In the telecom world, a transition is happening similar to the one seen during the mainframe era to the client server, according to David Nicholson (pictured), industry analyst for theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio.

Since a move to the cloud propels agility, openness and flexibility, legacy telecom providers must undertake a delicate balancing act of maintaining availability, reliability and performance. And that’s where integration vendors like Dell Inc. will come in, Nicholson added.

“You could look at it as either opportunity or headache; and it’s both,” he explained. “They have very, very real SLAs that they need to meet. Very, very real expectations that have been set in terms of reliability, availability and performance, so they can’t slip off of that. So someone like Dell, for example. They’re perfectly positioned at this sort of crossroads, because Dell has been creating ‘cloud stacks’ that will live sometimes on-premises.”

Nicholson spoke with theCUBE industry analyst Lisa Martin at MWC 2023, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE. They discussed why telcos are ripe for change and what to expect at the Mobile World Congress 2023 event. (* Disclosure below.)

Telcos and public cloud providers will be frenemies

By adopting the cloud as the operating model, coopetition will spring up as the business strategy between telcos and public cloud providers, according to Nicholson. This is because the cloud doesn’t take the route of proprietary closed systems, which use a waterfall development process, he added.

“They’re going to be frenemies; coopetition is going to be the word of the day again,” Nicholson stated. “Look at the telecom space, they need people who are forward thinking in the era of cloud. But this concept of cloud is really going to be the telcos … both competing and partnering with what we think of as the traditional, hyperscale public cloud providers.”

Since every industry requires networks that deliver end-user needs fast, the MWC 2023 event is extensively cover the 5G network, according to Nicholson, who said that this will be prompted by the disaggregation of the hardware and software stacks that have driven telecom for decades.

“We’re not accessing the world around us so much from a desktop or even a laptop; it’s mobile,” he pointed out. “If you want to communicate with a customer, it’s mobile. If you’re creating a private 5G network, you now are standing something up that is net new in a greenfield environment. So, I expect to hear a lot about 5G.”

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the MWC 2023 event:

 (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for MWC 2023. Neither Dell Technologies Inc., the primary sponsor for theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE