Dear Colleague:

Integration and middleware have always been the stakes of competition in the OSS software market.

In the early 90s, telecom carriers -- in a bid to lower the cost of emerging data and wireless networks -- began to steadily migrate from single-vendor to multi-vendor networks.

This move planted the seed for a new breed of middleware -- OSS software -- to provision, monitor, and troubleshoot across multi-vendor networks.

By all rights, Network Equipment Providers (NEPs) should have owned the OSS software market.  After all, the carrier customers were captive and no one was better qualified to manage multi-vendor equipment and telecom services than the manufacturers themselves. 

However, the fast ramp up of the internet and wireless sectors kept the large NEPs so busy that they relinquished the multi-vendor integration business to independent software vendors who would supply NEP-neutral solutions. 

The rest is history.  Today, some 60-odd companies supply a healthy $4 billion market for OSS software.

While in theory OSS software was designed to be multi-vendor, in practice, the number of OSS solutions mushroomed out of control causing a new set of integration and high cost concerns.

To address this issue, in the last several years we've seen telecoms invest in several generations of integration middleware solutions from EAI and J2EE application servers... to BPM and SOA.

The results of these efforts have been mixed.  Integrations have worked on a small scale, but seldom at an enterprise level.  They've been remarkably good at putting an e-commerce facade on business systems, enabling better sales, customer care, and self-service apps.  The bigger challenge being addressed today is the close-to-the-network OSS applications like order management, network management -- even element management.

Now as the new era of next generation telecom dawns, integration has become a serious obstacle to growth as carriers struggle to consolidate systems and manage sophisticated triple play, 3G wireless, carrier-grade Ethernet, and IP services that crisscross multi-technology and multi-vendor domains.

Dittberner's New Research Report

Though the history of telecom middleware has certainly been rocky, there's no question that integration excellence remains pivotal for carriers in the years ahead.

Which underscores the relevance of Dittberner's latest OSS report, The Telecom Integration Middleware Market, a study that analyzes the forces shaping the new middleware market and shows how you and your company can capitalize on the opportunities.

Middleware is on the move again and the Report explains the serious progress being made by a few large carriers.  In addition, the Report shows how new industry standards and innovations are driving more capable solutions than existed before. . . 

Network Management - The large tier 1 carriers have massive network integration and management requirements, however, they are cautious about  spending money on big-bang network management platforms because the history of those efforts has been disappointing.  Here the Report addresses:

• Where telecoms hope to realize incremental gains in achieve their twin goals of retaining key customers and lowering costs.
   
• Which types of carriers are attracted to the outsourcing of network management via the managed services offerings of NEPs.
   
• How large telecoms intend to balance in-house vs. commercial-off-the-shelf software.

Element Management & Mediation - Since the network is a man-made machine, we should theoretically be able to build one SOA-based element management system that provisions multi-vendor devices with the push of a few buttons. 

Dream on.  Network Equipment Providers (NEPs) use proprietary methods to  operate their equipment.  There are few standards to abstract to and make the integration effort worth the cost.  Fujitsu will configure SONET differently than Nortel.  Radio network equipment is also highly specific to the way a particular manufacturer designed its transmitters. 

While many would love to see EMSs magically disappear, considering the proliferation of Carrier Ethernet, softswitches, and other NEs, the diversity of nodes seems to be increasing rather than diminishing -- making the integration with higher level NMSs all the more difficult.

Dittberner's Report analyzes the EMS dilemma and explains:

• How NEPs balance the conflicting need to provide better out-of-the-box EMS manageability and keep their costs down.

• The strategies of the large NEPs in internal EMS consolidation, multi-vendor EMS cooperation, and managed services

• Why a network element mediation layer implemented at Verizon Business is an innovative approach that may benefit other large carriers.

SOA and IP Service Orchestration - SOA is a powerful integration approach because process flow no longer needs to be hard coded but can follow a contractual model.  By encapsulating existing OSS systems, even a proprietary provisioning system becomes a contracted service within an SOA.

Yet as elegant as the SOA model is, people in the real world have found SOAs extraordinarily hard to build at large carriers.  Two factors are the chief issues: 1) the lack of organizational discipline to adhere to architectural standards and 2) the complexity of managing the thousands of parameters required to build telecom IP products.

• AT&T's Target Architecture/SOA and DataBase of Record (DBOR) is  the most successful integration and OSS/BSS consolidation program  implemented so far at a Tier 1 carrier.  The Report chronicles the challenges overcome and post-merger progress to date.

• IP services orchestration is the missing ingredient for mastering SOA complexity.  The Report walks through a "service inventory" solution being implemented at Qwest that allows hundreds of core process flows in a telecommuter IP-Centrex service to be reused for mobile and VoIP service scenarios.

Semantics Middleware - Transporting messages across the enterprise is no longer the integration issue it once was thanks to web services, XML, and today's mature EAI/ESB tools.  The biggest integration issue today is not transport, but understanding the context of messages.

Here, to meet the challenge, the OSS/J and the Shared Information Data (SID) standards have expanded into a full-blown common data vocabulary for OSS/BSS architectures.  The report shows where and how data model and semantic techniques are finding real application at large telecoms, in particular:

• How Verizon Communications successfully overcame semantics problems around its many legacy provisioning to provide an overlay for its next generation FiOS service. 
   
• Why the metadata and transformation software used in Telstra's OSS transformation program is a model that other operators are looking to copy.

Interconnect Middleware - Competition can sometimes be a good thing -- allowing the telecom pie to grow to the benefit of all operators in a trading circle.   The rise of SMS is a classic example.  SMS became the huge revenue generator it is today only when mobile operators in Europe allowed SMS to be routed beyond their walled gardens.

Dittberner feels that telecom "coopetition" has plenty of room to grow, especially as telecoms aim to eventually share IP services, presence, and other information in near-real-time.  The software and services that deliver that connectivity represent a new class of integration middleware.  Three promising interconnect: areas are discussed in the Report:

• New service testing and rollouts where a trusted third party maintains the  confidentiality of the operators involved in the transaction.

• An IMS-style interoperability clearinghouse that sets up a proxy service to manage real-time information and traffic flows among carriers.

• A global multi-vendor data repository that automatically identifies devices by serial number, model, version, location, and even what EMS is required to access it.

Dittberner's report is your chance to get up to speed on the latest telecom middleware trends.  Whether you're a carrier executive aiming to improve your OSS infrastructure or a vendor delivering middleware or network management software, Dittberner's Middleware Report will help you discover:

• What are the most important market priorities?. . .
• Which success strategies of other operators can you adopt at your own  telecom organization?
• Which vendors have industry market share and are leading in specific niches?. . .
• What's the impact of recent mergers in the middleware market?
• Where are middleware standards such as OSS/J and the TMForum's SID succeeding?
• Which OSS players should you partner with?. . .
• What emerging trends can your company capitalize on?. . . 

Please scan the full table of contents below. You'll see why this report delivers the tactical and strategic information you need to fully understand where the telecom middleware is headed.

To access this market intelligence today, contact Wyatt Greenwalt at Dittberner's offices at 301-652-8350.

Sincerely,

Dan Baker
Research Director, Dittberner OSS/BSS KnowledgeBase

P.S.  This Report is one research module in Dittberner's on-going research service, the OSS/BSS KnowledgeBase, covering the breadth of telecom software and OSS innovation.

Table of Contents

The Telecom Integration Middleware,   Network & Element Management  Software Market

A. Introduction (3 pages)
1. Dreams of a Lean and Flexible Network Operator
2. The History of Non-Integration – Perspective from GM
3. The Search for Strategic Wiggle Room

B. Network Management Systems (7 pages)
1. Network Management Through OSS Software
2. Closing the Gap Between Network Management and Control
3. Integration and Consolidation
4. The NEP-Supplied Network Management System
5. Network Management as Business Differentiator
6. Large Carriers: Cautious over Strategic Platform Change
7. The Managed Services Alternative
8. The Challenges of the COTS Implementation
9. Finding the Right COTS Balance at Telecom Italia
10. The Clash of Business & Systems Integration Goals

C. Element Management Systems (7 pages)
1. Integrating EMSs into the Network Management World
2. The Role of an EMS
3. Standardization of EMSs at Large Carriers
4. CO-OP Aims to Lower NEP Costs Through EMS Standards
5. The Maintenance Costs of EMS
6. How Juniper Achieves Superior Manageability
7. When a Small NEPs Partners with a Larger
8. EMS in a Distributed Network Element & Server Environment
9. No EMS for SDP and Other Stuff that Lives in the SIP World
10. A Highly Flexible, GUI-based EMS
11. The Price of Supporting Network Diversity

D. The Mediation of Network & Element Management (4 pages)
1. The High Cost of Maintaining the EMS Jungle
2. The Case for Network Mediation and OSS Middleware
3. Why Mediation is Needed in Wireless
4. The Mediation Layer at Verizon Business
5. Where will Mediation Solutions Penetrate the Market?

E. Semantics & Modeling
1. The Integration Challenge at Verizon FiOS
2. No Database of Record Leads to Order Fall Out Problems
3. The Human Factor in FiOS BSS/OSS Deployment
4. OSS/J Paves the Way for Semantics Resolution
5. Telstra Implements the SID
6. The Role of Progress's MetaData & Transformation Software
7. Data Model Consumption
8. Why Common Modeling has been Tough to Implement
9. The System Consolidation Benefit
10. The Impact of Common Modeling on the Integration Business

F. Interconnect & Multi-Vendor Semantics (7 pages)
1. Government’s Role in Pushing Interconnect
2. Sharing Presence and Location Based Information
3. Preserving the Confidentiality of New Service Testing
4. An IMS or TDM-to-Skype Clearinghouse
5. Telcordia’s Role in Interconnect Middleman
6. Interconnect & Multi-Vendor Semantics
7. The Four Kinds of Multi-Vendor Information
8. The Equipment Registry
9. The Location, Connections, & Services Registry
10. Automatic Identification of Devices

G. Target Architecture & Master Data Management at AT&T (7 pages)
1. The Start of Business Transformation
2. The Concept of One and Target Architecture
3. Target Architecture, the Universal Billing Platform, and SOX
4. The Database of Record
5. Web Services and SOA
6. Where is the Target Architecture Today?
7. One Process as Opposed to One Platform
8. The Migration to Target Architecture at AT&T Business
9. The DBOR and Data Warehouse
10. The Bonded Billing Gateway
11. Current Management Problems with the Target Architecture

H. IP Orchestration as Strategic Middleware (5 pages)
1. Five-9s Reliability or Winning Future Business
2.Where Telcos Win or Lose the Future
3. Why SOA is Not Enough
4. The Atreus Service Orchestration Environment
5. What Services Orchestration will Enable
6. Service Management Changes Required to Implement NGN

I. The Carrier Ethernet Market (4 pages)
1. The Rise of Carrier Ethernet as an Alternative to Large NEP Solutions
2. Carrier Ethernet & Provider Backbone Transport
3. Telecom Customers Attracted to Carrier Ethernet
4. Carrier Ethernet & Wireless Backhaul
5. Metro Ethernet’s Role in Promoting OA&M

J. Market Trends & Recommendations (4 pages)
1. The Significance of Middleware Mergers & Acquisitions
2. Where Growth Prospects Look Promising
3. Where It Pays to Differentiate
4. Strategic Management Priorities
5. Know Your Business Model

K. Telecom Middleware Backgrounder (14 pages)
1. Connectivity & Control Middleware
2. MQ Series -- IBM’s Messaging Queue Paradigm
3. CORBA and the History of Distributed Computing
4. Enterprise Application Integration (EAI)
5. EAI and the Advent of a “Componentized” Telco Infrastructure
6. Application Servers
7. Java, the Web Browser, and Backend Databases
8. The Attraction of J2EE Development Environments
9. Web Services
10. The Popularity and Advantages of Web Services
11. The Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)
12. SOA Infrastructure Middleware
13. OSS Semantics Middleware
14. TMF and OSS/J Contribution to Semantics
15. Business Process Management

L. Market Segmentation & Forecast Analysis (5 pages)
1. How Dittberner Develops its Market Segmentations
2. Market Growth Forecast
3. Distribution Channels
4. Geographic Region
5. Service Provider Type
6. Service Provider Size
7. Type of Middleware Solution

Vendor Profiles

In this section, Dittberner analyzes some leading telecom middleware companies in 5 to 7 page profiles delivering:

• Historical expertise and background
• Specific areas of strength and weaknesses
• Significant customers and partnerships
• Key products
• Differentiators that make the company standout 
• The company's provisioning/inventory revenue for 2006

These vendor profiles and technical specs are a great time-saver: they deliver the kind of information you'd otherwise have to spend weeks tracking down. A list of vendors profiled follows:

Market Segments & Forecasts

Dittberner sizes and forecasts the worldwide market for provisioning, inventory and service management software and services.  Our forecast model is based on several parameters: Dittberner's historical tracking of the OSS market; Dittberner’s forecast of Next Generation Network (NGN) services growth; discussions with carrier experts; and interviews with software and consulting vendors.

The report provides 2006 base revenue and 2007 to 2011 forecast data for the global market in the following segments:

1. OEM vs. Service Provider Market
2. Distribution Channel
   - Direct vs. Indirect Channels
3. Geographic Region
   - North America, EMEA, Asia Pacific, Latin America
4. Service Provider Type
   - Wireline Voice, Broadband, Wireless, Cable, Reseller, Other
5. Service Provider Size
  - Tier 1, 2, and 3
6. Type of Integration Middleware
   - Point to Point & MQ Series, CORBA, Enterprise Application Integration. (EAI), Business Process Management, J2EE App Server, .NET App Server, Semantics & OSS/J-Specific, Enterprise Service Bus (ESB), SOA Infrastructure, Service Delivery, Multi-Network Element Middleware

About Dittberner’s
OSS/BSS KnowledgeBase

Dittberner’s OSS/BSS KnowledgeBase is a market research service designed to help telecoms and OSS/BSS vendors track OSS/BSS innovations and companies.

The KnowledgeBase provides a sweeping view of the marketplace with analyses on everything from Billing and Middleware. . . to Provisioning and Service Assurance.

Dittberner feels it’s important for a telecom research firm to make the leap from market analysis (seeing all the parts) to true market synthesis (pulling all those parts together).

Our research goes beyond discussing market trends to synthesizing those trends in the context of market opportunities, threats, and their strategic impact to your business.

Bottom line: When you finish reading Dittberner's research, you don't ask: "Ok, what's it all mean?"

Web Database and Desktop Analysis Software

Dittberner’s OSS/BSS KnowledgeBase delivers a fully organized body of knowledge and analysis across two interfaces: 

1. On-Line Database for searching the text and visuals of our analysis modules, case studies, and vendor profiles, and 
2. A desktop Software Application (written in Microsoft Visual Foxpro) with market segmentation and forecast data that you use to view customized data tables, graphs, vendor comparisons, and print documents.  Note: all data and forecast tables are also provided in  Microsoft Excel and comma delimited files can be created too.

Below are some sample screens (NOTE: the examples show non-revenue assurance and non-fraud companies)

Search analysis in On-Line Database. . . 

Compare vendor market strength in grids. . .

View, modify, and print our estimates of company financials. . .

View market share graphs in international currencies. . . 

Compare company financials. . .

About Dittberner Associates

Founded in 1966, Dittberner Associates, Inc. is an international market research and consultancy with over 70 Telecom Service Providers, and in excess of 100 telecom suppliers as clients. The firm specializes in areas of OSS/BSS, NGN Switching, Broadband Access, and Wireless market segments. . . more

Dittberner Associates
44641 Montgomery Avenue
Bethesda MD 20814

Tel: 301-652-8350
To order or get more info, contact Wyatt Greenwalt
wyatt@dittberner.com