Orchestration looks a bit like provisioning

The following is the result of a survey question posed by TM Forum:
Number 1 Driver for Orchestration

I’m not sure how the numbers tally, but conceptually the graph above paints an interesting perspective of why orchestration is important. The graph indicates the why.

But in this case, for me, the why is the by-product of the how. The main attraction of orchestration models is in how we can achieve modularity. All of the business outcomes mentioned in the graph above will only be achievable as a result of modularity.

Put another way, rather than having the integration spaghetti of an “old-school” OSS / BSS stack, orchestration (and orchestration plans) potentially provides the ability to provide clearer demarcation and abstraction all the way from product design down into transactions that hit the network… not to mention the meet-in-the-middle points between business units.

Demarcation points support catalog items (perhaps as APIs / microservices with published contracts), allowing building-block design of products rather than involvement of (and disputes between) business units all down the line of product design. This facilitates the speed (34%) and services on demand (28%) objectives stated in the graph.

But I used the term “old-school” with intent above. The modularity mentioned above was already achieved in some older OSS too. The ability to carve up, sequence, prioritise and re-construct a stream of service orders was already achievable by some provisioning + workflow engines of the past.

The business outcomes remain the same now as they were then, but perhaps orchestration takes it to the next level.

If this article was helpful, subscribe to the Passionate About OSS Blog to get each new post sent directly to your inbox. 100% free of charge and free of spam.

Our Solutions

Share:

Most Recent Articles

No telco wants to buy an OSS/BSS

When you’re a senior exec in a telco and you’ve been made responsible for allocating resources, it’s unlikely that you ever think, “gee, we really

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.