Platform engineering for telecommunications is gaining traction as the industry undergoes rapid evolution. This approach accelerates app development, making it more accessible for businesses, and simplifies work for developers, allowing them to create things faster. As such, platform engineering not only promises to enhance how developers work but also plays a vital role in meeting the evolving needs of the telecommunications sector and shaping its future.
By making technology and knowledge accessible across various roles, platform engineering ensures smoother collaboration between software developers and operators. According to Gartner, by 2026, approximately 80% of major software companies are expected to form internal platform engineering teams, contributing to a more efficient and collaborative landscape for application delivery within the telecommunications industry.
Understanding platform engineering
Platform engineering for telecommunications, media, and entertainment (TME) is a rising trend aimed at modernizing enterprise software delivery, especially for digital transformation. In platform engineering, a dedicated product team establishes and manages the engineering platform, which is tailored to support software developers and others. It provides common, reusable tools and interfaces along with complex infrastructure.
A platform’s specific capabilities will vary based on user needs. The product team must grasp user requirements, prioritize tasks, and construct a platform beneficial to the target audience.
Initial efforts often start with intelligent data platforms (IDPs), offering a curated set of tools and processes. Subject matter experts package them for easy use, fostering a seamless, self-service developer experience. The goal is to enhance productivity, reduce cognitive load, and provide everything development teams need in a format that suits their workflow.
The emergence of new tools aiming to simplify platform building and maintenance has elevated platform engineering in telecom DevOps discussions. This aligns with the understanding of platform engineering, encompassing its definition, scope, key components, and principles within the broader context of modernizing software delivery.
Intelligent data platforms in telecommunications
An intelligent data platform is an environment designed to optimize the development, deployment, and management of applications. In the context of telecommunications, IDPs play a crucial role in abstracting and automating the intricacies of infrastructure management. An IDP furnishes developers with a user-friendly, self-service interface for deploying code and overseeing applications across diverse environments, such as development, staging, and production.
Tailored to an organization’s unique requirements, an IDP integrates essential tooling and compliance measures. This customization ensures that developers can concentrate on coding while adhering to organizational standards and practices. The importance of data-driven decision-making in the telecommunications industry is underscored by the capabilities of IDPs, which empower organizations to harness insights derived from intelligent data management for strategic decision support.
Benefits of IDP platform engineering for telecom
In the rapidly evolving telecommunications landscape, integration of robust platform engineering solutions, enriched by IDPs, becomes essential for addressing the dynamic needs of consumers and regulatory frameworks associated with digital transformation. This synergy brings critical benefits to the telecom sector:
1. Efficiency and cost-effectiveness
- Operational efficiency: Both platform engineering and IDPs streamline telecom service deployment, minimizing operational overhead.
- Cost reduction: Through automation, IDPs optimize resource management, significantly reducing operational and capital expenditures.
2. Scalability and flexibility
- Seamless scalability: The modular nature of IDPs facilitates effortless scaling to meet fluctuating demand.
- Infrastructure flexibility: An IDP enables seamless integration with diverse infrastructure setups, addressing varying operational needs.
3. Reliability and availability
- High availability: Ensures continuous service availability, even under peak use.
- Disaster recovery: Integrated capabilities allow for quick service restoration, minimizing downtime.
4. Innovation and speed to market
- Accelerated deployment: IDPs enhance deployment automation, reducing the time to market for new telecom cloud services.
- Fostering innovation: A collaborative environment promotes rapid adaptation to technological advancements and market trends.
5. Compliance and security
- Enhanced security: Incorporates robust security measures at every layer.
- Compliance management: Streamlines adherence to evolving regulatory requirements, minimizing non-compliance risks.
6. Customer satisfaction
- Enhanced service quality: Assures high availability and reliability, improving customer satisfaction.
- Better customer experience: Rapid deployment of new features enriches the customer experience, fostering long-term loyalty.
7. Insights and analytics
- Real-time monitoring: Facilitates real-time monitoring for proactive issue resolution.
- Predictive analytics: Aids in predicting user behavior and trends, contributing to informed planning.
8. Developer productivity and collaboration
- Developer efficiency: IDPs provide a self-service interface, freeing developers from infrastructure complexities.
- Enhanced collaboration: IDPs foster efficient collaboration among development, operations, and security teams.
9. Continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD)
- CI/CD integrations: Built-in or easily integrable pipelines facilitate continuous integration, testing, and deployment of applications, which is fundamental for modern platform engineering.
This interconnected approach amplifies the impact of platform engineering, particularly in the telecommunications sector, ushering in a new era of efficiency, innovation, and customer satisfaction.
Platform engineering in real-world scenarios
In the dynamic world of telecom services, platform engineering is a driving force for innovation and efficiency. As a trusted vendor, Intellias adopts a hands-on approach that results in transformative solutions addressing unique industry challenges. Let’s explore real-world success stories showcasing the tangible impact of platform engineering.
- Next-gen cloud communications platform for advanced voice services
Intellias developed a next-gen cloud communications platform for a leading German telecom provider specializing in business VoIP, IP telephony, and cloud communications. Faced with the challenge of bringing innovative voice services to a global market, the client sought a modern solution beyond their legacy portal.
With a Scrum team of 10 engineers, Intellias delivered a comprehensive VoIP system comprising admin, user, and call center portals. The platform enables high-definition services, supports over 2,000 business customers globally, and has optimized operations through portals, ensuring billing efficiency, automation, and cost optimization. The call center portal, in particular, has become a global success, generating new revenue streams for the client.
- Automated telecom billing software and provisioning system for IP telephony
Intellias developed an automated telecom billing software and provisioning system for a leading Swiss provider of wholesale IP telephony services. The client sought to automate complex invoicing operations and enhance their customer portal for advanced telecom services. Intellias built a highly customizable billing system with support for different contract types, streamlining billing operations and minimizing the risk of financial losses.
Additionally, the Intellias team implemented a provisioning system for automatic configuration of IP phones, improving device setup for end users and reducing operational costs. The project extended to enhancing the client’s user portal through multiple generations, adding innovative features including efficient number management and an automatic call distribution (ACD) system, positioning the client as one of the largest and most trusted IP telephony providers in their country of operation.
- Real-time advertising platform
Intellias played a pivotal role in advancing a leading mobile-first ad exchange platform, transforming it into the premier marketplace for global advertisers and publishers. Tasked with expanding real-time ad exchange, Intellias provided essential Java development resources, forming dedicated teams for customer integrations and message broker development. The collaboration is active and ongoing, with plans for further expansion and engineering capacity extension on the part of Intellias.
The solution being developed enhances publishers’ capabilities, offering improved eCPMs, global demand partner access, optimized demand sources, and robust analysis and reporting. Advertisers benefit from efficient management of mobile ad campaigns, powerful ad targeting, and insightful campaign performance metrics visualization.
- Developing a UCaaS platform for all-in-cloud communications
Intellias partnered with a US cloud voice company to modernize legacy on-premises software, transforming it into a cutting-edge Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) platform. Beginning with SIP features and migrating to microservices, the collaboration expanded the client’s existing VoIP solution into a comprehensive unified communications platform. Starting with 17 engineers, the project evolved into five dedicated teams, focusing on carrier integrations, billing, data storage, analytics, business messaging, and platform management.
The result was a feature-rich UCaaS solution covering voice, conferencing, messaging, and productivity features. The partnership led to significant business outcomes, including a 30% revenue boost and a near doubling of the company’s size within a year.
- Transforming an SMS campaigns startup into a multifunctional SMS marketing platform
Intellias undertook the challenge of transforming an Israeli SMS campaigns startup into a versatile SMS marketing platform, addressing the client’s need for multifunctionality and cost-effective on-premises deployment. Over a six-month period of collaboration, Intellias devised a unique architecture based on the AWS stack, ensuring flexibility for both on-premises and cloud deployment.
This solution provided expanded features such as multi-language support, Unicode and emoji character compatibility, prolonged message storage, multi-currency transactions, blacklisting, whitelisting, and two-factor authentication. The innovative architecture not only met the client’s multifunctional requirements but also significantly reduced deployment costs, making it adaptable to diverse SMS marketing software solutions and specific use cases like emergency communications.
- Outdoor adventure mapping platform
Intellias played a pivotal role in elevating a British startup’s adventure platform with Unity-powered 3D maps, catering to outdoor enthusiasts globally. The challenge involved redesigning the 3D map data pipeline to automate and enhance map compilation and rendering for over 100 mountain resorts. Leveraging expertise in architectural consulting, Intellias proposed a Python-driven pipeline orchestration engine, a MetaStore layer based on Cassandra NoSQL DB and RabbitMQ, Docker for computational task containerization, and AWS services for cloud computing.
The outcome was a comprehensive architectural design, instilling confidence in technical viability, facilitating accurate estimation, and enabling the deployment of applications with superior map resolution and advanced terrain analysis tools.
Navigating downfalls and potential challenges
While platform engineering services bring myriad advantages, particularly for telecom service providers aiming for digital transformation, it is important to address the potential pitfalls and challenges. Here are some critical considerations:
- Complexity: Orchestrating various components in a telecom network can lead to complexity, potentially increasing errors and downtime. This underscores the importance of careful planning and a well-structured execution strategy.
- Initial investment: Setting up the platform requires significant investment in skilled personnel and infrastructure. A smooth transition hinges on thoughtful resource allocation and management within the provider’s infrastructure.
- Collaboration challenges: Inadequate planning may result in a siloed environment, hindering team collaboration and communication. This can impede the seamless flow of information and ideas crucial for innovative service delivery in the telecom sector.
- Legacy systems: Dealing with legacy systems is a common challenge for telecom providers, leading to integration issues and potential service disruptions. A phased and well-planned transition strategy is essential to address compatibility issues.
- Compliance requirements: The heavily regulated telecom sector requires strict compliance with existing and evolving standards, laws, and regulations. Successful adoption of platform engineering practices demands meticulous planning and foresight to navigate complex regulatory requirements.
Bottom line
Platform engineering is crucial for modern software delivery, especially in the telecom sector. Integrating IDPs into telecom infrastructure emphasizes its essence, offering a self-service container platform. This boosts platform development efficiency and positions providers at the forefront, delivering agile, scalable, and reliable services in a competitive market. The moves towards platform engineering for creating telecom infrastructure is not just a technical shift but a strategic initiative redefining how service providers operate and innovate.
Contact our experts to explore how platform engineering can help you innovate and gain a competitive edge by offering advanced services to your customers.
