7 Layers

Mobile telecom operators continue to ramp their 5G core deployments with many of those efforts based on running vital core operations in a cloud environment. This is an effort that Working Group Two CEO Erlend Prestgard said is critical for operators to monetize their next-generation 5G deployments.

“We’re trying to steal the business model back from the tech giants and bring them back to telecom,” Prestgard said in an interview with SDxCentral.

Working Group Two’s efforts in this scheme are by offering a cloud-based 5G core to operators that they can then plug their 5G radio access network (RAN) and support systems into. That core sits on Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) cloud infrastructure that operators can tap into through an as-a-service model.

Working Group Two was started in late 2017 after Cisco struck a deal with Norway-based telecommunications provider Telenor on a new venture to offer cloud solutions for mobile operators. Working Group Two was tasked with helping mobile operators use cloud-based platforms to launch new services.

Telenor provided the platform’s technology, which is an open source, cloud-native, multi-tenancy, full stack mobile core network delivered as a service. The software behind the platform is a single code base built on multiple radio networks.

Cisco provided a virtualized version of its evolved packet core (vEPC) and APIs into that packet core that are available to the Working Group Two platform. Cisco also provided go-to-market support for bringing those services to enterprise, commercial, IoT, and mass-market customers.

Working Group Two today counts deals with operators in Sweden and its native Norway, with a significant customer in CK Hutchison.

Prestgard explained that operators realize the importance and need for a cloud-native core but are now trying to tackle integration complexity.

“Integrating with the outside world, that still takes time,” Prestgard said. “So, spinning up, I think we've sold that part of the equation. I think now we're working to simplify, automate, externalize as much configuration, integration work as possible, which is also a long journey.”

Check out our latest SDxCentral 7 Layers Podcast to get more insight from Prestgard on market opportunities and challenges.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chief Innovation Officer for the City of Las Vegas Michael Sherwood and Armis CTO Steve Gyurindak joined SDxCentral Editor Nancy Liu to discuss Las Vegas’ efforts on becoming a smart city, what it’s like to secure the Sin City, and what cities should look out for when building a smart-city network.

Sherwood touted Las Vegas has one of the largest private cellular networks for a municipality that “provides connectivity to sensor systems, provides wayfinding as well as connecting students to schools.”

“Smart City just really rolls into how we use technology to make better outcomes, create better amenities, and really create a great experience while you're here and technology is a huge part of that from safety and security to traffic flow.” Sherwood said. “We also have a mind on security and a mind on understanding our assets in ways we've never understood before.”

One of the biggest things Armis discovered when securing the city is the diversity of different devices on its network, spanning from typical PC printers, IP cameras, to even game consoles, Gyurindak noted.

And Armis is happy to offer the visibility for the network, he added.

“Understanding the gravity of everything that is connecting and how it interacts, and being able to assemble a cogent security policy around that is what is the challenges I continuously hear,” Gyurindak said.

“You need to use tools and different types of technologies to help you guard your portfolio of assets. So to that regard, budgets aren't going to balloon up right away. It really falls back to what types of tools can you provide to staff that can help them and assist them in a manner that gives them the greatest visibility of the network but also allows the business to continue,” Sherwood said. “We can't clamp it down to what we can't operate. But we certainly can use tools to help give us insights and tell us where our risks are, so that we can better defend and protect, [which] is a huge advantage.”

 

Photo (L-R): Steve Gyurindak and Michael Sherwood. Source: Armis and the City of Las Vegas.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Craig Box expands on his early work in the Kubernetes ecosystem, how it has impacted the cloud market, and what’s next for the platform.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this week’s episode of 7 Layers, SDxCentral reporter Tommy Clift sat down with Matt Price, Cisco Vice President of IoT Engineering and Operations to discuss the transforming connectivity demands of future transportations systems, and how 5G and multi-access technologies are playing a pivotal role in its progress.

Because transportation ecosystems must chiefly prioritize safety, having ubiquitous and extremely reliable connectivity is mission-critical, Price explained. 5G provides improved security to aid car manufacturers and fleet managers to meet the connected vehicle application requirements, and control data transport costs.

The discussion echoes Cisco’s bullish behavior with its 5G plans. The vendor discussed its pivot towards private 5G at the MWC Las Vegas event in September – which first gained significant momentum earlier in the year when it launched its private 5G platform at the MWC Barcelona event.

Michael Beesley, CTO for service provider networking at Cisco, explained during an interview that the vendor has seen the market slowly evolve over the past several months, and Cisco’s embedded position in a lot of enterprises sets it up to take advantage of this evolution.

“It’s an area that we think is a nice intersection of both our abilities and where we see the market need and customer need,” Beesley said.

“Certainly, as we engage with enterprises, both the IT and the OT sides, the fact that Cisco’s already a significant partner, we already have significant technological portfolios in these accounts, both direct and through partners, the ability to offer and service a private 5G offering that is fully integrated with the enterprise systems, fully integrated with WiFi policy, visibility, security, we think that’s a key attribute that we bring to the table,” he explained.

Stream now to hear the full 7 Layers interview.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Deloitte’s managing director of Risk & Financial Advisory Colin Soutar and Deloitte Specialist Leader Itan Barmes joined SDxCentral Editor Nancy Liu to dive into quantum security on this episode of the SDxCentral 7 Layers podcast.

Soutar and Barmes answered some frequently asked questions about quantum security, such as what is it really going to take to break current cryptography with a quantum computer and why shouldn’t we fixate on the number of qubits to break the crypto or as a measure of progress?

Barmes argues that the number of qubits doesn’t give the full picture. “The number of qubits you need in order to implement the [Shor’s] algorithm, even just on paper, is just one aspect. There are many others. And the danger that I see in focusing so much on the number of qubits is that people create predictions about the timeline when we don't have the hardware exactly running the algorithm,” he said. “So we can make a prediction, but it's most likely not going to go this way. There are many more aspects that are important here, not just the number of qubits.”

Soutar urges organizations to focus on preparation instead. “It was fairly noticeable that a lot of people have been talking about particular dates when are quantum computers going to be mature enough and commercially viable enough that we can implement Shor's [algorithm] and render this attack?” Soutar said. “The over-fixation on a date, I think it's just the wrong message for industry in general … It's really not a matter of when, it's whether organizations are ready to deal with it when it comes along.”

The discussions about Shor's algorithm and technological advances in quantum computing and even the standardization around post-quantum cryptography currently should be detached a little from organizations’ quantum-ready and crypto-agile efforts, they said.

Lastly, “let's not have potential vulnerabilities overshadow all of the positive applications of quantum computing around simulation and optimization and so on,” Soutar said. “The technology at large can provide the benefits that it's certainly been promising as it continues to evolve.”

Listen to the full interview now.

Photo (L-R): Colin Soutar and Itan Barmes Source: Deloitte

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Andrea Caldini, VP of network engineering at Verizon, has seen a lot of wireless technology evolution during her 20 years at the telecom giant. This includes that carrier’s initial 3G launch based on CDMA technology, its radical move to 4G LTE more than a decade ago, and its more recent push into 5G.

“I remember at some point thinking 64 kb/s was really fast,” Caldini joked during an interview with SDxCentral.

Caldini cited Verizon’s early 5G work, including its early work toward 5G standards that were initially outside of the normal standards bodies.

Verizon has also been able to inject a lot more spectrum into its 5G services based on that technology standards ability to support larger “chunks” of spectrum. Caldini cited the carrier’s extensive millimeter wave (mmWave) spectrum holdings that support significant capacity and its ongoing deployment of its C-Band spectrum that is providing a broader reach.

As part of that push, Verizon itself has been able to expand those network updates broadly across the organization, including into its Verizon Business Group. That group has been a driver of Verizon’s recent business operations.

Verizon 5G and the Private, MEC Space

That work has also begun to spread more into the private 5G space, which Caldini said is a “huge opportunity here,” and the is “a gateway into mobile edge compute.”

Verizon’s MEC efforts include agreements with all three major hyperscalers – Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP) – to provide optionality to enterprises. This allows the carrier to support two deployment models: private MEC and public MEC.

The private MEC path involves an on-premises device deployment that allows an enterprise to maintain total control over its data. The carrier runs this on top of its agreement with AWS, Microsoft, and GCP.

The public MEC work taps into nearly 20 locations where Verizon is collocated with the hyperscalers. This model is one Verizon executives have previously stated provide a connection point to within 150 miles of most enterprises.

“As you’re creating these solutions, you’re looking to have your workloads closer, so you might have a low-latency need and need to have that workload closer,” Caldini said, adding that this private and public MEC integration then allows an enterprise to adjust where they want to run applications and still have it all under strict control. “They all come together as you create these new services to support a business need.”

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

CIOs are expecting their IT budgets to increase an average of 5.1% due to a “triple squeeze” of economic pressure, the talent shortage and supply chain challenges, according to a new survey from Gartner released in time for the Gartner IT Symposium 2023 in Orlando, Florida.

The 2023 Gartner CIO and Technology Executive Survey gathered data from 2,203 CIO respondents in 81 countries and all major industries, and representing approximately $15 trillion in revenue/public-sector budgets and $322 billion in IT spending.

The respondents ranked their company’s objectives objectives for digital technology investment over the last two years. The top two objectives were to improve operational excellence (53%) and improve customer or citizen experience (45%). In comparison, only 27% cited growing revenue as a primary objective and 22% cited improving cost efficiency.

During this episode of 7 Layers, Daniel Sanchez-Reina, VP analyst at Gartner, talked about the survey results, and how CEOs and boards are anticipating digital initiatives, working to bridge silos in their organizations, reducing the talent gap through unconventional methods, and empowering employees outside of the IT team to contribute to building digital capabilities.

Sanchez-Reina is a VP Analyst in CIO Leadership, Culture and People. Sanchez-Reina covers the complex challenges of culture change in organizations, high-performing teams, leadership, CIO influence and CIO role evolution. He provides research on a worldwide basis, advising clients on their specific needs to achieve sustainable growth.

Listen to the podcast to hear what Sanchez-Reina had to say.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

AT&T’s Assistant Vice President of Security Dan Solero sat down with SDxCentral Editor Nancy Liu at AT&T’s Global Headquarters in Dallas, Texas for this episode of 7 Layers.

Solero noted the security industry is facing a lot of pressure due to emerging technologies and modalities, new initiatives in the legislative and regulatory environment, and ongoing talent shortages. 

To address some of those challenges, a few years ago, AT&T announced it will be a public-cloud first company, meaning the first step of its IT strategy is to determine how to get to the cloud, he said.

In hybrid and multi-cloud environments, “we have to have a centralized point of view to monitor what's happening from a security perspective. So we've built our own set of systems leveraging some proprietary technology that we have and commercial off-the-shelf solutions, mainly from the market segment called cloud security posture management. And what that gives us is an ability to have a broad view of our AT&T assets out in multiple clouds and apply consistent standards and detection mechanisms across all of them.”

The tier-one operator also has quantum ready on its roadmap by 2025. “It's so important to be taking action now,” Solero said. “We've declared almost like a call to action within the company, that we need to be ready for quantum risk by a certain time period, [and] we've chosen 2025. And what that means is by the end of 2025, we'll have a good plan and a good awareness of what needs to be done and in what priority order we need to address these issues and have a good understanding of how to take action.”

“We're a couple of years into trying to establish practices and raise awareness within the company that we need a better inventory,” he added. “We need a more complete inventory and information about our encryption usage, where it's used, and what it is protecting. I would say that we're probably within a few months of having a plan established, and then it's all about execution.”

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices