With 5G, “There’s more ways to get paid”
The implications of 5G reach much further than providing carriers with new ways to offer consumer-facing services. With its native support for massive internet of things and ultra reliable low latency communications, 5G will serve as a catalyst for digital transformation across a variety of industries and enterprises. And because 5G is more than just a carrier play, vendors need to pivot to better support the enterprise, according to Caroline Chan, Intel VP and GM of the 5G Infrastructure Division.
“How do 5G use cases benefit the enterprise?” she pondered during a panel conversation hosted by Cradlepoint in Austin, Texas, during a week of colocated 5G conferences. “That’s my personal interest–the enterprise edge. We all know that 5G, the way that we talk about, is going to take a lot of investment. Where are we going to get the return on investment?”
Chan noted her involvement in 5G groups that look specifically at vertical use cases for automotive and industrial automation, for example. “The trick is, if you want to get more money, more than just a SIM card, you have to have enterprise,” she said.
During the discussion, Chan highlighted the differentiation between selling to carriers and selling to enterprises. With its rooting in network functions virtualization and software-defined networking, along with a move toward open source management and orchestration, 5G will prompt a move away from vendor lock-in to more open, flexible solutions based on commercial off-the-shelf hardware.
“5G must start with NFV/SDN as a foundation,” Chan said. “When we go talk to enterprise, which is Intel’s bread and butter…you’ve got to go talk to the CIO. They’re not network operators. They’re much more comfortable with something that looks like a server, feels like a server, runs like a server.”
She continued: “I’m spending more time now talking with folks I never would have talked with as a telco person. It really tells me that 5G has legs. There’s more ways to get paid.”
