Service providers are at a junction -they can either drift into irrelevance, or join the fast-moving digital world

The business world has changed -and digital companies are leading the transformation.

One successful business powering the new digital future is Amazon, through Amazon Web Services, its on-demand cloud computing service. And Google is also driving change in the same direction, through its similar cloud-based offer.

Why are these companies investing in on-demand cloud computing?

Because they know that today's customers want fast, flexible services. They want to be able to buy these services easily, access them immediately, and adjust them whenever their needs change.

A similar trend is happening in the world of networks. As businesses and consumers come to expect more and more personalised, versatile services, the importance of networks that can support these will grow.

So service providers now find themselves at a junction. They can continue in their current direction and become legacy companies. This is likely to mean they'll come to be seen as utilities, with limited opportunities for growth or innovation.

Or they can join the fast-moving digital world, gaining the opportunity to win their share of the huge amount of new business on offer.

Smarter and more agile

But to succeed in this world, businesses will need to be smarter and more agile.

They'll have to be able to respond flexibly to changing circumstances, and allow customers the freedom to shape their own products and services.

A lot of things remain uncertain about this future. But one thing we know is that providers won't be able to succeed in it using yesterday's technology.

A key way that service providers can meet the changing demands of their customers is through virtualisation, enabled by orchestration. A virtualised network is one that has been decoupled from its hardware. While still rooted in physical equipment, it can be operated independently of it.

This enables service providers to work a lot more flexibly. Why? Because they can be driven by what their customers want, rather than by their hardware's limitations. They can provide bespoke cloud-based services, available instantly, using