When it comes to IoT, customers are looking for “global, simple, secure” solutions, says Dawane Young, division VP of marketing at Verizon Partner Solutions, the carrier’s wholesale business. That is prompting new levels of conversation around cooperation on interoperability, security and go-to-market partnerships, Young and others said at an International Telecoms Week 2022 session.
As carriers’ wholesale businesses look for a path forward in an evolving business and network landscape, Young said that Verizon as a whole has put a strong emphasis on partnerships.
Young describes three components of IoT: The device, the network/access and applications.
“For us, we have the network component within IoT, but there’s significant opportunity for partnership on the device level,” he said. “How do you bring automation to the devices that are coming to your network? How do you certify more devices? How do you work with the OEMs in order to bring that, from an IoT perspective, and monetize that … ? And then from an application side, as we drive more applications and more data, there’s a significant opportunity to work with the various application partners to really bring synergies.
“It’s not just the opportunities to provide the network component, but really, a full suite of solutions,” he added. Young also noted that Verizon has struck a number of partnership deals with tech and hyperscale companies related to public and/or private MEC, including AWS and Azure. As IoT end points increase and devices need ultra-low latency, those edge compute-related partnerships can be leveraged in order to provide solutions that scale, he said.
Mahesh Jaishankar, CEO of Arc Solutions, said that customers expect a “Lego-like”, modular architecture that will enable them to create what they want, and he also sees also a significant amount of focus being put on cybersecurity. Young said that he sees a transition happening in security frameworks, from “proximity-based” security where a device’s relation to a firewall was central to its status, as opposed to moving into a zero-trust environment where each device essentially has to justify its access to information.
Tom Turner, SVP of sales for Rogers for Business, said that customers “are all trying to do the same thing: They’re trying to reduce costs, improve efficiencies, de-risk their business, increase revenues. So what we’re trying to do is create environments that make it easier for them. And then when they make that purchase decision … you can’t make them jump through hoops. I think in many cases, because this is such a new territory, our customers really are looking for help.”
