Here are five reasons you should embrace it now
The next revolution in information technology – 5G + Edge Computing – is here and it brings an unprecedented opportunity for the telecom industry and all enterprises. Just as companies like Uber, Venmo and Snap could not have launched without the connectivity innovations brought by 4G, the next telecom revolution will birth companies and innovations we can’t yet fully imagine.
More than just an incremental advance in our telecommunications infrastructure, 5G is being called a foundation of the fourth industrial revolution, where hyper-fast data speeds and bandwidth rich networks will enable transformative products, processes and services. The real-time insights spawned from the massive datasets generated, collected and analyzed at the EDGE of these networks will be critical to the development of things like IoT, autonomous vehicles, and factory safety monitoring.
Fully realizing the potential of 5G means transforming the core telecom network from a fixed-function, hard-wired, appliance architecture to a software-based open hybrid cloud platform. By building the next-generation network on open-source technology, Telcos will have a seamless, agile, future-proof platform that they and their customers can use to accelerate innovation. This will allow services to be quickly, securely, consistently and efficiently deployed across the core network, a regional network or the Edge.
With open standards put forward by the Linux Foundation and Red Hat, a vast army of programmers and engineers are collaborating to design a framework that relies on no single vendor, and that is designed to be interoperable and flexible.
The telecom industry is embracing this new paradigm and already reaping the benefits:
Network security
More automation, predictive analytics and AI built into the platform means a more robust self-healing ability to sense and respond to issues as they emerge. Compare this to single-vendor proprietary network appliance, where a Telco has to rely on the vendor – or third-parties – to test and evolve the system.
Freedom of action
Open source liberates companies from a risky, long-standing constraint: vendor lock-in. Being forced to source solutions from a limited set of vendors means being locked into inflexible product cycles and limited R&D budgets and resources. Instead, open source unlocks the power of a developer eco-system constantly responding to market demands.
Faster innovation
In the same way that automation makes a safer network, the ability to integrate technology from many different suppliers – both hardware and software – enables faster scaling and enhanced agility. The Edge of the network can become a platform for enterprise innovation – delivering next-generation insights-as-a-service while leveraging data at scale.
Lower costs
Inputs from many different systems mean that inefficiencies in the platform are identified faster, and more efficient products and processes can be deployed. The network can continually sense and respond with virtualized RAN and VNF capabilities orchestrated for continual peak performance.
Easy integration
Even as 5G looms, 4G and 3G network architectures will persist for some time.. An open hybrid cloud network platform can use the latest in technology innovation, including containers and kubernetes to modernize existing capabilities.
Large telecom providers are already starting to build out 5G networks and to offer exciting new Edge capabilities driven by AI and automation. The future is now, and the wide-scale doption of open hybrid network cloud technology will accelerate the time to high-value innovation.
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