The ultimate importance of edge computing to a telco has several dimensions. First, edge computing supports a telco's own operations, in a virtualized environment that 5G demands. A few revenue-generating roles also are possible, ranging from colocation and rack space to actual edge computing as a service operations.
Edge computing as a service supplied by a connectivity provider is based at least in part on the ability to repurpose central office assets, ranging from real estate, power and cooling to rack space and partitioned server access.
Central Office Re-imagined as a Datacenter is one effort to create that new platform, at least in part because 5G is expected to require such support. So as long as computer rooms must be built to maintain 5G operations, it is logical to consider what else might be done with those assets.
Network slicing, the ability to easily (or relatively easy) create virtual private networks, is one reason former central offices are becoming data centers. Virtualization is another reason. Also in an edge computing environment run by a telco, there has to be some way to separate an enterprise VPN data stream from all other traffic.
That is where the local breakout function becomes key. Local breakout allows enterprises to separate their own private traffic from the mobile service providers’ other traffic, at a gateway.
In principle, that might allow an enterprise VPN to terminate its local traffic at a gateway and then forward that traffic to its own or some other third party data center without necessarily using the telco’s own edge computing facilities.
There are lots of business issues here, of course. On one hand, a telco edge computing provider might not want to make it easy for enterprises to choose other edge services suppliers. On the other hand, neutral host operation might be necessary. And, much as multi-cloud often is preferred, so too might customers want the option to compute at more than a single edge site, using one or more providers.
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