HPE announces new tool to help telcos deploy edge services
HPE on Tuesday announced HPE Edge Orchestrator, an up-and-coming SaaS offering that helps telcos offer new services and applications for their own enterprise customers, deployed at the edge. It's the latest in a series of new services from HPE designed to help telcos take advantage of 5G.
The launch of 5G networks presents an opportunity for telcos to explore new revenue streams, by offering services like AI-powered video analytics, industrial automation, and VR retail services.
"Today, telcos have significant enterprise business, but they are often seen as little more than bandwidth providers, competing mostly on price," Phil Mottram, VP and GM of HPE's Communications and Media Solutions business unit, said in a statement. "HPE Edge Orchestrator empowers telcos to move up the value chain and become trusted edge services providers, offering differentiated, high-value enterprise services as well as new edge applications for their mobile subscribers."
With HPE Edge Orchestrator, telcos will be able to give their enterprise customers access to a catalog of edge computing applications that can be easily deployed across hundreds of locations. The applications are provided as virtual machines or containers, via infrastructure located at the edge of telco networks or on customer premises.
The service is multi-tenant. Different enterprise customers can get their own private interface to manage workloads, sites, edge devices, and services. The telco provider, meanwhile, can manage the entire edge computing portfolio as a single system.
Also: What is edge computing? Here's why the edge matters and where it's headed
Because the applications will process requests locally, they'll be able to offer low-latency performance. Edge processing also reduces the wide-area network (WAN) bandwidth the application requires, translating to lower WAN costs for businesses and less traffic congestion in telco networks.
Analysts expect the next decade to see the rise of edge computing where data-intensive workloads such as AI, machine learning (ML), augmented and virtual reality apps will be hosted at the edge.
With thousands of edge sites already powering mobile and fixed networks, telcos have a prime opportunity to provide edge services to the enterprise. Meanwhile, surveys show that the enterprise is largely looking to mobile operators for direction in planning 5G services.
Cloud providers like Google and Microsoft have started working with telecoms to help them launch services at the network edge, while vendors like Cisco are also deploying products to help service providers get the most out of their 5G infrastructure investments.
Earlier this year, HPE announced a new 5G core stack for telco customers, along with enhancements to the HPE Edgeline. The HPE-owned Aruba introduced a new roaming service that extends the reach of 5G networks inside with existing wi-fi access points.
HPE Edge Orchestrator will be available as a service to telcos starting July 31.
Related stories:
- Video is the 5G "killer app" for both enterprise and consumers, survey shows
- New Aruba technologies let enterprises use wi-fi to extend 5G service indoors
- Cisco rolls out new cloud software and hardware for mobile networks
- Verizon CTO declares 5G rollout is ahead of schedule
- Microsoft buys cloud-based 5G services vendor Affirmed Networks
- Google Cloud announces Anthos for Telecom, bringing Anthos to the network edge