The Service Delivery Platform (SDP) Market

Aepona's offering addresses the Service Layer market in general and the Service Delivery Platform (SDP) market segment in particular. The Service Layer can be defined as the uppermost element of a telecom network infrastructure that includes systems, platforms, tools and applications for creating and providing value-added services and content to enterprises and consumers. The Service Layer can also be seen as the boundary between the Telco domain and the external Internet / IT domain.

The Service Layer is one of the fastest growing segments of the global telecoms market. In traditional fixed and mobile networks the service infrastructure represents a relatively small proportion of overall network investment (CAPEX). In next-generation networks based on the IP/IMS architecture this proportion will be significantly different and the Service Layer will account for a much higher percentage of the total core network CAPEX. According to the analyst firm OSS Observer, the SDP Products market is worth $ 1.4Bn in 2007 and is forecast to reach $3.2Bn by 2011.

Unlike traditional silo service solutions, in which different services run on different platforms, the SDP defines a single, horizontal platform that can be used for delivering all types of services and content in a rapid and cost effective way to different networks such as fixed, mobile, 3G, broadband VoIP, and IPTV, and in doing so enables cross-network, convergent service provisioning.

The concept of the SDP is relatively new and originally referred primarily to mobile content delivery. However, in the past two years it has been extended to include service execution and service exposure layer capabilities and also now applies also to fixed and broadband networks as well as mobile. Increasingly, SDPs will used to support real-time services such as click-to-call and multimedia conferencing as well as bringing together network capabilities such as call control, location, messaging and presence to allow the creation of rich, innovative consumer and enterprise services.

First-generation SDPs were generally large, bespoke Systems Integration projects containing a high number of proprietary products and interfaces, with the majority of the cost to operators being attributed to professional service fees. Nowadays, next-generation SDPs are emerging that embrace recent advances in IT Technology and that are built around standards-based, cost-effective products, as opposed to costly, bespoke integration services. Key technologies for this new SDP include Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), Web Services, and Enterprise Service Bus. This new type of SDP embodies the concept of a "Loosely Coupled" architecture, whereby each party involved in the delivery chain brings unique capabilities or assets, coupled together via SOA to create a complete service in a cost-effective and highly scalable manner.

The SDP market is being targeted on the one hand by traditional Network Equipment Providers (NEPs), who are creating their own SDP offerings by extending their (vertical) service platforms with necessary IT components by licensing technology from other vendors. On the other hand, IT vendors are extending their (horizontal) application platforms with Telecom capabilities such as service enablers providing connectors to various network components (network abstraction layer) or real-time service execution environments.

Aepona is uniquely positioned within the SDP market. We have the core competence, experience and technology assets to deal with the complexities of connecting services across multiple telecoms network platforms from a broad variety of vendors, whether those networks are fixed, mobile, legacy/circuit-switched or IP/broadband. At the same time, we are leading the way in making the arcane world of telecoms networks and protocols accessible to millions of developers from the Internet / IT world who are accustomed to using modern IT technologies such as Web Services, Java, and SOA. It is this killer combination of IT and Telecoms capabilities that will ensure Aepona's success in the fast-growing SDP market space.

Highlights:

• The Service Delivery Platform (SDP) market is one of the fastest-growing segments in Telecoms
• The SDP provides a single, horizontal framework for delivering services across multiple core and access networks
• A new generation of SDP is emerging, based on standard products, open interfaces and modern IT technologies such as Web Services and Service Oriented Architecture, rather than being realized by bespoke Systems Integration projects
• Aepona is has a unique position within the SDP market, combining strong IT competence in areas such as Web Services, Java and SOA with Telecoms knowledge in areas such as SIP, IMS, SS7 and Intelligent Networks (IN).