Dell, AT&T combine forces to work on edge computing, 5G software infrastructure

Dell Technologies and AT&T are coming together to explore the development of key open infrastructure technology areas for the next-generation network edge that will be required by service providers to support new use cases and service opportunities in a cloud-oriented 5G world.

According to both the companies, 5G is not simply an evolution from 4G. 5G requires massive transformation. It demands new, distributed architectures that use software-defined, disaggregated and open infrastructure to automate the delivery and management of mobile services and new analytics-driven telemetry to ensure consistent service levels.

Thus, the goal of edge computing is to move compute closer to the end user and applications, creating a low-latency environment for a new class of cloud-native applications. Combining edge computing and 5G extends cloud and “IT-centric” requirements beyond traditional fixed-function hardware to deliver more dynamic, agile edge compute, storage and networking solutions on an unprecedented scale. To capitalize on the new business opportunities that edge computing and 5G will create, communication service providers need open, validated, industry-standard architectures, combined with software-defined networking (SDN), network functions virtualization (NFV), cloud-native applications, and Multi-access edge computing (MEC).

Combining their respective expertise, Dell Technologies and AT&T will collaborate in the open source community to:

• Align on an overall vision of network disaggregation and accelerate the deployment of open infrastructure and AT&T Network Cloud utilizing Airship – a collection of loosely coupled, but interoperable, open source tools that declaratively automate cloud provisioning and life-cycle management utilizing containers as the unit of software delivery
• Catalyze the broader Airship community to accelerate Airship toward a 2.0 release, delivering streamlined aggregator of best-of-breed open technologies for declaratively deploying and managing Kubernetes environments and cloud software
• Jointly develop and enhance additional open source efforts including Metal3-io and OpenStack Ironic, and integrate the Kubernetes Cluster API
• Deliver open source automation capabilities across the stack – from bare metal to network to storage – on Dell Technologies infrastructure

“Dell Technologies addition to the Airship community reaffirms the industry’s growing trust and investment in the open infrastructure model,” said Amy Wheelus, vice president, AT&T Network Cloud. “This collaboration will not only enable us to accelerate the AT&T Network Cloud on the Dell Technologies infrastructure, but also further the broader community goal of making it as simple as possible for operators to deploy and manage open infrastructure in support of SDN and other workloads.”

“Dell Technologies is working closely with AT&T to combine our joint telco industry best practices with decades of data center transformation experience to help service providers quickly roll out new breeds of experiential Edge and 5G services,” said Kevin Shatzkamer, vice president, Dell EMC Service Provider Solutions. “As the world leader in servers, storage and personal computers, Dell’s world class supply chain is best positioned to deliver the cost structure, predictability and access to emerging infrastructure technologies required to enable the transition to a more open, disaggregated mobile network.”