In the first of our new three-part Ericsson Spotlight Series on 5G software, we deep dive into three distinct perspectives on this topic and examine how Communication Service Providers (CSPs) can realize the full potential of 5G Core.

In the first episode, Prof. Sally Eaves Senior Policy Advisor, Global Foundation Cyber Studies spoke with Farjola Peco, the Head of Strategy at Ericsson Digital Services. Farjola has been tracking market trends and shares with us how she has seen greater ecosystem collaboration due to these seismic industry shifts. She explains how this new reality has driven a confluence of technologies and is currently bringing industries closer together.

5G software has the potential to revolutionize how and when entire mobile networks will be upgraded, potentially in just minutes. In looking at the future for 5G software, Farjola says she sees the Disaggregation of the value chains to create new value proposition. If we unpack that sentence around disaggregation, what we are speaking about is not just network revolution but that 5G software is enabling also a revolution in innovation via new 5G services dependent on a new level of agility, speed, latency and eco-system inter-connectivity. This will, no doubt, kickstart new revenue streams for different ecosystem players competing for various slices of the infamous pie.

Dr. Eaves pointed out in the interview that she is aware of a current rise in cyber-attacks, therefore she asserts: zero trust can be a real key imperative. However, this needs to be balanced with a continued focus on quality of experience. Dr. Eaves in addition, made the point that in order for networks to be as agile and protected as required, this will be heavily dependent on AI-led insights and automation.

Farjola in reply, commented that CSPs are indeed relentlessly focusing on efficiency and identified that they're also looking for trusted partners with whom to collaborate, in order to drive growth in the digitalization of the enterprises. And here, she highlighted two factors which are really important to be part of this growing ecosystem:

In 2017, Ericsson Digital Services took a bold decision to fully invest in cloud-native technology and this long-sighted vision means that today we are in a leadership position in Cloud-Native, 5G Core and in integrating CI/CD (Continuous Integration/ Continuous Delivery) across the full portfolio. Now we are in a pole position to deliver the future of automation and in leveraging the power of CI/CD to benefit our customers.

Farjola outlined that in order to be competitive in this changing business landscape accelerated by technologies, CSPs will really need to adopt and rely more on AI, Analytics and Cloud Computing in order to reach a zero-touch vision.

In looking ahead to 2021, Farjola also made the point that she sees a clear trend towards an increased need for life cycle management where CI/CD and DevOps practices are going to be fundamental in order to seize the first mover advantage.

The full CSP automation journey she pointed out, will take many years, and its critical to start now as change takes time, as she said: its not just about technology its also about people and the processes.

One customer highlighted in utilizing 5G software to its full potential is Telstra. Farjola highlights that Telstra are really personifying what we envisage as the future for the Telco industry. This zero-touch network that runs on the code that never sleeps. See also our joint announcement on the edge cloud for enterprises.

Its a fascinating discussion by two senior leaders in technology, the full interview which runs about 12 mins is available to watch here:

Stay tuned for the next two episodes of Spotlight series on 5G software where our subject matter experts to take a deep dive into the technology and use-cases from North America: Peo Lehto and Arvinder Anand are the guests for episode 2 and 3.

CICD (Continous Integration / Continuous Delivery)

5G Core

Zero Trust explained

See more here:

In the battle for the edge, 5G software is the Excalibur - Ericsson