New Report from WTA Explores the Benefits and Challenges of Integrating the Cloud into the Teleport Service Mix

(New York, NY, June 27, 2018) – The World Teleport Association (WTA) today released Clear Skies or Stormy Weather? Cloud Services for Teleport Operators, a new research report. It explores the opportunities that partnership with cloud service providers can offer teleports, the technical and policy requirements for interconnection, and what cloud service providers want from their outside partners. It also explores the competitive threat that cloud operators present and how teleport operators can best respond.

Teleports have always been in the business of creating and managing capacity – of networks, of transmission systems, of analog and digital processing – for shared use by their customers. As a new and important kind of capacity, cloud services are on the verge of becoming a staple of teleport operations, whether teleports incorporate Amazon Web Services or other third-party offerings in their operations or they provide their own cloud infrastructure, platform and services to customers. They also have the potential to compete for business that has long been at the core of teleport services.

For all these reasons, teleport operators need a cloud strategy. They need to know what cloud capabilities customers could benefit from and where the greatest growth opportunities are. They need to think through how to preserve and strengthen their competitive advantages when going head-to-head with the cloud for specific services, or when integrating the cloud into their operations. They require familiarity with the technical, operational and cost factors of the cloud, and with the skills needed to manage it on behalf of customers.

Cloud Services for Teleport Operators is based on interviews with the senior executives of large and small teleport operators as well as cloud service providers. It is complemented by an “Ask an Expert” video interview with Vince Matherne, chief commercial officer of Encompass Digital Media, available at http://www.worldteleport.org/page/AskanExpert_Cloud.

“The cloud is a technology development that is now affecting how every teleport customer thinks about their requirements and the expanding options for meeting those requirements,” said executive director Robert Bell. “Our report provides important insights into the crucial integration of cloud capabilities into the mission-critical services that teleports provide.”

WTA members can access the report by signing in to their accounts on the WTA website. Non-members can purchase the report for US$1,650.

About World Teleport Association 
Since 1985, the World Teleport Association (www.worldteleport.org) has focused on improving the business of satellite communications from the ground up. At the core of its membership are the world’s most innovative operators of teleports, from independents to multinationals, niche service providers to global carriers. WTA is dedicated to advocating for the interests of teleport operators in the global telecommunications market and promoting excellence in teleport business practice, technology and operations.