It would make sense that more cloud technology adoption should mean more market share for ISPs, but that won’t be the case for long. Traditional carriers like AT&T, Verizon, and CenturyLink, known as the “Big 3”, are quickly losing their relevance due to new disruptive tech, and soon CIOs and CTOs will be considering ISP replacements never before possible.

This change has been long in the making. Many CTO’s who were confident in their ability to control and manage on-prem solutions have now come to the point where the cost and added management of these systems are best left to companies who make it their job, 24-hours a day with the added benefit of offloading responsibility and sleepless nights. These CTOs ran into a problem, however, bandwidth!

As the “Big 3” continue to have uptime issues, bandwidth limitations, not to mention the high cost of service plans, CTOs and CIO have been dreaming of ISP replacements, but how do you disrupt and replace your ISP? Don’t we depend on them for connectivity? Not exactly.

ISPs, in a humorous turn of events, will soon face competition or be completely replaced by the very trusted tech companies that once kept their data pipelines full, their pockets stuffed with cash, and their shareholders happy: Amazon (AWS), Microsoft (Azure), and Google (Hybrid Connectivity.)

New Tech Is Disrupting ISPs

These new behemoths, leveraging new technology like Gen 2 SD-Wan, 5G, Super POPs, and other technologies are changing the game entirely, and we haven’t even fully tapped into the plethora of new applications in cloud-based technologies as they become more efficient and beneficial by the day.

Cloud providers like Amazon, Microsoft, and Google will not only take the driver’s seat in how technology/content is consumed but may actually stand to replace the old guard entirely serving as elegant ISP replacements. To understand the complexities of how this future transition will work, it’s important to comprehend the capability of the technology being implemented right under their noses.

ISP Replacements Become Reality

Traditionally, carriers provide connectivity and cloud players provide a place to consume a company’s applications, infrastructure, and tools. In the past, they have been complementary services. But that will end.

What is not fully realized by the outside world and oddly, by the bloated “Big 3” carriers, however, is that the “Big 3” cloud providers are stealthily building out a very large global network of dark fiber, undersea cables, and over the air spectrum via 5G. Once they fully complete these projects, the importance and dependence of expensive carrier-grade private networks will become less relevant.

As the “build” model for companies becomes too costly and too slow to be competitive, seeking out ISP replacements in the form of migration to new cloud providers will become an obvious solution. Companies like, but not limited to, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft will allow CIOs and CTOs more scalability, flexibility, simplicity and best of all lower cost due to growing competition for dollars.

Two worlds, that were previously siloed are set to finally come together in a way no one anticipated. Private connectivity and application accessibility. This convergence is ushering in a new world that cares less about managing circuit SLAs and networks and more about managing application SLAs and workloads.

With new ISP replacement options on the horizon and new solutions around the corner, perhaps CTOs and CIOs can finally make it home for dinner.

Eric Skeens is the co-founder of 3 Tree Tech. His team has the expertise to tame your tech infrastructure. Whether it’s Gen 2 SD-WAN, Wireless 5G implementation or cybersecurity, call us to simplify the complex.