Edge computing offers true commercial opportunity, say operator execs

• DSP Leaders World Forum session on Edgenomics highlights operator confidence
• Italy’s TIM believes edge is optimum option for certain services
• Verizon exec says edge is “key to our strategy”

Senior executives from two Tier 1 operators have outlined the important role that edge computing will play in their future services strategies during the DSP Leaders World Forum 2020 panel discussion, Edgenomics: Making a Viable Business Case for Edge Computing.

Andrea Calvi (top left, above), from TIM’s Chief Innovation and Partnership Office, noted that the Italian national operator sees a “real commercial opportunity” from the deployment of edge computing assets and that ”there is no better configuration” for services such as video gaming and virtual reality. He also believes there are wholesale revenue opportunitesi from the edge.

Beth Cohen (top right, above), SDN Product Strategist at Verizon, noted that edge computing “is key to our strategy… it's important for service providers to make sure that the edge has a viable platform to run on,” she added during the discussion, which also featured Sergio Gonzalez (bottom left), Lead Cloud Architect at Microsoft, and Gino Grano (bottom right), Managing Senior Director at Red Hat.

Both operator executives highlighted the importance of collaboration between telcos and the webscale giants such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud, with Cohen noting that the real synergies between the two camps will come in “intelligent networking… we see that as a real growth area.”

Check out the discussion here.

Edgenomics will also be discussed during our upcoming Extra Shot programs, which will look back at the highlights of the online DSP Leaders event, include the views of special guests and take a serious look at how coffee and cocktails can help us all through the ongoing lockdown. Look out for further details of the Extra Shot programs. 

• Ray Le Maistre, Editorial Director, TelecomTV