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FEATURE: EDGE COMPUTING
Andy Rowland, Head of Customer
Innovation: Energy, Resources and
Manufacturing, BT
At our R&D labs, we’re building Edge cloud
compute platforms and applications to
demonstrate the requirements and viability
of the technology. We’re doing research
and prototype work with key partners
to understand things like customer and
application requirements, technology
maturity, the end-to-end architecture
and orchestration required, as well as
how to support the best interactions with
customers, end-users and other partners in
the ecosystem.
We’re also testing the technology and
service wrap capabilities to achieve an
integrated Edge Computing solution.
Finally, we are seeing customers keen to exploit
the Edge for more innovative applications.
Applications that we are exploring include:
In the meantime, we are seeing customers
start to adopt a three phased approach.
First of all, they are looking to consolidate
various network-related functions into a single
box. This is in the same way that we’ve seen
convergence in the consumer space, so that
we no longer need a separate camera, Sat
Nav and alarm clock – and instead need just
one smart phone – we are now seeing the
same in networking and security.
Our customers are looking at Edge devices
that support virtual network functions (VNF)
www.intelligentcio.com
like routers, SD-WAN, acceleration and
network optimisation. They’re also looking
to consolidate security functions like virtual
firewalls and privilege access management.
And they want to have the ability to remotely
install, configure and patch these devices.
Secondly, they are looking to add computing
power to this box. The consolidated device
now also needs to support containers
and Virtual Machines to run different
applications. By bringing the two together
it helps to strengthen the business case for
moving to the Edge.
• Real-time video analytics such as object/
facial recognition
• Augmented/Virtual Reality applications
for remote assistance or training purposes
• Automated remote control of vehicles, for
example drones using 5G
• Vehicle to vehicle and vehicle to
infrastructure communications for
example collision detection
So, if you are looking at how you transform
your Edge to deliver the applications of the
future and to transform the network functions
you deliver today, why not talk to us. n
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