Cloud-Native Early Adopters Gain Digital Dexterity, Innovation and Customer Experience Advantages

New global study¹ commissioned by Amdocs finds that communications and media providers are rapidly adopting cloud native technologies. Early adopters and fast movers will reap the crucial agility and innovation advantage needed in the digital economies to outpace competition

ST. LOUIS, Jan. 17, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- A select group of communications and media providers are rapidly adopting cloud-native technologies in order to obtain the agility and continuous innovation needed to meet the digital experience benchmark set by digital disruptors. However, most service providers are moving slower, hindered by legacy technology, culture and processes, as well as the challenges of managing both legacy and cloud native systems in a hybrid, combined environment. While the move to cloud native systems is visible across the industry, mainstream adoption is unlikely before 2022.  The laggards will find it challenging to close the early leads established by the fast movers.

These are part of the findings from an Amdocs-commissioned global study of leading communications and media companies by Analysys Mason, a global consultancy and research firm specializing in telecoms, media and technology. The results are based on in-depth discussions with senior executives of the surveyed companies.

“Communications and media providers are following the initial lead of web-scale software companies such as Amazon and Netflix in adopting cloud computing, DevOps practices, and cloud-native software architecture,” said Dr. Mark H Mortensen, research director of digital transformation at Analysys Mason. “What we see from the survey is that this is mostly being driven by the need to boost agility and innovation. Even though full transition is almost a decade away, those providers who can bring these technologies into their everyday operations quickly will secure the strongest competitive advantages.”

Need for greater agility and faster innovation trumps need for cost optimization: More than 82% of respondents said cloud-native and DevOps adoption is driven by the need for greater business agility and innovation. Only 36% said it is driven by the need for cost optimization.

Hybrid cloud infrastructure to be mainstream by 2022: Over 80% of digital, BSS and OSS systems currently run on physical or virtualized data centers. However, by 2022, over 90% of systems will run on cloud infrastructure, of which, over 60% will be on hybrid cloud.

Microservices are a key priority in cloud-native technology adoption roadmaps: 82% either have or are proactively working on a roadmap to evolve their digital, BSS and OSS systems to be cloud-native, with 64% saying that microservices architecture will be a requirement for new systems within two years.

DevOps still has a long way to go: 46% currently use DevOps in limited areas of their IT environment (primarily in digital domains), 18% have a plan in place to adopt DevOps within the next 1-2 years, while 27% are still evaluating transitioning to the methodology.

Managing a ‘hybrid’ IT environment is no simple matter: 91% believe operating cloud-native and traditional applications side-by-side will be a critical challenge, requiring 64% to re-skill their workforce and 27% to engage a third party.

“With early adopters such as Netflix, Amazon, Spotify already setting a high bar for agility and innovation, service providers who want to seize the advantage in today’s digital world need to view cloud technology, microservices architecture and DevOps adoption as ‘must-haves’ – and they need to move fast,” said Gary Miles, chief marketing officer at Amdocs. “The problem is that transition to the cloud is being held back by the daunting nature of managing cloud-native systems together with traditional ones. But while this ‘hybrid’ reality is likely to remain with us for the next 5-10 years, we’re already enabling service providers to overcome this co-existence complexity. In fact, customers who are adopting Amdocs cloud-native digital solutions, managed operations and services, are finding that their transition to digital is faster, and more cost-effective.”

Supporting Resources

• Check out highlights of the research in the infographic
• To see the full results of the survey in the Analysys Mason thought leadership paper; Market Pulse: Digital Transformation Of BSS/OSS To The Cloud & DevOps, please visit here
• Keep up with Amdocs news by visiting the company’s website
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¹ Analyses Mason Market Pulse: Digital transformation of BSS/OSS to the cloud & DevOps October 2017

About Amdocs

Amdocs is a leading software and services provider to the world’s most successful communications and media companies. As our customers reinvent themselves, we enable their digital and network transformation through innovative solutions, delivery expertise and intelligent operations. Amdocs and its 25,000 employees serve customers in over 85 countries. Listed on the NASDAQ Global Select Market, Amdocs had revenue of $3.9 billion in fiscal 2017. For more information, visit Amdocs at www.amdocs.com.

Amdocs’ Forward-Looking Statement

This press release includes information that constitutes forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provision of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements about Amdocs’ growth and business results in future quarters. Although we believe the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based upon reasonable assumptions, we can give no assurance that our expectations will be obtained or that any deviations will not be material. Such statements involve risks and uncertainties that may cause future results to differ from those anticipated. These risks include, but are not limited to, the effects of general economic conditions, Amdocs’ ability to grow in the business markets that it serves, Amdocs’ ability to successfully integrate acquired businesses, adverse effects of market competition, rapid technological shifts that may render the Company's products and services obsolete, potential loss of a major customer, our ability to develop long-term relationships with our customers, and risks associated with operating businesses in the international market. Amdocs may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future; however, the Company specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These and other risks are discussed at greater length in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including in our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2017 filed on December 11, 2017.

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