Podcast

Ep 47 – Half measures

August 9, 2022

This week’s guest

Shaun Whalon

VP of Digital Monetization CSG

Let’s be real: shifting workloads to the public cloud is no easy task. I’ve met a bunch of telecom leaders who debate about what is the best approach – should we go in one giant leap, or a series of steps? Their hesitancy to go all-in has left telco vendors designing and supporting multiple solutions—including private and hybrid cloud offerings—to meet them where they are, wherever that may be.

If the shortest path between two points is a straight line, and if we all agree that the destination is the public cloud, why take a half measure? I think it’s a waste of time and money. Why spend on interim steps when you could be investing in gaining public cloud know-how and competitive advantages immediately?

Everyone knows how much I like to dig into topics like these with people who don’t see eye-to-eye with me. That’s why I’m super psyched to have Shaun Whalon, VP of digital monetization at CSG, on the podcast. There’s a lot Shaun and I agree about—like that the move to the public cloud is inevitable for telco—and a lot we don’t agree on, like the best way to get there. Hit play to hear our conversation about:

The difference between CSG’s Ascendon and Encompass products [04:00];
How CSG’s definition of SaaS and cloud native differ from mine [06:30];
How the speed at which hyperscalers are rolling out new regions is affecting telecoms’ cloud journey [10:09]; and
Why I don’t agree with a hybrid approach, and why Shaun feels it can’t be avoided [15:43].

Listen to our conversation by clicking play above or subscribe through your favorite podcast platform – see the links in the right column above.

Links and Resources

You can find the transcript for this episode here.
Read CSG’s press release about Encompass
Then check out its announcement about Xponent
Shaun mentioned our episode with BT Chief Architect Neil McRae. Listen to him talk about BT’s multi-cloud approach. I’ll bet you can guess my opinion!
Shaun comes from the windiest part of Ireland, Donegal. Learn more about it.
Here’s one of my favorite scenes from the TV show Breaking Bad: “No more half measures, Walter”
Don’t miss this Porky Pig Looney Tunes – he gets stuck in a hotel with an expensive bill to pay. He can’t get out – the perfect metaphor for legacy telco software!
And finally, here’s a big shoutout to Shaun’s daughters and their YouTube baking channel – mini orange fairy cakes, anyone?

Author’s bio

Shaun Whalon is a senior executive with 20+ years of experience in the communications industry. He specializes in software and hardware customer service delivery, customer support, outsourced managed services, and baselining and improving customer experience. He has worked in multinational environments including Asia, Australia, Central and South America, Sub-Sahara Africa, and UK/Europe.

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The Telco in 20 podcast won a 2022 Gold Hermes Award and was recognized on Forrester’s 2021 list of the Top 100 Channel Podcasts and Feedspot’s Top 10 Telecom Podcasts list.

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