Singtel and Optus partner AWS on telco edge

Singtel and its Australian subsidiary Optus have added Amazon Web Services (AWS) Outposts to their stable of hybrid cloud technologies from hyperscale cloud providers in their respective multi-access edge compute (MEC) platforms.

In a statement, Singtel said this will enable enterprises to take advantage of 5G solutions like robotics, drones, autonomous vehicles and artificial intelligence to operate at ultra-low latency, closer to the end-users.

The MECs with AWS Outposts can be accessed from the closest Singtel site to help businesses seamlessly operate their applications that use AWS tools and require ultra-low latency data processing.

Singtel can also deploy the MEC with AWS Outposts to the customer’s location for trials involving confidential data that the customer prefers to retain within their premises.

Bill Chang, CEO of group enterprise at Singtel said its partnership with AWS will increase the adoption of edge computing by enterprises and startup.

“Our 5G ecosystems of partners, including global cloud providers, technology providers, device manufacturers and apps developers, provides an essential one-stop hub for enterprises’ and startups’ 5G and edge computing needs,” said Chang.

“As we gear up to launch and lead 5G adoption in Singapore and in Australia through Optus, we will deepen our collaboration with AWS to expand beyond the two countries to the region. This will enhance our portfolio of 5G edge computing apps to empower enterprises with the means to accelerate their digital transformation.”

Phil Davis, managing director of Asia-Pacific and Japan at AWS, said working with Singtel and Optus will help to shape 5G adoption in Singapore and Australia.

“AWS Outposts will provide the underlying compute and storage for Singtel’s and Optus’ 5G MEC infrastructures, allowing their customers to develop applications that require ultra-low latencies over the 5G network to support use cases such as machine learning inference at the edge, smart cities and smart factories, and autonomous vehicles,” he added.

Singtel’s tie-up with AWS follows a similar move last month when it announced a partnership with Microsoft to support Azure Stack in its MEC platform.

Trials of the MEC with Azure Stack will start this year, enabling businesses already using Azure Stack to add new capabilities to existing applications, such as private connectivity and real-time data analysis. “The trials for Singtel 5G MEC allow enterprises to enjoy the best of both worlds with Azure Stack, Microsoft’s trusted hybrid cloud solution, and Singtel 5G MEC’s ultra-low-latency performance,” said Chang.

“Our collaboration places the benefits of 5G and MEC, such as high connection speeds and low latency, in the hands of enterprises, empowering them to use, create, deploy and scale up new 5G solutions. In addition, enterprises can also access new, innovative 5G solutions developed by Singtel’s and Microsoft’s ecosystems of solution providers and app developers,” he added.

Compared to the centralised architecture of cloud computing that lowers IT costs through shared infrastructure, MEC is about distributed computing at the telco edge to enable low-latency and high-bandwidth use cases that otherwise would not be feasible.

By distributing the compute and storage resources into the telco edge, the amount of internet traffic flowing back into cloud datacentres can be reduced significantly, extending the lifespan of a service provider’s network infrastructure.