5G will enable the evolution of cloud, in which hybrid and multi-cloud environments are mainstream, and more computing and data moves to the edge.
This is according to panellists in a webinar presented this week by Nutanix on the future of the cloud. Professor Herman Singh, CEO of Future Advisory and adjunct professor at the UCT Graduate School of Business, highlighted key application areas for the enhanced capabilities of 5G: enhanced mobile broadband uses 5G as a progression from 4G LTE mobile broadband services with faster connections, higher throughput and more capacity; it offers ultra reliable low latency communications for mission-critical applications that require uninterrupted and robust data exchange; and massive machine-type communications to connect some of the 50 billion connected IOT devices.
Martin Sanne, Executive Manager for the Future Production: Manufacturing cluster at the CSIR, said 5G would play an important role in a 4IR future, where the country would need to bring various technologies together through solutions such as open access networks, standardisation and private networks on assigned spectrums. “Will private companies have to apply for spectrum? Either spectrum will be assigned, which we hope, but we also expect licensed spectrums and you may have to pay a licence fee to access certain spectrums,” he said.
This, he said, would present new opportunities for service providers to emerge to provide edge computing capabilities and networking between various networks. “Linking applications, equipment and data streams will have to be managed, and this is a major business opportunity arising,” he said.
Noting that Cloud 2.0 was a complex environment beyond a centralised cloud, Paul Ruinaard, Regional Sales Director Sub-Saharan Africa at Nutanix, said: “Cloud has been seen as the destination, especially in large enterprises. Now suddenly it solves for some issues but not others. So we will have a mix of multi-clouds and realise that cloud will need to be much more resilient and we will need to move workloads, monitor them and integrate on-premises infrastructure. The edge and fog layer become increasingly important, as does the need for tooling to manage this environment.”
Andrew Senior, solution architect at Nutanix, said: “Now we see an explosion of different clouds, and we’d like to use all of them if we can, and we are seeing clouds developing at the edge to make decisions at the edge. Even a smartphone could be seen as a form of cloud. We will have cloud everywhere and computing everywhere, to do whatever we like, wherever we like. This means complexity is back again, and we now need to manage all of that, so we are seeing the development of tools like Kubernetes.”
Nutanix Connect is an engaging series that provides easy-to-consume information, presented by industry experts from around the globe, supported by customers and tied together with interactive tools. Upcoming events in the Nutanix Connect webinar series will include:
- Automate, integrate or evaporate: How automation of the application stack became strategic – 30 September, register here.
- The 90% club: The collapse of high touch industries and their disrupted business models – 14 October, register here.
- Deciding what to do when you don’t know what to do: Learning agility in action – 29 October, register here.
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