Hyperscalers expedite 5G takeover

Hyperscale is the ability of a technology architecture to improve and scale appropriately as more demand is added to the system. This includes the ability to provide and add more resources to the system that make up a bigger distributed computing network. Hyperscale computing is necessary in order to build a robust and scalable cloud, big data, map reduce, or distributed storage system and is often associated with the infrastructure required to run large distributed sites by companies such as Google, Amazon, Microsoft. Opportunity exists for them to get onboard traditional players from any and every vertical and partnering with telecom operators is high on the cards.

AWS began deploying its Wavelength edge compute service with Verizon 5G Edge and expects to reach 10 U.S. cities before the end of the year. Wavelength, Outposts, and Local Zones are the low-lying and more distributed clouds AWS is deploying to bring its compute, storage, and infrastructure services to the aid of specialized use cases, businesses that require hybrid architecture, and connectivity delivered via wireless 5G networks.

Microsoft, in 2020, began mounting a more comprehensive effort to position multiple services, some developed internally, and others brought in via acquisitions ( Affirmed Networks & Metaswitch etc.), for 5G operators. The company’s recently announced Azure for Operators platform is a realization of Microsoft’s vision for the market, including services for the cloud, edge computing, IoT, network functions, and artificial intelligence (AI).

Google also this year made their case to extend its cloud platform to support mobile network operators and announced an agreement with AT&T earlier and with Nokia recently as part of that effort. Google Cloud also announced Anthos for Telecom, an effort to bring its Anthos Cloud Platform to the network edge. Based on Kubernetes, Anthos for Telecom is being positioned as a platform for network-centric applications. 

GCP, Azure and AWS are all offering very similar strategies while partnering with established operators. Strategic focus lies in 3 key area namely driving revenues from 5G business services, new consumer use case experiences, and improving operations in core network infrastructure.

Bringing Cloud edge closer to the network is a main theme where similar edge products are being deployed with Various Operators worldwide. Powered by AWS wavelength zones , Verizon is telling developers and enterprise customers to expect latency between 20 and 50 milliseconds.

Microsoft offers Azure Edge Zones, which effectively extends the cloud to a private edge environment, and the various pieces of software that Microsoft has assembled for network operators benefits from it to make informed data driven decisions. A large pool of operators have partnered with Microsoft on these efforts, including AT&T, NTT, SK Telecom, Telefónica, Verizon, and Vodafone. Google Cloud has created the Global Mobile Edge Cloud, an open cloud platform for it and network operators to jointly develop applications and a distributed edge.

It’s hard to differentiate at the infrastructure (IaaS) layer as hyperscalers all have competitive and mature offerings, and the platform layer (PaaS) is more or less ubiquitous across cloud providers. Moreover, the standards organization, 3GPP, has set specifications for 5G Radio and Core network functions which 5G vendors/partners have built their solutions to meet. But this does not look that bleak, the application layer, in fact, has the greatest promise of enabling a unique value proposition. This is an area where hyperscalers’ strategy is still evolving, and by adding disruptive 5G value-added services, partners can play a pivotal role.

The opportunities here are great and hyperscalers can enhance their telecom catalog by incorporating AI/ML based application level value added services that fill a gap left unaddressed by 3GPP and requires close collaboration between cloud stack providers and Telcos. 

Partnership and collaboration that has started with edge connectivity between operators and hyperscalers has potential to grow into a long term relationship. Hyperscalers can leverage their expertise with ML/AI and can provide improved analytics based outcomes that positively impact the Opex and even Capex decisions for operators and at the same time can work together to combine their partner networks which will enable both sides to reach new heights.

References :

1. Hyperscalers Hasten 5G Takeover in 2020 - SDxCentral
2. One way that hyperscalers can differentiate themselves in their 5G telecom endeavor! - Enea Openwave (owmobility.com)
3. https://azure.microsoft.com/
4. Amazon Web Services (AWS) - Cloud Computing Services
5. Cloud Computing Services | Google Cloud