Johannesburg, 16 Nov 2007
HP has announced an enhanced network platform to help telecoms operators provide services to millions of customers.
The service, known as HP`s Service Delivery Platform (SDP) 2.0 enables operators to offer their customers greater access to convergent, multimedia and Web 2.0 services on their mobile devices.
HP SDP 2.0 incorporates software technologies for governance, management and quality that helps service providers take full advantage of the platform`s service-oriented architecture (SOA).
The platform also addresses the need for operators to increase revenue from convergent services while simultaneously reducing the cost and risk of creating such services.
This approach creates a unified resource layer through which multiple services communicate with underlying wireless or wired networks, third-party applications and innovative combinations of Web services known as Web 2.0 mash-ups.
As a result, HP SDP 2.0 enables operators to create converged services that blend the best of telecoms, Web and IT resources. Examples are music, video and business services that personalise content delivery using:
* Network resources that show a customer`s active presence on the network or his or her physical location;
* Web resources for access to vast stores of information, multimedia content and social communities; and
* IT resources such as billing, network management, and other business and operations support systems (BSS and OSS).
"HP SDP 2.0 incorporates three years of innovation by HP and its partners, as well as our experience deploying SDPs around the world," said Keith Bothma, RSA local spokesperson for Communications, Media and Entertainment at HP. "Our customers understand that a flexible, SOA-based SDP can help them create new services quickly at lower cost, less risk and faster time-to-market."
HP SDP 2.0 also provides service-level controls, identity management and security mechanisms that translate to a better experience for end customers. In addition, the platform is fully supported by HP consulting and integration services, which expedite deployment.
"To offer new convergent services quickly and cost-effectively, we must simplify our infrastructure," said Gianni Canal, manager of Services Layer and Messaging Innovation Lab at Telecom Italia. "As we move toward converged technologies and service-oriented architectures, HP expertise is valuable, as is its proven track record in service delivery platforms."
SDP with governance, management and quality enhancements
SDPs address a key shortcoming in traditional wireless, wired and broadband infrastructure, in which services tend to be in vertical "silos" - each with its own direct links to needed network resources. As new services are added, the silo-based structure becomes increasingly cumbersome, costly and a barrier to efficient integration of converged services.
HP SDP 2.0 provides a standards-based, integrated interface between wireless or wired services and the underlying network. Services applications that link to this common, unified layer automatically have shared access to all needed telecoms network resources, thus eliminating inefficient duplication.
To meet the challenges of Web-based competitors - and take advantage of Web 2.0 opportunities - HP SDP 2.0 uses governance, management and quality capabilities to help operators expand their application environments to the thousands of non-telecoms developers who can build personalised, content-rich services.
"SDPs are germane to a service provider`s ability to compete in the future," said Brian Partridge, programme manager of Yankee Group, a technology research and consulting firm. "New converged services can become very complex, and if you`re going to create and maintain them by the hundreds, you`d better have an SOA-based SDP framework that allows you to weave together all the disparate threads from Web, telecoms and IT."
With HP SDP 2.0, developers also will have the ability to provide identity management, virtualised control over user profile information, and SOA mechanisms to share context information such as location, preferences and Web community affiliations.
The HP SDP 2.0 enhancements include:
* HP Third-Party Framework - takes advantage of HP SOA Systinet and HP SOA Manager along with HP Select Access to provide complete life cycle governance and security, including network abstraction, third-party developer access and control, and OSS/BSS integration. From design through run-time, the framework delivers the key controls, policies and infrastructure to align IT resources with organisational goals and business models.
* Virtual Identity and Profile (VIP) Broker - uses the latest SOA technologies to provide virtualised, single-point access and control to customer information stored in disparate services silos. The VIP Broker thus enables real-time personalisation and the ability to gather real-time business intelligence and context data that can support new business models, based on advertising or location-specific content bundles. For example, a service provider might be able to offer a specific bundle of games, screen savers and music to 60 000 people attending a concert.
* Enterprise Service Bus - creates the bridge between network and IT resources, including operational and billing systems. HP SDP 2.0 is based on open, industry standards, and supports multiple middleware platforms. This gives customers the flexibility to integrate HP SDP 2.0 into existing middleware environments.
* OSS Adapters - provide a 360-degree view of network, network management, service management and quality of service. From a single console, administrators can monitor and control hardware, software and applications to ensure conformance to service-level agreements.
* Service enablers - such as HP OpenCall software to bridge current telecomS environments, to emerging Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) and Internet Protocol Television (IPTV).
* Testing tools - delivered through a combination of HP Performance and Quality Centre products, including Service Test and Service Test Management, methodologies and best practices which, when combined, have been proven to reduce testing costs up to 50% and improve speed and quality of service delivery.
More information on the HP Service Delivery Platform is available at www.hp.com/go/sdp.
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