Given that evolution on the Web is inevitable, for network providers and application and content providers, the result is “an unstable business model where the value passed between the two players is minimal and neither has full access to the resources they need for long-term success,” according to a new white paper from Alcatel-Lucent (News - Alert).

 

Network providers are not getting commensurate compensation for their assets and support, so just as you would be in that situation, they’re “reluctant to fund the network expansion required for today’s bandwidth-intensive applications,” the study finds. Makes sense. It’s not a great state of affairs, but you can see their point.

 

And looked at from the other point of view, application and content providers have restricted access to the network capabilities – location, presence, quality of service and trusted security they need to enhance the end-user experience.

 

The answer is what Alcatel-Lucent calls a “strategic focus on application enablement,” which “creates a sustainable new environment that combines the best capabilities of the network and the Web world so all players can evolve to a more stable model that enables new revenue opportunities.”

 

Application enablement, the paper maintains, “will improve the Web experience for consumer and enterprise end users. And it will create new value that end users, advertisers and sponsors are willing to pay for.” That last sentence is the music to the ears.

 

The key, Alcatel Lucent (News - Alert) says, is that network providers bring the quality, trust, reliability and availability needed, as well as the capabilities they’ve used to establish business relationships with end users. These include billing systems that enable multiple billing options, security for private transactions, such as in the financial, e-commerce and healthcare sectors and network-based storage of digital content for more flexible end-user access among others – end-to-end bandwidth for high-quality transmissions when and where they are needed is another one.

 

Application and content providers bring speed and creativity: “With both in-house developers and an ecosystem of hundreds of thousands of application developers, they have the scale needed to quickly deliver innovative, experience-focused applications to end users. They excel at fast and open service innovation and are well-known for their ability to quickly roll out new services to consumers then, through consumers, to the enterprise.”

 

By investing in a high-leverage network and exposing key capabilities in a controlled way, the paper concludes, “network providers will be able to evolve their business models in line with end-user expectations. And they will be ready for the uptake of new services that is expected as the global economy returns to strength.”

The key, then, to application enablement is that “both network providers and content and application providers bring critical capabilities to the equation. And both realize benefits that help them address their pain points.”