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Operators must embrace the cloud in order to deliver innovative new TV services to customers, according to Cisco’s VP and CTO of its service provider video technology group, Nick Thexton. 

Speaking at TV Connect this morning, Thexton said that by moving middleware from a client system to the network itself, TV service providers can start to provide services that are currently impossible or very difficult to deliver.

“It’s so easy to think of the cloud as just a data centre online. It is much more than that. It’s actually the ability to have parallel computer power,” he said, claiming that cloud DVR is already part of Cisco’s Videoscape offer that it has announced this year.

Noting the benefits of the cloud, Thexton said one example was device co-ordination, or being able to mirror from one screen to another, which is a lot easier to achieve within the same online network.

He also dismissed service disruption fears, drawing a parallel between the early days of electricity in the 1900s when people would build their own generators and power stations out of fear of outages, before the grid was accepted as a reliable utility.

“I’m fairly confident that with the amount of investment going into cloud infrastructure and the number of people who are investing, that it will be impossible to take out a cloud network in the future,” said Thexton, adding the important decision now was when to move to the cloud and how quickly.