Carrier Case Study: Huawei STaaS Reduces TCO by 20%

The global data volume is expected to surge by more than 100 EB per month in 2025, creating a new growth engine for carriers. Emerging services, namely ToB and video services, are driving the development of carriers with a sevenfold increase in data volume. However, carrier revenue growth is lagging far behind this data explosion. Refined data storage planning, therefore, has become a key factor that carriers consider when achieving cost effectiveness.

Storage as a Service (STaaS) promotes the on-demand use of storage resources. With continuous resource optimization and refined management of metering and billing, this solution can effectively slash TCO of data storage.

One major carrier in Latin America is a world-leading carrier in fixed and mobile communications, ranking fifth globally by customer base. It offers a range of services including voice, value-added services, roaming, mobile networks, cloud, AI, and data security.

High procurement and operation costs

The carrier operates nearly 20 subnets across more than 10 countries, managing an internal IT system that supports 4,000 application systems. To meet its needs, it procures nearly 50 PB of new storage capacity every year, involving over 700 procurement processes and more than 30 suppliers. However, only three procurement staff handle this extensive procurement process. Previously, procurement was conducted separately based on the requirements of subnet-based applications, leading to a heavy workload and extended deployment periods.

In addition, application-based resource estimation was inaccurate, hindering procurement management. If the estimated capacity was insufficient, procurement processes had to be initiated frequently. Conversely, if the estimated capacity far exceeded actual needs, resources were significantly wasted. These issues introduced uncertainties into the company's storage investments.

Sub-optimal configurations also led to wasted equipment room space and unnecessary power consumption. Adopting small-capacity disks delivers high performance but results in issues such as high power consumption and wasted equipment room space. While using high-capacity disks may cause insufficient performance.

These factors contributed to high procurement and operation costs.

Turning challenges into growth opportunities with the Huawei STaaS solution

Huawei storage offers the STaaS solution to help the carrier address the above issues. On-demand storage procurement and resource allocation greatly reduce procurement times and deployment costs.

Huawei supported the carrier in classifying its storage systems with a total capacity exceeding 100 PB on its live network. Based on the storage requirements of each application, resources are categorized into five types:

• ULTRA PERFORMANCE (UP1)
• HIGH PERFORMANCE (HP1)
• MEDIUM PERFORMANCE (MP1)
• LOW PERFORMANCE (LP4)
• COLD STORAGE (CS4) 

The performance, reliability, latency, QoS, and interfaces of each type are defined accordingly. Storage vendors should provide configurations based on these five types, and subnets should also be configured and selected accordingly.

The charging of storage capacity is based on a pay-as-you-use (PAYU) model. The STaaS platform provides the PAYU model for settlement with subnets and applications. The platform offers metering and charging with five types of resources billed on a per-TB-per-month basis. Additionally, self-service resource application is available, allowing subsidiaries to request resources directly on the platform without prior resource estimation when current resources are insufficient. Upon applications, operators carry out storage resource allocation and application mounting. The entire process is simple, visualized, and efficient. Procurement staff purchase storage devices from storage vendors by TB. The configuration and pricing are fixed, eliminating the need to spend time on product details, specifications, or specific configurations.

OceanStor Dorado All-Flash Storage: Cost-effective and efficient

After comparing quotations from storage suppliers based on the above classification, the carrier chose Huawei OceanStor Dorado all-flash storage products. Huawei's all-flash storage delivers excellent performance and higher reliability. Its effective capacity mode eliminates the need for using deduplication and compression ratio to calculate capacity and cost, making it an ideal choice for the company.

Huawei storage's fast delivery, quick device deployment, and resource allocation was a key factor in the company's decision to choose Huawei. The solution uses high-capacity SSDs and a high-density hardware design, significantly reducing investments in energy and equipment space and making it a cost-effective solution for the carrier.

With the Huawei STaaS solution, the carrier has reduced its operating costs by nearly 20%, freeing up resources for the continued growth of other services.

Learn more about Huawei's All-Flash Data Storage solutions.

Disclaimer: Any views and/or opinions expressed in this post by individual authors or contributors are their personal views and/or opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views and/or opinions of Huawei Technologies.