accelerating your journey to the edge to support 5g services · platforms for developers to access...

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Accelerating your journey to the edge to support 5G servicesDalia Adib

Practice Lead – Edge Computing

STL Partners

21st January 2020

@realdaliaadib

@STLPartners

linkedin.com/dalia-adib

linkedin.com/company/stl-partners


STL Partners combines strategy research, agile consulting & extensive events experience to deliver compelling results

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We have a track record of

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What is edge computing?Accelerating your journey to the edge to support 5G

services


STL has built a centre of excellence around edge computing and been advising Tier-1 operators on edge for over 2 years

Unrivalled expertise and experience……and an industry-leading edge knowledge centre

Supported 3 major operators to develop a commercial strategy for edge computing

Interviews with over 50 enterprises and solution providers across different industries

Team of experts: leading industry analysts and consultants, IoT practitioners & cloud specialists

Advised global telco on hyperscaler partnership negotiation worth €0.5M

Database of 150+ use cases for MEC, private networks edge and

on-premises edge

Interactive model for forecasting use case revenues

Ecosystem tool mapping 80+ vendors across the edge value

chain

MEC site ROI model & hyperscaler negotiation tool

“STL brings edge expertise. They understand that

landscape across telco and other ecosystems.”

“We worked closely with STL in true

partnership to deliver high quality, actionable insights that were not available elsewhere.”

“The consulting team produced high-quality output that could be repurposed in a wide

variety of ways.”

Year

2019

2020

2021

2022

2023

Data Type

Annual revenue

Value chain segment

Application

Connectivity

Edge Cloud

Hardware

Integration & Support

Country

Germany

Italy

Spain

UK

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026

EU

R m

illio

ns

Integration & Support

Application

Edge Cloud

Connectivity

Hardware

Industry

Energy & Utilities

Manufacturing

Natural Resources and Agriculture

Other

Retail, Media and Events

Use case

Real-time UAV a...

Immersive experi...

Drone detection

AR in tourism

Head of Cloud Edge -European MNO

Product Manager - global software company

Head of Commercial & Partnering - Global MNO


We have published reports on edge computing as part of our research services

https://stlpartners.com/research/network-slicing-the-greatest-thing-since-sliced-bread/

https://stlpartners.com/research/telco-edge-computing-turning-vision-into-practice/

https://stlpartners.com/research/edge-computing-five-viable-telco-business-models/

https://stlpartners.com/research/telco-cloud-translating-new-capabilities-into-new-revenue/

https://stlpartners.com/research/cloud-gaming-new-opportunities-for-telcos/

https://stlpartners.com/research/what-edge-developers-want-from-telcos-now/


Our edge computing ecosystem tool maps companies across the value chain

Facility: The physical site that includes the land/location for the edge data centre (e.g. area around mobile operator’s cell tower), the data centre itself, power and cooling to support it and additional services to maintain and operate the site.

Hardware: This includes the hardware inside the data centre (racks, servers, processors and the maintenance and operators for these) as well as end-devices.

Integration & Services: Services that provide support to the customer employing and integrating edge computing at any stage of the value chain – including design and engineering services to create platforms for edge computing applications, or more traditional integration into existing (enterprise) systems.

Network: Connectivity infrastructure to and from the edge site, as well as traffic routing controls and types of networks to optimise the delivery of content (e.g. CDN).

Application/Software: Applications that run on edge computing infrastructure, including network functions, and the application-specific tools that support these, for example analytics capabilities or APIs and platform-as-a-service products.

Cloud Infrastructure: Virtual infrastructure supporting the edge workloads and applications, from the operating system, the virtualisation layer (which may be container-based), and the platforms for developers to access and manage the storage and compute infrastructure.

Open Source & Forums: Communities that seek to accelerate edge computing – either by creating forums for discussion across stakeholders and industry partners or open platforms to enable developers to build technology.

https://stlpartners.com/edge-computing/edge-computing-ecosystem/


Time is ripe for Distributed Cloud – Can telcos play a role with Edge Computing?

A stronger role for telcos to meet future demand for more

distributed cloud?

Hybrid/multi-cloud

Lightweight compute

NFV / 5G synergies

New applicationsand services


Where is the edge (telecoms perspective)?KEY

Telco-owned

May not be telco-owned

Not telco--owned

Enterprise Access Point Access NetworkEnd-device Transport Core Network Internet

Sensor, actuator, robot, drone, etc.

Customer premises equipment (CPE), Set

Top Box (STB), mobile phone, SIM,

gateway/router

Micro cell, macro cell, cabinet

Central office CDN, central office, CDN, data centre

CDN, internet exchange

Edge computing

Telco edge computing

Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) / network edgeMobile and/or fixed

On-premises edge computing

Server, IoT gateway

Private (LTE/5G) network


BUT, telcos are not alone: hyperscale cloud providers are increasingly pushing towards the edge

Network

Azure IoT Edge

AWS Outposts

Azure Stack Edge

AWS WavelengthAWS Local Zones CloudFront

CDN

IaaSPaaS

IaaSPaaSSaaS

IaaSPaaS

InternetCentralCloud

Customer premise /

device


Why 5G needs edgeAccelerating your journey to the edge to support 5G

services


5G needs edge more than edge needs 5G

1. Edge is inherent in the 5G

standards




standards

2. Edge compute delivers more

than latency

Reliability Data Localisation Data Costs

Flexibility ResilienceLight Device Mobility

EDGE




standards

2. Edge compute delivers more

than latency

3. Edge can help to break the

5G “go-slow cycle”

FWA & eMBBnot enough to drive 5G investment

Low user adoption and poor

geographic coverage

New 5G services slow to develop


Potential business models for telcosAccelerating your journey to the edge to support 5G

services


We have identified 5 business model types for MEC

Dedicated edge hosting

Edge IaaS/ PaaS/ NaaS

Systems integration

B2B2x solutions

End-to-end consumer application

Telco as enabler Telco as end-to-end provider


Operators are evaluating different types of business models

Dedicated edge

hosting


Systems integration


B2B2x solutions

Cloud gaming

Private networks

AR/VR

Retail, healthcare, manufacturing

Manufacturing, events

AR/VR, gaming





Systems integration

B2B2x solutions



AWS could be a customer of dedicated edge hosting…

Consumer customers

Content owner/ provider

CDN provider

Use case: Virtual CDN

Car ownersDistributorCar manufacturer

Use case: Conn./Auton.

vehicle functions

Consumer customers

Business customers

Developers, Enterprises, SaaS providers

Use case: Edge cloud

wholesale model

IaaS provider

Telco

MEC equipment/

software suppliers

Example use cases:

Edge bare-metal

Edge bare-metal

Edge bare-metal





Systems integration

B2B2x solutions



End-customers

Developers, start-ups

…or a supplier for Edge IaaS/PaaS/NaaS

Use case: AR/VR gaming

Use case: Medical image

analysis/ storage

Use case: Conn./Auton.

vehicle functionsBusiness customers

SaaS providers

Telco

MEC equipment /

software suppliers

Cloud stack software provider

3rd party providers of

platform features (apps,

VNFs etc.)

Example use cases:

Cloud portal

Cloud portal

Cloud portal


Conclusions• Edge computing complements 5G

• There are many different business models available to

telcos

• Choosing the right one, depending on your strategic

priority, is key


Thank you!

For more articles, reports and case studies, go to our Edge Hub:

stlpartners.com/edge-computing

@realdaliaadib

@STLPartners

linkedin.com/dalia-adib

linkedin.com/company/stl-partners

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