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the cisco supplement


provide a viable answer to these questions. But service providers can. By combining the intelligence of


the network with the reach and flexibility of the cloud, service providers can make the vision of ‘anywhere, anytime, any screen’ cloud services a reality. Even more, with consumer cloud capabilities, service providers can deliver a variety of new value-added services that differentiate their brand, solidify customer loyalty, create new revenue streams, and increase average revenue per user (ARPU).


The Consumer Cloud Opportunity


The network-enabled consumer cloud can encompass a broad range of services, both for people on the go (connecting cloud services with mobile devices) and in the home, where personal electronics, sensors, and other IP endpoints can link with the cloud and with each other, typically through an IP gateway device. The market for these types of


network-enabled cloud services represents a huge opportunity for service providers, beginning with video. Cloud-based ‘TV Everywhere’ services, which extend diverse video offerings on demand to multiple screens, are common. More than 80 percent of North American pay TV subscribers and 40 percent of subscribers in Western Europe currently receive some type of TV Everywhere service from their service providers. Many operators have also launched


cloud-based music, gaming, and application services. Examples include France Telecom’s partnership with music streaming provider Deezer, Virgin Media’s partnership with Spotify, and Telstra’s online gaming portal, BigPond GamesArena. In addition to entertainment, the


network-enabled consumer cloud can include a variety of other value-added services, including the following: • Cloud DVR: By augmenting TV Everywhere capabilities with cloud services, operators can deliver comprehensive content personalisation and control options, such as the ability to control and store DVR recordings online, and to record remotely from the cloud and play back on the home gateway. • Home monitoring and security: According to a recent Parks Associates report, nearly a third of broadband consumers would be interested in


2 l ibe l cisco supplement 2011 l www.ibeweb.com


The consumer cloud is coming. Any content or service, anywhere, on any device, is no longer science fiction - it is soon to be fact.


security monitoring services using web cameras, especially coupled with email or text alerts about intrusions. This type of monitoring presents an attractive option for service providers, as it allows them to offer a new bundled service to existing customers using existing network infrastructure, call centres, and billing relationships. Several operators in North America, Europe, and Asia are now offering home security services, ranging from comprehensive, continuous monitoring with on-call security patrols to basic remote monitoring with self-installed web cameras. • Home automation: These services provide whole-home control systems for lighting, heating and air conditioning, energy consumption, and control of TVs and other consumer electronic devices. Parks Associates reports that almost half of US broadband homes are very interested in automation features that save energy, and almost a third find remote control of lighting, thermostats, and appliances through computers or mobile phones to be highly appealing. The market for these services is still in its infancy, but analysts expect more than 20 percent of US homes to be using them by 2015. • Personal health services: Many operators are now exploring value- added health monitoring services, often in partnership with hospitals and health systems. A variety of cloud- enabled home health services are possible, including senior care and monitoring for the elderly, health monitoring for people with chronic diseases, and infant and child monitoring. The potential market for such services is substantial: As of 2010, 78 percent of Internet- connected households included a person with at least one chronic condition. Ten percent of such households currently care for a fragile senior, with another 15 percent expecting to do so within the next five years. • Technical support services: As consumers use more connected devices and services, their home networks and online lives are becoming far more complicated. In response, operators are offering more advanced, premium technical support services such as remote installation and configuration, internet security, parental controls, online data backup, and technical support for home networks. • Cloud storage: As consumers shift from being tethered to a PC to using


cloud applications and services on multiple devices, they are increasingly interested in online storage. Sixteen percent of broadband homes in the U.K. and France, and 11 percent in the U.S., are interested in receiving online storage and backup services from their broadband provider. The potential market for these


consumer cloud services is substantial. Parks Associates forecasts that revenue from operator-provided cloud services will grow from $600 million worldwide in 2010 to $8.6 billion by 2015. Operator revenue from monitoring and smart home services will reach $1.2 billion worldwide by 2015, and in-home health services revenue for operators will grow from $41 million worldwide in 2011 to $540 million by 2015. In the same timeframe, cloud-based premium technical support services revenue will reach $4.8 billion. Furthermore, research indicates that consumers who use value-added cloud services are notably more satisfied with their service provider - and therefore more loyal - than those who don’t. Because all of these services are


based on a cloud delivery model, they can also be designed, rolled out, scaled, and reconfigured extremely quickly. The XFINITY TV app for iPad, iPhone, and Android platforms, for example, was the fastest rollout of a new application ever conducted by Comcast. Why? Because they did it through the cloud - entirely through software updates to servers in a data center. With the cloud model, operators can free their services from traditional yearly or quarterly rollout schedules, slowed by the extensive software regression testing required of large, monolithic applications that reside fully on endpoint devices. Instead, operators can embrace a web-like model. Most application logic resides in the cloud, serving thin clients running on relatively static presentation environments, so software can be updated every day, if the operator chooses. Delivering these kinds of network-


enabled cloud services need not require radical shifts in a service provider’s business focus. Most operators are already investing in cloud infrastructures, whether for internal data center optimisation or to deliver public, private, and hybrid cloud services. The same infrastructures used to deliver infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) and software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings can be applied to instantiate the


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