So we're talking today
about a very important topic,
hybrid edge and edge computing
and specifically about private MEC.
And so I'm very excited to have this conversation,
just by way of introductions for me personally,
Brian Partridge, Research Vice President
at S&P Global, part of the TMT practice,
and lead our digital infrastructure practices.
And edge computing is a really important topic
these days for us.
And what we see is that, you know,
really enterprises in all industries
are thinking about how edge computing
is going to help achieve digital transformation goals.
And the reason that edge is important, right,
is bringing compute resources closer to users and devices,
which brings many specific benefits, right?
About performance, latency jitter, bandwidth,
as well as other important requirements
around security capabilities
and also about data sovereignty and data privacy.
So lots of really important reasons
why edge has really come to the forefront.
And a particular type of edge computing is MEC.
So what had started out as Mobile Edge Computing,
has now been evolved and the industry has evolved
to really describe this as Multi-access Edge Computing,
more of an agnostic approach.
But really this is about a
network attached set of IT capabilities
delivered in an edge node and that edge node,
so there's two major flavors.
So public MEC and private MEC,
accomplishing similar things but with some distinction.
So private MEC typically delivered on an enterprise location,
on premise, as part of a managed service,
but consumed at a premise location.
There you're talking about performance
in the latency, sub five millisecond.
And then we've got public MEC,
which is going to be positioned
typically within a carrier infrastructure,
could be anywhere from five kilometers
to several hundred kilometers away,
but you're talking about latency envelopes,
20 milliseconds, maybe 10 milliseconds.
And so what we're here today, gentlemen,
is to really dig into this concept of MEC,
why it's important, where we are with it today,
and how the audience should be really thinking about
how it might be applied to them,
whether they're an enterprise
or whether they're an operator.
So before we dig in, let's go around the horn here
and maybe we can start with our host.
Maybe just a quick introduction
and who you are and your firm
and then how you're working with MEC.
Sure thing, thank you Brian.
Zarn Kucel, representing AWS.
I have the pleasure of overseeing AWS Hybrid Edge,
in partnership with communication service providers, CSPs
and we do so working with system integrators, ISPs,
and a host of other companies
that do extraordinary things at the edge.
Super, Mike?
Yeah no, it's wonderful to be here.
Michael Zirkle, I'm the Vice President
in Verizon business group,
responsible for 5G commercialization.
So that includes our private networks,
private MEC with AWS,
and then all of our private MEC functions as well.
Got it, and Tunc.
My name is Tunc Yorulmaz,
coming from a little bit different
and a little bit distant place from Tokyo, Japan.
I'm the Senior Managing Director for APAC
and in charge of cloud first networks.
As Zarn and you put together very nicely,
really edge is now taking hold very strongly
in different parts of the world
and it'll be, I think, a pretty interesting discussion now.
So we have a perfect panel here.
We've got operator, we've got hyper scale, we've got SI.
So let's start with the SI.
So Accenture, obviously you've got a lot of visibility
into what's happening around digital transformation,
across all industries, what's being invested.
And I'd like to get your perspective on, you know,
where do you see MEC fitting in, you know,
and how are your clients thinking about MEC?
What are some of the opportunities and challenges?
I mean, Brian, you know,
we are all technologists.
I mean, we love technology.
That's why we are in this business.
And I think it was coming from probably Bill Gates as well.
Like he was saying that we forecast
the things, like we exaggerate the things in the short term,
but we undermine the things in the long.
And MEC is probably one of them.
I mean, what I should say is that
it'll be a significant technology.
It will, as you observe with post covid,
things are becoming extremely,
like countries especially will like to manufacture
in their own and they will like to bring
the manufacturing back, starting with US,
with many other European countries as well.
And as a result, they will like to manufacture
at the much better cost base with using technology.
And this requires automation.
And with automation, enabling technologies like MEC,
like AI and others are indispensable parts
of digital transformation.
We see, I mean across the board,
like almost all industries,
are taking step in this direction,
but some of them are becoming really unique.
Be it like I can say mining, energy,
utilities, and manufacturing.
These are the industries,
they are coming to us with very concrete questions.
Can we do a MEC solution?
Can we do a private 5G solution?
And how we can really do a OT, a transformation at the end.
The challenges as well, I mean it is,
as we just said, like things happen,
we want to make happen fast,
but there are some bottlenecks.
Number one is business case.
[Brian] Yeah.
[Tunc] Where is the business case?
Will we save money?
Will we increase efficiency?
Or will we get competency
by using this technology that we don't have now?
And the second thing is, okay guys,
I can't really operate this thing.
Is there any operational setup you can help us?
And third, is there an end to end solution?
Like, we don't want to be the integrator,
by our own enterprise asking,
like the communication technology,
edge technology, and the integration to the existing systems.
All three, should be done together.
In a nutshell, I can say these are the main enablers
and the main bottlenecks of the overall solution.
Mike, Verizon has been probably the most
aggressive network operator,
public network operator to get involved
in these these edge architectures, specifically MEC,
how's it going from your seat?
What are you seeing as opportunities?
What are you seeing as challenges
in the early part of the market?
So I think what becomes interesting
is we view it truly as a mobile edge.
Yes, we talk a little bit of multi-access
but real mobile edge and what we've been able to bring
to market with AWS is a truly integrated, you know,
the AWS Outpost with Verizon C-RAN
to give full integration into a packet core, right?
Which kind of changes the landscape
of how we can then think about the ecosystem, right?
So we fully believe that the relationship
is truly going to enable industry 4.0.
How do we think about the ecosystem, right?
And I think that's where, you know,
as Tunc said, around how do we think about
enabling what's already existing, right?
Inside most of manufacturing,
most of the industrials are already brownfield.
[Brian] Yeah.
[Mike] How do we link into that?
How do we think about enabling
from devices through connectivity to the infrastructure,
across, you know, the entirety of what already exists
inside of those customers.
I think second, you mentioned earlier around
data sovereignty and data gravity, you know,
majority of enterprise apps are still on-prem.
They're heading towards a life cycle kind of upgrade.
How do you think about cloud native?
So now we can think, how do you think about cloud native
and network reliant, network aware at the exact same time
and how does that allowed a business case?
So between the ecosystem, what the network enables,
what the infrastructure enables,
I think that's where the opportunities become.
I think as everybody's kind of said around
that the challenges are what's that first use case?
[Brian] Yep.
[Mike] When do we think the technologies,
the devices, you have to have that ecosystem come together
to really make that first use case.
We're almost beyond early stage
to that maturity where I think in the mid
to latter part of this year
we'll start to see that acceleration.
Sure, and you know, this like anything,
is an ecosystem play at the end of the day.
No one can do it all on their own.
And AWS, I think, does as good a job as anyone
and sort of executing against ecosystem.
So my question for you Zarn is,
and in particularly in the context
of the Verizon relationship,
how do you guys ensure that you're operating on all levels
of the ecosystem from the technology,
to the business case to the go-to-market motions?
What's the strategy and how are you executing there?
Yeah, thank you Brian.
It really starts with that shared mental model
and the understanding that
we're still learning as we go here.
Particularly given this is a nascent market
with a big opportunity in front of us.
And there's a number of underlying principles to that.
The first principle is the idea
that by fusing cloud and connectivity together,
you're really creating a platform
that allows companies to do extraordinary things.
Things that would not otherwise be possible,
as we've demonstrated by inserting AWS compute
and storage inside the Verizon network,
which is now offered as public MEC
with 19 wavelength zones today.
We're also doing the same in a recognition
that enterprises, in some instances,
require on-premise edge technology.
And as Mike says, we're doing that together
in our partnership underpinned by AWS Outposts.
And we also see a lot of use cases
where it's going to be a mixed bag,
a hybrid experience of public and private coming together.
And the second underlying principle
is it's not simply a case of putting the technology out
and hoping that the magic just happens.
It's really about working collaboratively
in terms of go to market.
[Brian] Yeah.
[Zarn] And the way in which we do that
is through working with developers,
system integrators like Accenture,
all the way through to enterprise.
And as you can imagine the likes of Verizon and AWS
we have a similar, in some instances, similar customers.
So how do we collaborate and go to market
in terms of working in the best interests
of our joint customers?
How do we work together with system integrators,
from as Tunc says, in terms of justifying
and understanding the business case,
all the way through to integrating
and enabling the technology.
And of course, we also see system integrators
as a way to build and scale as we go to market as well.
And then this is all underpinned by our developer ecosystem
as you say, the ecosystem is very important,
and no matter whether you're an enterprise,
a system integrator or a software developer,
it's underpinned by that developer experience.
And for us as AWS, it's very much about providing
a continuous developer experience,
what we call the edge continuum,
basically applying AWS where you need it.
[Brian] Yep.
[Zarn] And the third principle
is the fact that we're still learning
and there's not going to be a one size fits all.
There's going to be enterprises, for example,
the want a full managed solution
which the likes of Verizon can offer,
to those that actually want a platform slash infrastructure,
which they themselves can manage and get involved with.
There's going to be some enterprises
that are going to want a full suite of applications
and solutions, which the likes of Accenture
working in partnership with Verizon and AWS can provide,
and others that are going to want to look
to bring their own software and manage it themselves.
So it's not going to be a one size fits all
and we're continuing to learn.
Super, so what I heard today
is it's early days, but we're ready to go.
Technical platforms are ready,
customer traction is starting to happen.
And so I think, maybe what we can do to wrap up here
is leave the audience with a parting thought,
maybe a prediction about what we're going to be seeing
about MEC in two, five years from now.
And I'll start, so my organization builds
forecast models this sort of thing.
And we think that the MEC market
is going to be a significant impact in revenue generator
over the next several years on the order of, you know,
30 billion plus in revenue opportunity
for companies like AWS and Verizon.
And really, we think it's going to be a germane platform
for digital transformation.
So you know, I'll pass you Zarn,
what would be your key takeaway?
Yeah, my key takeaway
is that there's an opportunity for everyone at the edge.
Whether you're an enterprise,
whether you're a software developer,
whether you're a system integrator, a CSP,
or a cloud provider like AWS.
And to really get the most out of this opportunity,
it's going to require collaboration amongst us.
I mean, it's a really exciting prospect
to take the benefits of cloud.
Then you combine that with a seamless developer experience,
apply it where you need it,
then you combine that with next generation networks
and then you take that one step further
and start exposing the capabilities of those networks
and integrate them towards the developer community.
It a really exciting prospect.
So you can start building up, you can start building out,
you can start building everywhere
and together, we are here to help.
Great, Mike?
Yeah, ecosystem, ecosystem, ecosystem.
I think is going to be
where - the next couple years out.
How does Verizon continue to enable everybody
into embedded devices?
Right, embedded devices are going to massively grow
over the next few years.
The connectivity will continue to be fully integrated.
Network reliance will continue to happen.
The importance of the infrastructure at the edge,
and then as Zarn said,
the APIs that we're collectively launching
will allow that workload of that app
to pull through all three.
But it'll be the enablement of the main players
across the industrials, the ISVs.
That'll be the true success of mobile Edge.
Excellent, Tunc?
I mean, when we look at history,
it took almost 40, 50 years for
the initial electric motors to get into the factories
and like, after Edison invented and others.
My gut feel is that this thing will be much faster.
And with the current mega trends
in terms of like, really digital transformation,
manufacturing, moving back to the countries
and the cost pressures, and everything,
it is like a really extremely important moment in history
and the age will be one of the enabling technologies
and probably in the next three to four years.
Again, I don't want to go refer
to the exaggerating short term versus long term,
but probably in the next two to three years
we will see edge native, edge native architectures,
and edge enabled solutions.
This will be the one of the everyday technology
that we will be providing
and that's why it is so important and unique,
all of us here as different parts of the solution
coming together to create such a vision.
I think this is exciting.
Excellent gentlemen, interesting conversation
and thank you for your time.
Thank you so much, Brian.
Thank you, thanks Brian.