04.16.08
CSF and service delivery - which type of hoster will you be?
Attending the recent Microsoft service delivery event in Paris, this event is primarily concerned with the deployment and use of CSF (The Connected Services Framework) in service delivery models, I was involved in a number of conversations surrounding (not surprisingly) how the services consumed through CSF are delivered and by whom.
The whole concept behind CSF is that the services consumed, and subsequently aggregated and delivered to the end user, need not be located within the technical environment of that customers supplier. Indeed the perfect scenario is that the CSF owner (the supplier) does not actually ‘own’ any of the service technology, they simply consume the best of breed from the services network and deliver this as a product.
So, with this in mind what happens to the service providers we see today? Here are my thoughts… If you are a technology supplier and your core competency is the provision of high quality, data-centre based services (like hosted email, messaging or applications) then you would be best placed delivering these in a CSF consumable form. If you are a Telco or a hoster with core competencies in the delivery of complex or value-added solutions then you should be a consumer of CSF-ready services.
This means that I see an almost Amoebic split of hosters into those supplying and those consuming (please don’t slip on the cytoplasm!). So here is the big question… Are you investing in the right technologies for your future? Supporting questions are… Do you have a strategy for service delivery? Do you know where you want to be in this brave new future? Do you realise that even your simple web hosting products could be consumed in this way and are you able to enable this?
Today CSF is very Telco focussed. This is due to the history of the solution but will change over the course of time and is particularly obvious when you look at the majority of demos ad partner presentations which all revolve around mobile location tracking and SMS/MMS usage. But if you look at what CSF does then it’s easy to see how an end user service supplier would choose ‘leaf’ services from ISP’s (whoever thought THAT acronym would become relevant again) and aggregate these into customer products.This means that that today’s hosters needs not be involved in the NBT (Next Big Thing) race any more, they can concentrate on doing what they do best – and at being the best at doing it. Of course there will still be a market for direct sell of these technology services - a return to the good old days of hosting - and it would be a mistake to move too far away from that, but everyone should spend some time thinking about what they want to be and how they want to do business in the near future.
- J.
