SDPs Are Gaining Some Momentum as a Way for Telecom Carriers to Deliver New Services Quickly, But Mixed Messages Remain a Challenge, Says Heavy Reading NEW YORK, Nov. 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Service delivery platforms (SDPs) continue to gain market traction as a way for telecom network operators to deliver new services quickly and inexpensively, but SDP suppliers need to do a much better job of explaining what their products do and how they fit into the overall carrier service delivery environment, according to a major new report issued today by Heavy Reading (http://www.heavyreading.com/ ), Light Reading Inc.'s market research division. The Future of SDP delivers a complete technology and market analysis of the SDP sector, including a comprehensive taxonomy describing the components that make up an SDP and how those elements are combined into the different types of products that need to be integrated to populate an SDP framework. The 75-page report includes detailed product and strategic analyses for 24 different SDP vendors, including market leaders Alcatel (NYSE: ALA; Paris: CGEP.PA), Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERICY), Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ), IBM (NYSE:IBM), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Siemens (NYSE: SI; Frankfurt: SIE), and Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ:SUNW), as well as key SDP technology startups. The Future of SDP highlights each vendor's interpretation of what constitutes an SDP, where its products sit in the Heavy Reading SDP taxonomy, its individual market strategies, and its future development roadmap. The report also identifies important industry trends that are likely to shape the SDP landscape over the next few years. "SDP product vendors are not doing a good job of explaining what they do and where they fit to the market, a weakness that threatens to hamper SDP market development," notes Caroline Chappell, analyst at large with Heavy Reading and author of the report. "Operators may stay with their stovepipe service delivery approach because it seems simpler than trying to understand vendors' very different -- and often contradictory -- architectural approaches. Or they will buy from the names they've heard of, rather than exploring best-of-breed products whose descriptions they don't understand." Other key findings from The Future of SDP include the following: The lack of a standard SDP reference model is having a negative impact on market development. SDP, arguably an operator's greatest source of competitive advantage, has yet to secure a standard definition. Vendors say this is because this is such a competitive domain: No operator wants its SDP to look like anyone else's. However, there are downsides to a lack of standardization. Telecom equipment vendors are struggling to establish credibility with network operators in the SDP market. Most network equipment providers have some way to go in demonstrating their business transformation and management consultancy credentials, as well as in persuading operators that they can work with multivendor next-generation environments and that their SDPs will be truly independent of vendor network equipment -- especially their own. The Future of SDP, a 75-page report, costs $3,495 and is published in PDF format. The price includes an enterprise license covering all of the employees at the purchaser's company. For more information, or to request a free executive summary, contact: Dave Williams Sales Director, Heavy Reading 858-485-8870 Press/analyst contact: Dennis Mendyk Managing Director, Heavy Reading 201-587-2154 About Heavy Reading Heavy Reading is an independent market research organization offering quantitative analysis of telecom technology to service providers, vendors, and investors. Its mandate is to provide the comprehensive competitive analysis needed today for the deployment of profitable networks based on next- generation hardware and software. DATASOURCE: Heavy Reading CONTACT: Dave Williams, Sales Director, +1-858-485-8870, , or Press/analyst contact: Dennis Mendyk, Managing Director, +1-201-587-2154, , both of Heavy Reading Web site: http://www.heavyreading.com/

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