IBM, Red Hat launch edge computing solutions for 5G

IBM announced new services and solutions intended to help enterprises and telecommunications companies speed their transition to edge computing in the 5G era. The initiative combines IBM’s multi-cloud expertise with Red Hat Linux’s open source technology, which became part of IBM last year. The company says its new edge services will help enterprises tap into the potential of 5G for applications such as emergency response, robotic surgery or connected-vehicle safety features and others that would benefit from millisecond-level latency.

“In today’s uncertain environment, our clients are looking to differentiate themselves by creating more innovative, responsive user experiences that are adaptive and continuously available – from the data center all the way out to the edge,” said Denis Kennelly, general manager, IBM Hybrid Cloud. “IBM is helping clients unlock the full potential of edge computing and 5G with hybrid multicloud offerings that bring together Red Hat OpenShift and our industry expertise to address enterprise needs in a way no other company can.”

IBM’s new offerings run on Red Hat OpenShift, an enterprise Kubernetes platform that, like a virtualization deployment, manages, load balances and scales multiple application containers. According to IBM, the platform also runs on everything from the data center to multiple public clouds to the edge.

IBM’s offerings include IBM Edge Application Manager, an autonomous management solution to enable AI, analytics and IoT enterprise workloads that can manage up to 10,000 edge nodes and IBM Telco Network Cloud Manager – a Red Hat OpenShift solution designed to deliver automation capabilities to orchestrate virtual and container network functions.

In addition, the company has rolled out a group of edge-enabled applications and services, including IBM Visual Insights, IBM Production Optimization, IBM Connected Manufacturing, IBM Asset Optimization, IBM Maximo Worker Insights and IBM Visual Inspector.

In addition, IBM is announcing the IBM Edge Ecosystem and the IBM Telco Network Cloud Ecosystem, which are made up of equipment manufacturers, networking and IT providers and software providers include Cisco, Dell Technologies, Juniper Networks, Intel, NVIDIA and Samsung, among others.

Samsung, for example, is collaborating with IBM and telecommunications provider M1 to develop and test Industry 4.0 solutions using 5G and edge computing for Singapore’s Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA).

“5G and edge will enable massive innovation for manufacturers, with 5G networks enabling phones and devices at the edge to deliver new AI-driven improvements to quality, productivity and safety,” said KC Choi, EVP of Global B2B Sales, Samsung Electronics. “But the ability to achieve the scale and effectively manage the connectivity of the vast number of devices and sensors in a manufacturing environment is complex.”

To address this challenge and enable Industry 4.0 innovation at scale, we’re collaborating to put IBM’s edge computing and AI solutions and Samsung end-to-end 5G network platform and mobile devices to work,” he adds. “Together, we’ll deliver new 5G enabled solutions leveraging sound and video insights as well as augmented reality to uncover anomalies that can occur throughout the manufacturing process.”
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