EXPERT OPINION
How the move to Edge
Cloud will support the rollout of 5G
Edge Computing has become increasingly popular as business leaders look to modernise their network infrastructure , resulting in a spike in demand for data centres across the globe .
Jürgen Hatheier , Chief Technology Officer , EMEA at Ciena , says that in the next five years , we will see tens of thousands of additional scaled-down data centres at the edge of the network – forming the Edge Cloud . he anticipation and excitement for 5G in the UK continues
T to reach new heights . 5G promises much faster speeds , far more connected devices and a plethora of new services that require significantly lower latency . 5G will fuel advancements in cloud gaming , IoT services , rich AR and VR experiences , e-learning and so much more . It is also predicted to power Industry 4.0 – the connected manufacturing revolution – promising to significantly improve the way we conduct business . All of this means more data traversing across the network . In fact , the GSMA recently predicted that by 2025 , 5G networks will account for as many as 1.2 billion connections , bringing in a new era in which connectivity will become more fluid and flexible . However , none of this is possible without the help of data centres – particularly Edge data centres which will play a pivotal role in the 5G experience .
Edge Cloud as a critical component in advanced 5G networks
The Edge Cloud ecosystem consists of open and interconnected data centres that can reside at any number of network locations , depending on the quality of experience ( QoE ) expectations and resource requirements for a given application . In a nutshell , Edge Cloud is about bringing the data centre physically closer to end-users , humans and machines , encompassing commodity-off-the-shelf compute and storage components coupled to highly scalable and programmable networking components . The location of the Edge Cloud will vary depending
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