Frost & Sullivan has released the 'Global Cloud EPC & Microservice Market Research', aiming to analyze the current development status, industry characteristics, driving factors, and trends of the global cloud-based EPC and operator microservice industries. It focuses on the competitive landscape of the global market and reflects the differentiated competitive advantages of leading enterprises in this market.
- Mobile network penetration promotes the cloud-based EPC market, but it will be overtaken by 5GC after 2020
The 4G core network is located at the center of network data exchange, mainly responsible for managing mobile connectivity, session management, and data transmission for end-users. Suppliers provide EPC cloud services to telecom operators, combining Network Function Virtualization (NFV) to achieve digital transformation, simplify network architecture, and reduce operational costs. The cloud-based core network is based on an open architecture, providing operator-level services such as high reliability, high performance, and fault recovery, supporting more flexible business expansion and better user experiences.
With the increase in mobile network penetration and the expansion of application scenarios, the cloud-based core network market during the 4G era has grown. With the commercialization of 5G networks starting in 2020, future telecom operator construction will mainly focus on 5G standalone networking.
- The microservice architecture can better meet diverse business models and customer needs
As the application environment becomes increasingly complex, telecom operators are gradually transitioning from traditional monolithic architectures to microservice architectures. The development of the microservice market is mainly driven by operator business needs, system upgrades, and technological advancements:
- Microservices have the characteristics of independent deployment and rapid iteration, making them a solution for operators to establish centralized IT systems that connect different services and regions.
- The microservice architecture is more flexible and reliable, meeting the needs of diverse business models and helping traditional operators transform into diversified service providers.
- Microservices can solve the redundancy and inefficiency caused by existing isolated systems in operators.
- Microservices with interface layer interaction and contract-driven models are more conducive to improving operators' autonomy and controllability over their systems.
- Microservices originated in information technology and have matured in the field of communication technology applications. Many authoritative institutions such as 3GPP and ETSI have adopted microservices as standard applications for NFV during the transformation process, such as 5G technology.
- With the support of the technical ecosystem (containers, DevOps toolchains, development language frameworks, design and development methodologies, etc.), the microservice architecture has matured. Many internet companies and organizations have already verified the unique advantages of the microservice architecture in practice.
The microservice architecture has the advantages of independent service development, flexible deployment, and rapid delivery. However, its implementation requires not only technical preparation and hardware support but also corresponding organizational transformation to match the new operational model. In the 5G era, operators that can flexibly adopt the microservice architecture will have an advantage in achieving diverse business models and meeting customer needs. It is estimated that the operator microservice market will grow from $21.7 billion in 2020 to $60.4 billion in 2025, with a compound annual growth rate of 22.7%.
