Leveraging last year’s $34 billion acquisition of Red Hat, IBM has unveiled a bunch of new edge computing services and tools supercharged for 5G. The services are aimed at helping telecommunications companies and other enterprises ease their transition to edge computing, a move increasingly necessary as the wireless 5G era, despite being delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, continues to unfold.
Combining Red Hat’s open-source technology with IBM’s multicloud offerings, IBM says enterprises across several industries can unleash the full potential of 5G for a wide array of uses, including robotic surgery, connected-vehicle safety features, and emergency response purposes.
Because of its speed, low latency, and negligible transmission delays, 5G will make edge computing a necessary component for every company that relies on mobile data, saving precious time because they will not have to transmit workloads to a centralized cloud. This means companies can run AI and analytics at the edge, letting them get insights faster because the data they receive is closer to where the work is done.
IBM’s 5G edge computing tools: Cloud or on-premises
The new services and tools are powered by Red Hat OpenShift, a Kubernetes platform that runs on multiple public clouds or on-premises in your datacenter. IBM says this will help enterprises “overcome the complexity of managing workloads across a massive volume of devices from different vendors.”
Here are a few of the 5G edge-computing services unveiled by IBM and Red Hat:
IBM Edge Application Manager: This management tool enables AI, analytics, and IoT enterprise workloads to be deployed and remotely managed. IBM says it “enables the management of up to 10,000 edge nodes simultaneously by a single administrator.”
IBM Telco Network Cloud Manager: IBM says this service can “deliver intelligent automation capabilities” to quickly orchestrate virtual and container network functions. Telecommunications providers can manage workloads on both Red Hat OpenShift and Red Hat OpenStack Platform, helping them provide new services as 5G rollouts expand.
Edge-enabled applications and services: This portfolio of solutions include IBM Visual Insights, IBM Production Optimization, IBM Connected Manufacturing, IBM Asset Optimization, IBM Maximo Worker Insights, and IBM Visual Inspector. All are designed with features to let companies deploy AI and cognitive applications and services at scale.
For more information about IBM’s 5G edge computing offerings, click here.
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