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As the CTIO of Nexfibre, you must have extensive insights into the telecommunication’s latest developments and advancements. Could you share your perspective on the ODA framework and its potential benefits for companies in our industry?

Thanks for giving me the opportunity to participate in these talks. I know about the genuine interest of Alvatross in driving better solutions for the telco industry, and the effort you are putting into defining solutions that are focused on the needs of operators.

I want to provide a view not just from my current role perspective, but from the experience of having participated in the design, evolution, review and transformation of IT architectures of different operators. Technology has evolved a lot, and you can see in many operators how architecture has developed over the past twenty years. The current architectures need to be based on modular, API-based, event-based, scalable, cloud-based, secure solutions. With the technology available today, a modular, open and standardized approach provides significant advantages for the deployment of this kind of telco IT solution.

Given the complexity of such a solution, and its evolving needs and capabilities, it is important to have the capability to deploy solutions that can be evolved by components, and that can be integrated with ODA-compliant solutions from other vendors.

I want to emphasize the need for a truly compatible definition of interfaces. The architectures will evolve, and having the capability to replace or add elements to the solution will be key to the decision of the adoption of the ODA. There is still skepticism in the industry about compatibility between vendors.

How do you believe the ODA framework could align with the strategic goals and objectives of a fast-moving network operator?

As mentioned, having a standard, modular, open and API-enabled baseline concept helps build architectures that cope with the inherent telecommunications complexity in a flexible and scalable way. That is absolutely required in today’s fast-paced environment, particularly as it becomes more relevant to have real-time control of all the information and processes managed by the operators, both with a wholesale and a retail focus.

I want to emphasize, as I said before, the importance of having true compatibility between solutions from different vendors. The operators need to believe that the ODA framework can really allow them to easily integrate solutions from different vendors. Also, security will be key in such open and modular architectures.

And lastly. In your own opinion, why would you recommend the ODA framework to other CSPs?

Regardless of whether you have a greenfield operation, or the more common brownfield situation, there is a need to evolve to this new approach which allows better integration of different functions, and a more flexible approach for the future evolution of the IT stack in a telco operator.

It is an ideal framework for operators that are willing to provide digital, automated and customer-centric experiences, and those looking to expand the product portfolio, offering new, integrated and improved propositions quickly and easily.  

It is becoming fundamental to be able to analyse real-time information flows through the IT stack. Along with the usage of cloud or hybrid environments, the ease of deployment, the robustness, and flexibility to scale which are now also key to IT strategy.  

These needs require the modularity, flexibility and openness provided by ODA. The right architecture can make a significant difference in the service delivered both to the business and to the end-customer.