‘Ownership of the edge is still up for grabs’: Q&A with Accedian’s Chief Strategy Officer

Accedian’s Chief Strategy Officer: ‘There is immense opportunity in 5G, the cloud and edge, for both customers and service providers’

RCR Wireless News spoke with Accedian’s Chief Strategy Officer Richard Piasentin about what service providers need to do to ensure that they are well-positioned to take advantage of the emerging revenue streams being made possible 5G, the cloud and edge, especially since, as he puts it, ownership of such technologies is “still up for grabs.”

Q: What steps do service providers have to take to take advantage of and capitalize on the new revenue streams being made possible by 5G, the cloud and edge?

Piasentin: There is immense opportunity in 5G, the cloud and edge, for both customers and service providers alike. Customers will have the opportunity to leverage technologies that require super-low latency network service — think augmented reality, wearables and automated vehicles.

Customers will need to be motivated to pay more, to drive meaningful increasing revenue potential on the service provider side. But with great opportunity comes great complexity, and providers will need to ensure they have the right tools to manage this complexity to assure profits. 

Next-generation solutions that encourage enhanced visibility deliver root-cause analysis in complex cloud/hybrid cloud environments will be required. Even the smallest hiccups can create immense consequences; the CIO of Goya Foods recently mentioned that one second of latency can cause a 19-hour delay in workforce efficiency. And because end-users will be paying a premium for this service, these service interruptions of any kind need to be few and far between.

Q: How are they stacking up? Are they making good progress in taking these steps, or do they still have a long way to go?

Piasentin: Right now, ownership of the edge is akin to the Wild West; there’s a ton of opportunity and the potential for many people to win the race, but no one is quite there yet. Almost every operator is experimenting with edge and different edge stacks with varying degrees of success.

Similarly, to the cloud computing race of a decade ago, ownership comes down to service providers versus cloud hyperscalers. Telcos can do this but first they must win customers over through their security and consistency of performance capabilities.

5G relies on low latency, high quality performance, and with the complexities that come with multi-carrier, multi-vendor and multi-region networks, consistency with performance assurance is imperative. But it also means that service providers need to work together to share insights, challenges and key learnings, and continue innovating to provide great-end user experiences. With technical evaluations of the edge still underway, ownership of it is still up for grabs. 

Q: What industries are expressing the most interest in private networks and what is it about private networks that is particularly attractive to them?

Piasentin: The industries expressing the most interest in private networks are the ones, unsurprisingly, where there is the most opportunity: Manufacturing, warehousing and supply chain. These industries have the potential to be fully transformed by the types of technologies that private 5G networks support, like augmented reality, automated vehicles and real-time sensors.

With these advanced tools, factories will be able to run much more autonomously and in turn, cut costs, increase efficiencies and outputs and overall bolster profits. Private 5G networks will usher in the next industrial revolution.   

Q: What challenges still exist when it comes to data processed at the edge? Security concerns? Latency issues?

Piasentin: Very small degradations in network quality will drive significant impacts to end user experience, so automating service quality is a must with 5G/edge computing. To manage a successful private 5G network, there are three main groups of challenges: Low latency challenges (ensuring quality of service down to a millisecond of potential delays); reliability and security challenges (visibility across all domains and threat detection); and device density challenges (real-time tracking and managing high volumes of data).

Providers need to keep all three of these areas in mind when managing their network infrastructure. While all separate challenges, they’re inextricably linked and can all seriously impede the end-user experience. 

Q: What are some of your expectations, as it relates to 5G edge and cloud, over the next few years or so? Is this a booming market?

Piasentin: 5G edge and cloud will absolutely be a booming market over the next few years because of the high rewards of the technology. While use cases currently exist within certain, specialized industries (ie: manufacturing), we should expect to see it expand into new sectors.

Augmented reality, for example, is starting to be tested in mission critical industries such as defense and first responders, where any delay can have a life altering impact. And in the mainstream, we see it with live multiplayer gaming. The user who has the fastest network is the one best equipped — and most likely — to win.

As these use cases become more commonplace, expect the 5G market to continue growing in importance, value and revenue and as always in multi-player games. The first to figure it out will win the biggest prize.