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Telecom Business Review | Monday, November 07, 2022
The deployment of edge computing will remain a priority for telecom carriers for the foreseeable future, both to optimize their networks and to enable third-party apps and services.
FREMONT, CA: Edge computing will continue to be a priority for telecom carriers for the foreseeable future, both for network optimization and to enable new third-party apps and services. Seventy percent of survey respondents anticipate that investments in edge computing to enable third-party applications will surpass those in internal network infrastructure in the next five years.
Edge computing brings cloud-native computing (and storage) closer to the end device or data source instead of centralizing it in a faraway, hyperscale data center.
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Since network functions virtualization (NFV) began to make significant inroads, the telecoms sector has investigated the potential of edge computing for over four years. The initial focus was on mobile edge computing (MEC), but this has since shifted to multi-access edge computing, which includes fixed and non-cellular networks. Outside of telecoms, there is computing capacity at the perimeter of regional data centers provided by third parties, such as data center operators and cloud service providers. These are frequently in undeveloped regions, such as Tier 2 cities. In addition, there is computing at the customer's location, such as business campuses or factories.
There is a wide range of potential edges, from devices to regional data centers. Some of these edge locations may be owned and maintained by suppliers of communications services (CSPs). The CSP edge comprises the most appropriate forms of edge for CSPs—the network edge and the on-premises corporate edge. They contain infrastructure owned or maintained by a telecom operator (such as a CSP data center) (e.g., network CPE at a customer site).
Two primary application categories can be processed by—CSP edge computing and telecom apps that operate, protect, and monitor the network, i.e., the CSP's network functions; Consumer/enterprise applications that CSPs may offer to third-party clients.
STL Partners has assisted the telecommunications industry in exploring the possibility of offering services and solutions to third parties by leveraging their edge computing infrastructure. Enterprises are deploying IT applications locally to comply with data sovereignty regulations; developers are using the edge to optimize apps; IoT solution providers are utilizing the edge to reduce latency for mission-critical applications, etc. In the next 1-2 years, CSPs anticipate that 40 percent of edge computing investments will be deployed to support these apps instead of network services infrastructure.
Although the industry for edge computing is in its infancy, there are developing use cases that seek to leverage its primary features. These include making the cloud's flexibility more local to reduce latency, enhancing reliability, ensuring data security, and offloading computation from the end device. However, use cases are at various stages of maturity; some will be deployed in the next two years in early adopter areas, while others will only be deployed on a commercial scale for up to five years.
Telecom operators are eager to use edge computing to increase income, especially in their enterprise divisions. Diverse strategies are emerging: one focuses on enterprise connection and networking, another on creating a horizontal, cloud-like platform for developers, and a third on producing end-to-end solutions for particular verticals.
Every new technology is needed to educate the market and attract innovators who will develop applications that maximize their potential. Edge computing is complicated since its ecosystem covers multiple industries, including cloud, telecoms, industrial, traditional ICT, and specific vertical markets. Edge-based solutions require that infrastructure (facilities, hardware, connectivity, edge clouds) and applications and services are connected to operate efficiently.
Regardless of the business model and services approach a telecom operator chooses, it must first establish how to optimize the performance of its edge infrastructure.
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