tools they have in hand, he explained. 

“I think there’s a little bit of scaling, and hardening, and maturing in the operation of that sort of communications continuum for cloud native in 5G in particular,” Parker-Johnson said. “We’re at the beginning stages of the early adopter.”

While enterprise IT shops and mobile network operators are and have developed cloud-native applications and workloads, there’s been relatively little collaboration between the two parties on that front until recently, according to Najmuddin. 

“Until the 5G core is implemented and you have that 10-millisecond response time, a lot of this is being gated and a lot of those use cases are being gated because much of that richness cannot come until you have a standalone network,” he said. 

“There needs to be a huge core investment, but there also needs to be a lot more microservices development, and the implementation of those microservices require monitoring automation and access into key areas of that mobile infrastructure — core and radio — and I don’t think service providers have thought through that process very well,” Najmuddin said.

A cloud-native future is a disruptive one that completely breaks down the traditional silos of the carrier-vendor relationship, but standardization is still required to create competition in the marketplace, he said.

“Whether we just look at the mobility assets of an AT&T, or Verizon, or an SK Telecom, even the rest of their businesses are going to fundamentally change as a result of this decentralization.”