“We need strong partners and a solid ecosystem for next-generation architectures. It is time for the industry to explore trusted partners who can stitch it all together.”
Harmeen Mehta,
Global CIO and Head – Cloud and Security Business, Airtel topology, runtime execution environment for Virtual Network Functions and non-telco workloads, as well as various functional requirements as per an application – that would really separate contenders from front-row seats. This is also an area that would need proper attention to traffic breakout points, dynamic orchestration etc.
It would be hard to ignore the role that orchestration, developer ecosystem and industry standards play for this space. As Khan pointed out, “It is a very crucial aspect and, more so, if you see it as a paradigm shift in application architecture. Things like serverless and function-as-aservice frameworks are along the same lines. But when things become physically scattered the complexity goes through the roof.”
That is why there are industry alliances like Automotive Edge Computing Consortium (AECC) and 5G Alliance for Connected Industries and Automation (5G-ACIA) getting serious about dissolving chaos and injecting seamlessness.
Interestingly, on the GSMA side, biggies like China Unicom, Deutsche Telekom, EE, KDDI, Orange, Singtel, SK Telecom, Telefonica and TIM have joined forces, under the wings of GSMA, and are working on the concept of an interoperable platform. The intent is to make local operator assets and capabilities, such as latency, compute and storage available to application developers and software vendors. The eventual purpose is to help crack the needs of enterprise clients in as simple and straight ways as possible.
What this means is that the Edge that is delivered is not just open, inclusive and secure but also laced with apt data protection and sovereignty mechanisms along with carrier-grade reliability, interconnection mechanisms and aggregation options. A proper boundary-crossing cooperation is the ultimate picture here.
This effort includes an Edge Compute architectural framework, the reference platform, and an Operator Platform Project. One cannot dismiss the easilycomposable, fast deployment tracks and API-ease that cloud players have mastered in their own terrain. These factors would also be relevant for a telco to crack the Edge computing market well. They will have to choose their specific strength area and carve handshakes that shape a solid business strategy here – as Full Edge players or as Partner Edge, Aggregator Edge or Limited Edge players where they complement Hyper-scale giants and OT vendors on various planks.
Delivering Edge would take a lot more than a vantage point owing to the telecom, infrastructure or cloud position that may strike as a pole-position to a player. The Edge can turn into a near-shore opportunity just within one’s reach if complexity and visibility are navigated with the right grip on applications.
If not, it will stay a far-off Horizon. It would still be an Edge, but slippery, blurred and away – kind of- a pipedream.
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