Verizon launches private edge compute platform with Microsoft, as promised

Verizon is furthering its push into the private mobile networks space by making available a private mobile edge cloud computing solution to businesses.

The US operator has teamed up with Microsoft to launch the snappily titled Verizon 5G Edge with Microsoft Azure Stack Edge cloud computing platform, as promised when it announced its partnership with the software giant last autumn. It is now able to offer business customers an on-premises, private edge compute solution that enables the ultra-low latency required for real-time enterprise applications, it declared.

In October the companies paraded logistics and supply chain solutions company Ice Mobility as their reference customer. The firm was trialling the offer – made up of Verizon’s on-site 5G Edge platform integrated with Microsoft Azure – using its ability to gather data in near-real-time to deal with product packaging errors.

Ice Mobility used the solution to help with computer vision-assisted product packaging, Verizon said, and helpfully provided an image to demonstrate what that might look like. Essentially, it’s about improving on-site quality assurance. Presumably happy with its experience, Ice Mobility is now exploring additional 5G applications that use computer vision and 5G Edge to improve automation.

One example of this would be near real-time activity-based costing, which allows a company to assign overhead and indirect costs to specific customer accounts, pick and pack lines, and warehouse activities, and as a result become more cost-efficient and therefore competitive.

The Ice Mobility trial lends credence to Verizon’s claims of the benefits of on-site 5G and edge computing to various types of businesses. Retailers can use near-real-time data processing to enable greater inventory accuracy, and faster and more flexible supply chains, while manufacturers can maximise performance, minimise downtime, and improve visibility of processes, it notes.

All these types of business will be on Verizon’s radar as it seeks to flog the new cloud computing platform.

“Our partnership with Microsoft brings 5G Edge to enterprises, dropping latency at the edge, helping critical, performance-impacting applications respond more quickly and efficiently,” said Sampath Sowmyanarayan, Chief Revenue Officer of Verizon Business. “5G is ushering in next-generation business applications, from core connectivity to real-time edge compute and new applications and solutions that take advantage of AI transforming nearly every industry,” Sowmyanarayan added.

The telco provided a similar canned quote from Microsoft, as well as analyst affirmations that it is on the right track.

“This announcement aligns with IDC’s view that an on-premises, private 5G edge compute deployment model will spur the growth of compelling 4th generation industrial use cases,” said Ghassan Abdo, Research VP at IDC. “This partnership is a positive development as it leverages the technology and communications leadership of both companies.”

It’s not much of a stretch to suggest there will be more similar announcements to come across the industry.