Next Generation Networking Ecosystem
When selling network and cloud services, you have a different type of ecosystem. These actually reflect the IaaS, PaaS and SaaS offerings however the line gets blurred as many providers will be taking on different roles. This is why it is possible to adhere to this recursive pattern.
In next generation networking ecosystem, partners may have one or many of the following roles:
ProviderThis party has the economical ownership of the equipment, and he/she can lease pieces of it to consumers. These resources can be in the form of Infrasture (IaaS), Network (NaaS), Platforms (PaaS) or event Software (SaaS)
Example: Cloud providers, Open-Access Network, Research Networks.
ConsumerThis party consumes resources or services and may become a value-added reseller, operator or simply be the end-user. They can modify and act upon resources as they wish and have operational ownership of the resources.
Example : Everyone that consumes a resource.
AggregatorThis is a special type of consumer that brokers resources from different providers and assembles then as either a Solution (deployed) or a Blueprint (undeployed).
Example: Brokers, Marketplaces, Virtual Network Providers.
OperatorThis is a special type of consumer that modifies resources and insures appropriate service delivery and Service Level Agreements needed to become a provider of another service or resource to another set of users.
Example: Telecom Operators, Platform Vendors, ISVs.
As seen on the figure above, any consumer can become a provider to yet another level of consumers this allows recursive offerings like the ones currently found in cloud solutions (IaaS,PaaS,SaaS) but is not limited to this approach. Inocybe Technologies' platform was designed entirely to support this kind of recursive marketplace and resource exchange regardless of the resource types.