Telstra's composable IT architecture neutralises vendor lock-in risk

Telstra has re-architected its IT estate in a way that reduces the risk of it being “locked” into using certain technologies and hostage to price hikes or other bad faith actions by partners.

The telco has adopted a composable architecture for its IT estate, using what it calls the Telstra Reference Architecture Model (TRAM), which incorporates elements of TM Forum’s Open Digital Architecture (ODA).

ODA is a standardised cloud-native enterprise architecture that is supported by a range of technology vendors that serve the telecommunications sector globally.

The composability of Telstra’s IT estate today means that all component systems talk to one another via APIs, and that any component or platform can be easily swapped out, if needed.

Group executive Product & Technology Kim Krogh Andersen told the iTnews Podcast that reducing vendor lock-in was a key goal of this architectural approach.

“Without mentioning any specific names, there are providers out there that are really hiking the prices of their technology at the moment,” Andersen said.

“They have recognised that many companies are locked in and therefore have really no alternative, and therefore you become very vulnerable from a commercial point of view if you don't get that decoupling done and that ability to shift and even commoditise some of these partners that have shown that they take all means to maximize their revenue out of these things.

“That’s why Telstra's reference architecture is so critical because we now have that ability to actually shift if we are not treated with the respect we believe we deserve.”

Andersen said that Telstra has worked to reduce lock-in “across all layers”, from software product suppliers to data and cloud platform providers.

“We try to have a very layered and composable architecture that gives us options and always ensures that our partners deserve to be our partners and not just lock us in and therefore we give away all the leverage,” Andersen said.

“It's not that we want to treat our partners in a transactional way - not at all. We are actually moving to much more strategic partnerships, but we don't want to be in a lock-in where we have no options, and where somehow we are at risk of being exposed to significant commercial risk as a company.

“Architecture is the best way to avoid that because you have that ability to move away from partners if you don't get a reasonable commercial arrangement in place and if they don't treat you as a strategic partner.”

He added: “We have simply not been disciplined enough in our architecture historically, and that's why we have doubled down on that in the last two-to-three strategy periods.”

The composability should also allow the telco to move faster, should it identify opportunities or systems it wants to power new customer-facing features or back-of-house optimisations.

“If you think historically, every time we want to change a feature in the product or in the app or something like that, most of these [systems] are vertically integrated into the entire IT estate, and therefore everything needs to be [re-]tested,” Andersen said.

“With the composable architecture, you have that ability to decouple systems and release things in one product - like the My Telstra app - without necessarily touching the [core] systems.”

ODA’s development

With ODA at the core of TRAM, Telstra is a keen participant in the standards body’s ongoing work.

“Inside TM Forum, they now have three mission boards, as they call them, and that's really three areas of focus,” Andersen said.

“One is the ODA, which is the most mature of them, which is the one we have replicated into our Telstra reference architecture model.

Then they have a stream around AI to really ensure that [telcos globally] take some of that standardisation across how we approach AI. That has really become an all critical mission board stream. 

“And then the third one is what we call the autonomous network, which is really to apply AI and autonomy to the way we operate our network.”

Telstra has “decided to be deeply integrated into each” stream, “taking leadership roles to ensure we can drive that forward,” Andersen said.

The telco’s chief architect Mark Sanders is heavily involved in ODA; executive director of data and AI Dayle Stevens in the AI stream; and Andersen himself in the autonomous network stream.

“We have really ensured that we’re well represented there and we try to drive the industry forward in that TM Forum setup,” Andersen said.

“On the global stage and in the tech environment, even a company like Telstra is tiny compared to a lot of the partners we need to work with in a constructive and strategic partnership fashion. So for us, having that leverage of all our peers across the globe is super critical to ensure we can scale in a sustainable and cost effective way.”