Nokia plans to offer cloud-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions targeting telecom companies covering analytics, security, and data management.

The Finnish company said offering SaaS for communication service providers (CSPs) is a natural evolution of “Everything-as-a-Service”, which it said is a key element of its overall strategy.

Nokia claims the move is a culmination of steps it has taken in recent years to enhance CSP network operations, including rearchitecting its software applications to make them fully cloud-native and deployable in any cloud environment, edge, public, or private.

Nokia said it has other SaaS for CSP services that will be announced in early 2022, and claimed it is currently in discussions with several CSPs around the world about using its SaaS services, including for security purposes.

The company said the SaaS addressable market it is targeting between the 2021-2025 period, comprised of CSPs and enterprises, has a value of $3.1 billion and an annual growth rate of approximately 25 to 30 per cent.

“SaaS is the software consumption model of the future,” said Caroline Chappell, research director at Analysys Mason. “It is nascent in the telco market today but our research shows that leading operators understand its benefits and are waiting for vendors to respond.”

“It is good to see a mainstream vendor like Nokia making an early move into SaaS-based delivery. This will position Nokia well to serve operators that need to accelerate the adoption of new cloud-based technologies at scale, such as 5G, IoT, edge computing and AI.”

She added: “CSPs must transform themselves to capitalise on these technologies, and the switch to SaaS delivery models is a critical component of their digital transformation strategies.”

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