In the world of connecting services and applications together, cloud service providers have long been looked upon as the golden child. But with the arrival of 5G and edge computing, is the status quo about to be challenged?
Well, mobile operators seem to thinks so.
Why? Because of 5G.
For mobile operators, with 5G there’s the possibility that they can open themselves up to new sources of revenue outside of the telecoms sphere.
But why?
As the model of networks supplemented by external cloud services evolves thanks to integrated IoT and 5G devices, companies are being forced to move on from the old model of cloud services and legacy networks; it potentially opens the door for mobile operators to offer and host their own new services.
According to a new survey from Accedian, the application performance firm, 70% of mobile operators also believe that ownership of access networks and edge cloud infrastructure will give them a competitive advantage over public cloud providers in the 5G era.
Edge computing: The movement redefining cloud technology
“5G promises to open up new revenue opportunities from outside the telecoms sphere, but that’s only possible if operators can commit to the service guarantees and experiences that these new vertical industry customers need,” said Richard Piasentin, chief strategy and chief marketing officer, Accedian. “Cloud and mobile connectivity is far more than just an abstracted Ethernet cable; running reliable, global networks, that are increasingly distributed across hybrid virtualised and physical infrastructure, is a complex business. The only way to ease the pain is to gain an intimate knowledge of how those networks function—empirical performance analysis data and its correlation and visualisation are essential in assuring quality of experience.”
“The increasing importance of virtualisation for key network functions in 4G and 5G networks, along with the adoption of distributed cloud network architectures, calls for a radical change to service performance monitoring and assurance,” said Gabriel Brown, principal analyst, Heavy Reading. “Mission-critical and business-critical 5G services can benefit from edge cloud deployment; however, customers will expect demanding service performance levels, backed by SLAs. This requires operators to implement accurate, reliable and proactive network, application and service monitoring in their networks.”
Heavy Reading surveyed over 100 mobile operator professionals in Q3 2018 on behalf of Accedian.
The continuing rise of mobile edge computing, 5G and IoT security, hot topics for 2019
