Fulfilling Telco's Data Demands: Exploring Cloud Storage Requirements

The telecommunications industry has undergone significant transformation in recent years, driven by the ever-increasing demand for faster, more reliable, and efficient communication services. Cloud storage has emerged as a critical component in meeting these demands, enabling telecommunications companies to store, manage, and analyze vast amounts of data efficiently.  

As Wasabi expands its hot cloud storage throughout Asia Pacific, including partnerships with NTT Communications and QD.TEK, two large relationships helping them bring the world’s best cloud technologies to companies in the telecommunications industry and beyond, I wanted to share my insights on the specific cloud storage requirements of telcos and how it plays a pivotal role in shaping the future of telecommunications. 

Scalability and elasticity 

Telcos deal with massive volumes of data generated by network operations, customer interactions, and the proliferation of IoT devices. Cloud storage solutions must offer scalability and elasticity to accommodate these ever-growing data sets. Whether it's storing call records, network logs, or customer billing data, the ability to scale storage resources up or down on-demand is crucial to efficiently manage costs and ensure optimal performance. 

Cloud providers must offer storage services that can automatically adjust to accommodate fluctuations in data volumes, making it easier for telcos to handle peak traffic periods without the need for massive upfront investments in infrastructure. 

Reliability and redundancy are critical 

Downtime in the telecommunications industry can have severe consequences, including service disruptions and revenue loss. Telcos must maintain 99.999% uptime and cover 95% or more of the population to ensure service availability and quality — an expectation that few other industries must fulfill. 

To ensure high availability and data durability, telcos require cloud storage solutions with built-in redundancy. This often involves data replication across multiple data centers or regions to safeguard against hardware failures, natural disasters, or other unexpected events. 

Data security and compliance requirements must be met 

The telecommunications industry handles sensitive customer information, including call records, billing data, and personal details. As a result, data security and compliance with regulations such as GDPR, HIPAA, and CCPA are paramount. Cloud storage solutions must offer robust security features, including encryption, multi-factor and multi-user authorization and immutable storage. 

Multicloud adoption prominent among telcos 

According to Forrester’s Infrastructure Cloud Survey, 2022, most telcos use multiple cloud types, including public, private, and hosted private, with most public cloud adopters using more than one type. This trend is on track with the prominence of multicloud deployments across APAC, with 61% of APAC organizations using more than one public cloud storage provider, which is higher than global the average of 57%, according to Wasabi’s APAC Cloud Storage Index. Wasabi can help Telco’s ensure they can continue to provide value to their customers, not outsourcing it to the Hyperscalers. 

Concluding thoughts 

In the telecommunications industry today, continued investments in 5G, multi-edge compute, IoT, AI/ML and cloud technology lay the foundation for future growth and services. As the demand and adoption of these services grows, leading telcos look for the right cloud storage partner that can enable their success. 

The right cloud storage partner not only helps drive revenue growth through higher margin value-added services but also reduces a telco’s capex and opex, thus improving the all-important ROI.  Another key consideration for telcos today is the protection of the direct customer relationship and revenue stream. Pick the wrong partner and you may lose those. However, picking the right channel-friendly partner with the right infrastructure and commercial model can significantly enhance and accelerate the telcos overall success.