Mobile operators should capitalise on cloud, says research firm

The opportunities for wireless services providers to offer cloud services are vast, according to new research.

While traditional IT vendors, such as Google, Dell, Amazon and Microsoft dominate the cloud computing market, mobile operators have competitive advantages over these players, according to Market intelligence provider IHS iSuppli.

This is because they possess important information about customer preferences so they can present more personalised packages, adding value to the overall service. In addition, mobile operators also have billing platforms for charging customers based on usage, which enhances customers’ ease of use.

The firm revealed its forecast that consumer and enterprise spending on cloud services is set to expand nearly fivefold during the next five years, to reach more than $100 billion in 2015.

IHS iSuppli advised mobile operators to offer web-based applications and virtual storage services, together with enhanced data security and contingency backup plans, in order to make the most of the opportunities on offer.

“Cloud participants can achieve higher margins if they employ a service model that offers an entire ecosystem including software, a platform of services and infrastructure—as opposed to just providing the discrete parts making up the whole,” the company said. “The other option would be to combine elements from separate service models, or to offer standalone service models.”