What’s up with… BT, Colt & IBM, dedicated cloud IaaS

• BT docks its IoT set-up at the Port of Ipswich 
• Colt and IBM team on enterprise edge options
• IDC predicts massive growth for dedicated cloud IaaS offerings

Edge computing and connectivity, and its relationship with cloud infrastructure and platforms, is at the heart of today’s leading news nuggets that feature BT, Colt, IBM and IDC… but there’s much more to check out too!

BT is working with Associated British Ports (ABP) on the trial of next-generation IoT technology that, it is hoped, will speed up the movement and processing of cargo goods and digitise the Port of Ipswich’s logistics and operations processes. The partners have installed IoT devices on cranes and transport equipment, and the resulting data generated by BT’s IoT solution is captured, analysed and visualised on BT’s Intelligent Asset platform to “make the unloading and transportation of cargoes more efficient – in near real time.” ABP is keen to make good use of intelligent edge technology to improve its operations: It previously announced that Verizon Business and Nokia are to deploy a private 5G network at its Southampton port facility. For more on the trial at Ipswich port, see this announcement. 

Colt has teamed up with IBM to explore the potential use of IBM Cloud Satellite and Edge Application Manager capabilities to help enterprise users make the best use of edge-enabled services as part of a hybrid cloud strategy. In lab trials, the partners have already worked out how the deployment on Colt’s edge platform of IBM Cloud Satellite, which is built on Red Hat OpenShift, can be simplified for customers. “We’re exploring now how to combine our Colt IQ Network with IBM’s hybrid cloud platform, to help deliver innovative solutions designed to help accelerate digital transformation for our enterprise customers,” noted Colt’s VP Partner Development and Success, Mark Hollman, in this announcement. 

And it seems like Colt and IBM might be focused on a growth sector… The market for dedicated, local cloudinfrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) offerings, enabled by compute and/or storage resources dedicated to an individual customer that are deployed on customer premises and consumed as a service, is set to grow rapidly during the next five years, according to a new forecast from IDC. It estimates that the worldwide annual recurring revenues (ARR) from such local cloud IaaS offerings will increase from $138 million in 2020 to $14 billion in 2025, growing by more than 100 times during that period. Read more. 

The impact of the planned EU digital levy, that will be used as one way to pay for post-pandemic economic rebuilding, could impact hundreds of companies, many of them European, the European Commission’s Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager has told Reuters. Details of the levy, which has to date been linked to the tech giants such as Facebook and Google, are expected to be revealed on 20 July. 

Two major shareholders in PT Tower Bersama Infrastructure, a mobile tower company in Indonesia that is valued at about $5 billion, are exploring options to sell their stakes, which together account for 56% of the company’s stock, according to The Star. The neutral host company has 16,390 tower sites and 11 DAS (distributed antenna system) networks across Indonesia. 

KPN has announced plans to shut down its 3G network on 31 March, 2022, and its 2G network in April 2025 (at the earliest), the Dutch operator noted in this announcement.

Telia is claiming a Swedish 5G speed record by clocking a 2.2 Gbit/s connection between its network in central Stockholm and an iPhone 12. Read more.  

TIM has completed the acquisition of BT Italia’s business units that target the SME market in Italy. Read more.

- The staff, TelecomTV