Infrastructure Edge: Awaiting Development

Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared on the State of the Edge blog. State of the Edge is a collaborative research and educational organization focused on edge computing. They are creators of the State of the Edge report (download for free) and the Open Glossary of Edge Computing (now an official project of The Linux Foundation).

When I began looking into edge computing just over 24 months ago, weeks would go by with hardly a whimper on the topic, apart from sporadic briefs about local on-premises deployments. Back then, there was no State of the Edge Report and certainly no Open Glossary of Edge Computing. Today, an hour barely passes before my RSS feed buzzes with the “next big announcement” around edge. Edge computing has clearly arrived. When Gartner releases their 2018 Gartner Hype Cycle later this month, I expect edge computing to be at the steepest point in the hype cycle.

Coming from a mobile operator heritage, I have developed a unique perspective on edge computing, and would like to double-click on one particular aspect of this phenomenon, the infrastructure edge and its implication for the broader ecosystem.

The Centralized Data Center and the Wireless Edge

 

So many of the today’s discussions about edge computing ascribe magical qualities to the cloud, suggesting that it’s amorphous, ubiquitous and everywhere. But this is a misnomer. Ninety percent of what we think of as cloud is concentrated in a small handful of centralized data centers, often thousands of miles and dozens of network hops away. When experts talk about connecting edge devices to the cloud, it’s common to oversimplify and emphasize the two endpoints: the device edge and the centralized data center, skipping over the critical infrastructure that connects these two extremes—namely, the cell towers, RF radios, routers, interconnection points, network hops, fiber backbones, and other critical communications systems that liaise between edge devices and the central cloud.

In the wireless world, this is not a single point; rather, it is distributed among the cell towers, DAS hubs, central offices and fiber routes that make up the infrastructure side of the last mile. This is the wireless edge, with assets currently owned and/or operated by network operators and, in some cases, tower companies.

The Edge Computing Land Grab

 

The wireless edge will play a profound and essential role in connecting devices to the cloud. Let me use an analogy of a coastline to illustrate my point.

Imagine a coastline stretching from the ocean to the hills. The intertidal zone, where the waves lap upon the shore, is like the device edge, full of exciting activities and a robust ecosystem, but too ephemeral and subject to change for building a permanent structure. Many large players, including Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and Apple, are vying to win this prized spot closest at the water’s edge (and the end-user) with on-premises gateways and devices. This is the domain of AWS Greengrass and Microsoft IoT Edge. It’s also the battleground for consumers, with products like Alexa, Android, and iOS devices, In this area of the beach, the battle is primarily between the internet giants.

On the other side of the coastline, opposite the water, you have the ridgeline and cliffs, from where you have an eagle view of the entire surroundings. This “inland” side of the coastline is the domain of regional data centers, such as those owned by Equinix and Digital Realty. These data centers provide an important aggregation point for connecting back to the centralized cloud and, in fact, most of the major cloud providers have equipment in these co-location facilities.

And in the middle — yes, on the beach itself — lies the infrastructure edge, possibly the ideal location for a beachfront property. This space is ripe for development. It has never been extensively monetized, yet one would be foolhardy to believe that it has no value.

In the past, the wireless operators who caretake this premier beachfront space haven’t been successful in building platforms that developers want to use. Developers have always desired global reach along with a unified, developer-friendly experience, both of which are offered by the large cloud providers. Operators, in contrast, have largely failed on both fronts—they are primarily national, maybe regional, but not global, and their area of expertise is in complex architectures rather than ease of use.

This does not imply that the operator is sitting idle here. On the contrary, every major wireless operator is actively re-engineering their networks to roll out Network Function Virtualization (NFV) and Software Defined Networking (SDN), along the path to 5G. These software-driven network enhancements will demand large amounts of compute capacity at the edge, which will often mean micro data centers at the base of cell towers or in local antenna hubs. However, these are primarily inward-looking use cases, driven more from a cost optimization standpoint rather than revenue generating one. In our beach example, it is more akin to building a hotel call center on a beachfront rather than open it up primarily to guests. It may satisfy your internal needs, but does not generate top line growth.

Developing the Beachfront

 

Operators are not oblivious to the opportunities that may emerge from integrating edge computing into their network; however, there is a great lack of clarity about how to go about doing this. While powerful standards are emerging from the telco world, Multi-Access Edge Computing (MEC) being one of the most notable, which provides API access to the RAN, there is still no obvious mechanism for stitching these together into a global platform; one that offers a developer-centric user experience.

All is not lost for the operator;, there are a few firms such as Vapor IO and MobiledgeX that have close ties to the  infrastructure and operator communities, and are tackling the problems of deploying shared compute infrastructure and building a global platform for developers, respectively. Success is predicated on operators joining forces, rather than going it alone or adopting divergent and non-compatible approaches.

In the end, just like a developed shoreline caters to the needs of visitors and vacationers, every part of the edge ecosystem will rightly focus on attracting today’s developer with tools and amenities that provide universal reach and ease-of-use. Operators have a lot to lose by not making the right bets on programmable infrastructure at the edge that developers clamor to use.  Hesitate and they may very well find themselves eroded and sidelined by other players, including the major cloud providers, in what is looking to be one of the more exciting evolution to come out of the cloud and edge computing space.

Google Fi…. a case of self service and identity

The past couple of days have been quite interesting, with the launch of Google’s MVNO service. Although I still stick to my earlier stance, there are a few interesting nuggets which are worth examining. I will not go into examining the details of the service, you can find them all over the internet – such as here, but more look at a couple of avenues which are much less talked about – which I feel are very relevant.

The first is the idea of a carrier with complete self-service. Now self service is not rocket science – but when you look at legacy firms (and yes – i mean regular Telco’s) this does account for a LOT. In the current ecosystem of cost cutting – one of the largest areas you can reduce costs is in head-count. To give you an idea what this means for a US Telco – one only needs to read news around the consolidation of call centers from both T-Mobile and Verizon. We are not talking of 100 – 200 people here, we are literally talking about thousands of people! And people cost money – and training, and well can even indulge in illegal activities like selling your social security details! If you have a very well designed self service – you could do away with most (I daresay say even all) of them and voila – you have a lean service which meets a majority of your customer needs. In this case, although you end up buying wholesale minutes/ data from operators – you have none of the hassles of operating a network, and certainly none of the expensive overhead such as a call center. No wonder you can match price with the competition – and perhaps do so at an attractive margin! Not sure if Google already has this in place, but I believe it does have the computing and software wizardry to accomplish this.

The next is in the concept of a phone number as your identity. This has been sacrosanct to operator till now – and Google has smartly managed to wiggle its way in. Now it really doesn’t make a difference what device you use – all your calls will be routed via IP – so the number is no longer “tied” to your device. Maybe in the future – your number would be no longer relevant, maybe it would only be an IP address. What would be important is your identity. Simply speaking, perhaps you could go to any device and login with your credentials – and you see the home-screen as it configured for you.. irrespective of device.

However, here I find it difficult to understand Google’s approach. For a unique identity they chose to go with Google Hangouts…. and although I don’t know usage figures – I doubt if this is a very “popular” platform to begin with. Is this Google’s way of trying to push the adoption of Google Hangouts, especially since most of its efforts around social have proven to be a lot of smoke without fire? Will this approach limit its appeal to the few who are Hangout supporters, is this the first salvo in a wider range of offerings, or will this be a one trick pony to rocket Google on the social map … only time may tell.

But one thing is certain, such services will serve to force operators to keep optimizing – using techniques such as self service to reduce costs and offer even better solutions to their customers – at better price points. Maybe in a way it is not unlike Google Fiber – it serves to push the market in the right direction rather than be a game changer on its own. That in itself – would be worthy of applause.