LIVE FROM MWC21 BARCELONA: IBM CEO Arvind Krishna (pictured) insisted operators are at a crossroads between choosing a closed future and one which is open, where they can control their digital transformation journey and benefit from new innovations such as hybrid cloud, AI and open technologies.

Krishna also believes 5G is the fuel for edge computing and it’s important to understand operators have “enormous potential to harness the power of 5G and the edge” not just for connectivity, but as a business services platform.

In manufacturing, for example, 5G-connected automated operations can reduce costs and improve the quality of production lines. But to seize that opportunity, he said operators must move away from rigid, highly-centralised network architecture to adopt more horizontal platform architectures.

“This is a large undertaking”, as an open hybrid-cloud approach is key to enabling the core, radio access and edge networks to be managed seamlessly and optimised continually.

As the industry moves into the new era of distributed computing, “I believe the winners in 5G and edge together will be those who embrace an open hybrid-cloud approach”. This open approach, he explained, gives operators the flexibility to bring together the edge, private clouds and public clouds from multiple providers, and also helps them apply AI and automation at scale.

“This is why telcos need to adopt open software platforms to remain in control of where and how they deploy network services, edge computing and enterprise offerings.”

Krishna said operators around the world are modernising their core networks to make them more software defined to deliver better customer experiences, but also to capitalise on the enormous opportunity which will come with 5G at the edge.

“This convergence of 5G edge, hybrid cloud and artificial intelligence are the tectonic forces shaping the future of telecommunications,” he said.