In episode 19 of The Cutting Edge Podcast, Leonard Lee discusses edge cloud management. Specifically, he reviews edge service cloud management and service orchestration, as well as intelligent automation and zero-touch operations.
Highlights
00:38 — Service management and orchestration (SMO) frameworks have become popularized in the telecom industry due to open RAN (Radio Access Network) alliances initiative, in order to revamp older self-organizing networks (SON), and infuse them with intelligent automation.
01:08 — Leonard notes that the future of edge computing will intersect with the telecom industry. New cloud-based edge infrastructure will have very close ties with the evolution of cellular networks toward 5G and beyond, and he notes a number of reasons for this.
01:42 — First, telco networks are becoming software-defined and cloud-native. Secondly, 5G network infrastructure is becoming the first real edge cloud infrastructure, thanks to multi-access edge computing.
02:12 — Leonard references intelligent automation and zero-touch operations. “Intelligent Automation is seen as a key to scaling out the network and edge infrastructure,” he explains. 5G RAN is driving innovation in advanced edge cloud services and assurance management and orchestration. “The hope is to be able to introduce a level of automation that will help operators realize zero-touch operations,” notes Leonard.
04:22 — What does this mean for the C-suite? Most of the C-suite won’t get it, says Leonard, but CIOs should be concerned. Most IT houses have outsourced their infrastructure competencies and replaced them with consultants and vendor managers. As IT and cellular technologies converge more and more, Leonard says “CIOs are on notice,” and they can’t hide from this stuff much more.