Driven by wide product capabilities combined with strong professional services and solid performances in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region, Orange Business Services has been rated as the leader in the Asian telecom cloud market, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.
GlobalData’s recent report, ‘Telco Cloud Services (Asia) Competitive Landscape Assessment’ reveals that Orange has become the leader in the telecom cloud market in APAC edging out competitors including BT, Lumen, NTT Ltd, Telstra and Singtel.. The study assessed the cloud capabilities of six leading global telcos based on four main categories: (i) product portfolio, (ii) data center footprint, (iii) software-defined infrastructure, and (iv) supplemental services in the region.
Orange offers a full range of services from managed applications to managed infrastructure through its Flexible Engine as well as a strong ecosystem with global players including AWS, Azure, Google, and VMware. It also offers Next Gen Hub, a cloud-native platform, to enhance its multi-cloud capabilities and enable tighter integration with other technology domains such as software-defined network (SDN) and security. Services are delivered through its comprehensive professional service framework and 2,400 cloud experts to support enterprises’ diverse needs. Its multi-sourcing service integration provides a single pane of glass across multiple services and minimizes customers’ integration challenges in a multi-vendor environment.
Alfie Amir, Principal Analyst at GlobalData, commented: “The strong cloud adoption in the APAC is driving the service providers to expand their capabilities to capture the high growth opportunity. While competition is increasing, Orange edges out other players with its wide portfolio, a multi-cloud play with strong professional services on the ground across the APAC region.”
Trailing close behind are BT, Lumen, NTT Ltd and Telstra. These providers have a very strong cloud portfolio but lag behind Orange in certain areas. BT and Lumen have comparable cloud services and ecosystem partners but smaller presence in the region. NTT has extensive data center footprints in Asia and professional services, but with inconsistent branding and go-to-market initiatives across the region. Carrier-neutral facilities also tend to be best positioned for cloud on-ramps. Telstra has a well-balanced strength from product to footprint and software-defined infrastructure and is narrowing down the gap with other global carriers in some areas.
Additionally, despite the economic slowdown due to the COVID-19 crisis, cloud remains an important technology as an enabler for enterprises to continue their operations during the pandemic. This is driving the cloud market in the APAC to grow at a CAGR of 16.8% from US$128 billion in 2019 to US$279 billion in 2024. There is also a growing demand in the application layer and value-added services, on top of the infrastructure solutions (e.g., IaaS, PaaS, SaaS, and private cloud). This is driving the providers to enhance their offerings such as in multi-cloud, edge, ecosystem partner, network integration and professional services.
Mr. Amir concludes: “The pandemic has accelerated the cloud adoption in the APAC as the technology enables businesses to cope with COVID-19-related challenges, including customer engagement, internal process, digital commerce, and supply chain. The increase in demand is also changing the market from supply-driven to demand-led and pushing the service providers to innovate faster to grab their share. Telcos are leveraging their network advantage to enhance edge computing and multi-cloud capabilities to differentiate in the market.”
