Service storm: A self-service telecommunication service delivery platform with platform-as-a-service technology

Abstract

To attract and serve an expanded customer base, telecommunication service providers need to provide more targeted, focused and personalized services, which brings challenges to both business model and technologies to development of value added services. In this paper, we introduce Service Storm, a novel self-service telecommunication Service Delivery Platform with Platform-as-a-Service technologies to support rapid and flexible construction and delivery of value added services in the cloud environment as an open developer community. Firstly, we analyze the characteristics of four categories of users including Individual User, Organization User, Telecommunication Operator, and Business Partner, and present the architecture of Service Storm to support new business model targeting at long tail applications as well as conventional business models. Then we highlight the key technologies including 1) Rapid assembly model and tools for codeless and off-premise integration of telecom services and application logic based on Web 2.0 technologies, 2) Cloud based resource isolation, management, capacity planning and scaling for dynamic topology deployment and elastic infrastructure support, and 3) Automatic deployment and monitoring in runtime. Finally we illustrate the sample of SMS and Web based mobile workflow for insurance order management to show the advantages of Service Storm. We demonstrate how these technologies and architectures enable the new business model for telecommunication operator and significantly enhance the diversity of value added services with lower cost and shorter time to market. © 2010 IEEE.