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Summary: Execs from Box, T-Mobile, and Verizon discuss what the cloud services value chain looks like and how network and services providers are starting to converge.

SAN FRANCISCO -- There are plenty of definitions of the cloud floating around, which has given way to a lot of random strategies and various business models for cloud services.

But those business models are starting to evolve as wireless carriers and cloud services providers get closer to working together rather than sticking it out (and working harder) on their own.

"What we spend a lot of time thinking about, from a network standpoint, is that we're a highway to the cloud," said Jason Young, vice president of product strategy at T-Mobile USA, during a panel discussion at the Open Mobile Summit on Thursday. He explained that basically means just connecting customers to the cloud-based services they want to use.

Jamie Perlman, senior director of mobile business development at Box, admitted that at the enterprise cloud storage company, they have a "much more simplistic view than a lot of people" when it comes to the cloud.

"From our perspective, the cloud is really just the Internet," Perlman said. He further described that viewpoint as rather than storing corporate content on your own servers, which can be difficult to access from mobile devices and beyond firewalls, the content is stored on Box servers, making it more accessible for everyone from virtually anywhere.

Perlman acknowledged that security is a big (if not the biggest) concern there, but he asserted that content is really safer on Box servers versus on-premise or other options because "that's all we do."

Young concurred, but he incorporated both enterprise and consumer cloud services under the same umbrella.

"We're very focused on filling out our own consumer-based suite with services that sort of preserve that level of security and safety for consumers' data," Young said.

Along with security, one of the other chief priorities in a cloud-based world is constant connectivity. Without an Internet connection, any productivity arguments and whatnot go out the window.

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Cloud storage providers, network execs discuss converged future