Technology company IBM Inc. (IBM) and open-source software company Red Hat Inc. unveil its new services and solutions at the Think Digital conference amid the pandemic. The latest technologies highlight the need to meet the primary requirements of telecommunications companies as they move forward in the 5G era.

Talks on 5G are further hyped up with the promise of speed and low latency that would be useful in the age of the Internet of Things (IoT) or hyperconnectivity. The rollout of wireless 5G telecommunications networks is designed to accelerate the utility of edge computing.

Edge computing is seen to expand 5G use cases not only in industrial and enterprise but also in the consumer sector. The new edge services are meant to assist organizations in maximizing 5G capabilities to support crucial uses like emergency response, robotic surgery, or connected-vehicle safety features that benefit from the few milliseconds latency saved by not having to send workloads to a centralized cloud.

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“In today’s uncertain environment, our clients are looking to differentiate themselves by creating more innovative, responsive user experiences that are adaptive and continuously available — from the data center all the way out to the edge,” said Denis Kennelly, general manager, IBM Hybrid Cloud, in a media release. “IBM is helping clients unlock the full potential of edge computing and 5G with hybrid multicloud offerings that bring together Red Hat OpenShift and our industry expertise to address enterprise needs in a way no other company can.”

Red Hat OpenShift

Its acquisition of RedHat is now felt with its new offerings running on RedHat OpenShift, an enterprise Kubernetes platform that can practically work in different platforms such as data center to multiple public clouds to the edge. It helps simplify workload management from the multiple devices of different vendors. IBM said clients across industries can now fully realize the benefits of edge computing, including running AI and analytics at the edge to achieve insights closer to where the work is done. New solutions include:

Using artificial intelligence (AI), analytics, and IoT, the IBM Edge Application Manager can remotely manage workloads while delivering real-time analysis and insight scale. The company said it is “the first solution to be powered by a breakthrough open source project, Open Horizon, created by IBM engineers designed to enable a single person to securely manage such a vast network of edge devices.”

Telcos that are in the process of modernizing their networks can maximize IBM Telco Network Manager runs on RedHat OpenShift. It is built to deliver intelligent automation that would allow telcos to operate virtual and container network functions.

Edge computing

A portfolio of edge-enabled applications and services, including IBM Visual Insights, IBM Maximo Production Optimization, IBM Connected Manufacturing, IBM Asset Optimization, IBM Maximo Worker Insights, and IBM Visual Inspector. All offer features to give clients the flexibility to deploy AI and cognitive applications and services at scale.

As IBM announced the availability of IBM Edge Ecosystem, the company also announced the establishment of a new dedicated IBM Services teams for edge computing and telco network cloud. The company is also creating the IBM Telco Network Cloud Ecosystem, bringing together a set of partners across the telecommunications industry that offer a breadth of network functionality that helps providers deploy their network cloud platforms.