AWS and Telstra team up on 5G

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has signed a framework agreement with Telstra to bring cloud services closer to Australian enterprises amid growing 5G momentum.

Under the agreement, Telstra will explore a range of AWS’s edge compute solutions that can be integrated into its 5G network in a bid to speed up the performance of 5G applications and reduce network latency.

Telstra said this would benefit industries that have low-latency network requirements, such as media and entertainment, manufacturing, healthcare and gaming, for a range of applications including augmented and virtual reality, as well as autonomous vehicles.

“We want to help Australian businesses benefit from ultra-fast response times and enhanced resilience that comes with embedding AWS edge computing solutions at the edge of Telstra’s multi-access network,” said David Burns, group executive of Telstra Enterprise.

“For example, by bringing our customers and their mission-critical applications closer together via our 5G network collaboration, regardless of work location, Australian businesses can transform the way they operate and serve their customers.”

Adam Beavis, AWS managing director in Australia and New Zealand, said the collaboration between AWS and Telstra will enable highly responsive experiences on new 5G networks.

“With AWS edge computing solutions, Telstra can build and deploy applications even closer to its customers and deliver more seamless user experiences in such areas as industrial robotic and drone automation, connected vehicles, machine learning-assisted healthcare and immersive entertainment,” he said.

AWS’s agreement with Telstra is the latest in a line of partnerships between cloud providers and telcos across the Asia-Pacific region to tap the region’s growing 5G momentum that could see enterprises harness cloud services to build new 5G applications.

It is unclear which of AWS’s edge compute solutions will eventually be deployed on Telstra’s network. In South Korea, AWS teamed up with SK Telecom (SKT) on a 5G edge cloud service based on AWS Wavelength, which brings AWS cloud services to the telco edge.

By connecting 5G applications to AWS Wavelength Zones at the edge of SKT’s 5G network, application traffic no longer needs to hop through regional sites and the internet, reducing network latency.

Not to be outdone is Microsoft, which recently linked up with Singapore’s Singtel on the latter’s edge computing platform, which will include Azure Stack on-premise systems that let enterprises run Azure cloud services at remote branch offices and edge locations. Singtel will conduct trials of its edge computing platform later this year.

Although more partnerships between cloud providers and telcos to develop and support telco edge infrastructure are expected, the business and operating models around these tie-ups are still a work in progress.

There will also be many edge applications from different stakeholders in large implementations, which means the telco edge will need to be managed and operated as a multi-tenant edge-cloud system, said Bill Rojas, adjunct research director at IDC Asia-Pacific.