Silicon Valley ambitions, the edge of the race
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella boasted in a quarterly conference call with analysts: "We are the only cloud that extends to the edge, consistent in terms of operating model, development environment, and infrastructure stack. Now Azure Edge Zones extends Azure to the edge of the network and directly connects operators’ 5G networks to achieve ultra-low latency immersive real-time experience. The acquisition of Affirmed Networks will help operators deploy and maintain 5G networks and services effectively and safely."
Microsoft announced this week that all of its businesses have received significant quarterly earnings, but hidden in the company's performance report are clearer details about its edge computing, 5G and private wireless network strategy. When asked about Microsoft's overall Azure cloud computing strategy in the global stay-at-home order, Nadella explained that the company is trying to keep up with the huge demand for its online services. He also said that Microsoft's move toward edge computing will help this effort.
"Edge computing will become more and more important," he said. "This is why what we did on our edge computing, what we did on Afirmed Networks, and even on the release of Azure Edge Zones, I think these all illustrate the long-term infrastructure architecture in the future. ."
Microsoft's remarks on the importance of edge computing have been echoed by Tom Bartlett, the new CEO of Tower of America, the cell phone tower giant. Bartlett pointed out that the purchase of Atlanta, Georgia, a data center headquartered in Coloat by Tower of the United States is an example of interest in the field of edge computing. AT&T, an early supporter of Azure edge computing, has pledged to provide Azure edge areas for 5G in Atlanta, Dallas and Los Angeles.
• Microsoft edge computing ambitions
Microsoft is working hard to ensure that its Azure cloud computing service will not remain trapped in several large data centers in the world. Instead, the company is working hard to embrace edge computing and will see its Azure services run in a large number of small data centers around the world. In this way, Microsoft hopes to reduce the delay in sending users' computing requests to remote data centers by sending users' computing requests to edge computing data centers that are geographically closer to users. This should have a major impact on services that rely on real-time connections, such as video conferencing and online games.
• Commitment to establish independent Azure edge zones (zones) in selected coastal cities starting from New York, Los Angeles and Miami next year.
• Committed to ensuring that Azure services run in real time on 5G networks operated by operators such as Vodafone and AT&T, and private companies such as robot manufacturer Ataboths.
Microsoft said that 5G operators that support its Azure Edge Zones will be able to provide 10ms delay.
• Covet unlimited private network
Microsoft introduced AzurePrivateEdgeZone which will allow companies to build their own private Azure data centers. A major selling point of these private edge computing scenarios is to allow enterprise customers to build their own wireless LTE or 5G private networks.
Microsoft explained that a private wireless network running on the Azure private edge area can support various applications, such as smart factories or remote surgery. In the retail sector, Microsoft said the solution can create attractive ads when potential users browse online products or walk through the aisles of stores.
Microsoft recently acquired Affirmed Networks, and the deal is reportedly worth $1.35 billion, partly because of this. Microsoft is selling Affirmed, a virtual evolved packet core network (vEPC), to companies that want to build wireless dedicated LTE or 5G networks. Other Microsoft vEPC vendors include Mavenir, Nokia, Metaswitch and Expeto.
Microsoft said it may also sell Affirmed's technology directly to 5G operators, which are working on introducing virtualized software architectures in their networks. The company recently confirmed to LightReading that it has confirmed that Affirm’s CEO Anand Krishnamurthy will report to Jason Zander, head of Microsoft’s Azure division. The vendors participating in the Microsoft Azure Enterprise Network Private Edge Zones include Arista for routers, Palo Alto for firewalls, VMWare for SD-WAN, Nokia and NetFoundry, and CommScope for wireless devices. The important thing is that operators from Vodafone, Telstra to Telefonica have also joined. Microsoft has formed a number of important ecosystems to support its Azure private edge zone (zone):
• Microsoft is not the only
A cloud computing giant that invests in 5G and edge computing. At the end of last year, Amazon announced the launch of the Wavelength project for edge computing and 5G with the support of companies such as Verizon and Vodafone; and earlier this year, Google announced the launch of the telecom field on GMEC (Global Mobile Edge Cloud) and Anthos for Telecom Platform. The service is also supported by AT&T.
• Fighting
May 12: EdgeMicro receives $5 million investment in edge computing
EdgeMicro, a leading machine hosting company, received $5 million to accelerate its expansion. DH Capital LLC is an investment banking company that serves companies in the Internet infrastructure, communications and software industries and serves as a financial advisor to EdgeMicro.
The funds will be used to start several additional micro data centers. The new site will be announced in the coming weeks and will be finalized through collaboration between EdgeMicro and its expanding core customer base. The additional capital also helps to create and deliver ever-expanding solutions to simplify the organization's successful deployment at the edge.
Mike Hagan, founder and CEO of EdgeMicro, said: "EdgeMicro continues to demonstrate its speed expansion capabilities. "Our team is still highly focused on providing Colocation solutions. The company needs to be in a leading position in terms of speed, efficiency and reliability. "
May 7: EdgeConneX claims to support Nvidia
EdgeConneX is a pioneer in the edge data center, and it is satisfying the growing interest of enterprises in using the data processing and decision-making advantages of artificial intelligence (AI) and deep learning (Deep Learning). As a long-term member of the NVIDIA DGX-Ready Data Center program, the company's edge facilities are born to support enterprises that require the capabilities and performance of NVIDIA DGX system users.
NVIDIA provides companies in all industries with a portfolio of NVIDIA DGX systems dedicated to AI workloads. Based on the NVIDIA DGX software stack, the DGX system is optimized for the maximum performance of AI training and can be used in various AI applications, from improving medical results and gaining business insights to improving worker safety in industrial environments.
EdgeConneX has data centers in more than 30 markets around the world, covering North America, South America and Europe. The power density of a single cabinet can reach more than 35kW, which can carry large-scale DGX system deployment. EdgeConneX effectively introduces intelligent edge capabilities into the local area by building and operating data centers that meet the needs of customers in the best locations, helping forward-looking companies that are transforming to AI services.
Philip Marangella, Chief Marketing Officer of EdgeConneX, said: "The goal of traditional data center construction is to provide 5-10kW of power per rack and have a higher latency threshold, which in the past was sufficient to meet the needs of many workloads." For smart and deep learning applications, this is no longer possible. EdgeConneX data center takes machine learning, artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies as the core, providing high-performance, low-latency computing capabilities, making the data center closer to customer needs. As part of the NVIDIA DGX-Ready Data Center program, our customers can focus on their core business and believe that they will have the computing and data center resources needed to run advanced AI workloads.
Tony Paikeday said: "AI is the key to business success. EdgeConneX's colocation products ensure that customers can deploy DGX systems in environments optimized for high-performance GPU workloads. NVIDIA's Director of Product Marketing for DGX Systems." With DGX provided by EdgeConneX -Ready data center solutions, enterprises can focus on obtaining business value from AI faster without spending time and budget on the technical requirements of professional infrastructure deployment. "
EdgeConneX has practical management experience in construction, electricity, regulatory rules, zoning, budgets, and tight schedules in the global Edge market. By cooperating with NVIDIA to introduce AI to the industry, EdgeConneX can support various deployments and deployments with its AI and HPC requirements. Vertical industry. And local deep learning solutions for global companies.
May 7: AlefEdge gets more VC funds for edge computing
Edge leader AlefEdge confirmed that the company completed Series B priority financing in April. The company’s investors include established stock funds and family offices. With the end of this round of financing, the company is helping application developers and organizations use software-defined mobile edge technology (SD-ME) and has raised nearly $40 million in capital.
"AlefEdge invented the concept of separation of control and application layers, which has formed an understanding of SD-ME today. AlefEdge executive chairman Mike Mulica said: "In the past few years, AlefEdge has strengthened production-oriented SD-ME capabilities. Will enable application developers to take full advantage of the power of Edge Internet. "In the third quarter, AlefEdge will launch an easy-to-use SD-ME API to help application developers and online communities bring Edge to life. This financing will accelerate the introduction of SD-ME and promote global application developers and corporate communities. Wave of innovation.
From the beginning, AlefEdge has focused on programmable Edge, including dedicated Edge algorithms, intelligent Edge architecture, Edge services, Edge APIs, and most importantly value extraction. The company is the first to innovate in the SD-ME field. AlefEdge has been deployed in multiple connection technologies such as 3G, 4G LTE/CBRS, Wi-Fi, and is ready for 5G. Now, any enterprise can take advantage of these automated tools provided through APIs to start executing their Edge strategy within minutes.
Iain Gillott, president and founder of iGR, a market research and consulting company focused on the wireless industry, said: "The 5G edge layer is the key and complex part of realizing the promise of the 5G world-in fact, there is no edge computing architecture , 5G is impossible. AlefEdge understands this, and its technology’s ease of use approach helps developers and end users unlock the potential of the network.
AlefEdge announced that its Alef AdVision solution will be released on the Microsoft Azure Edge Zone platform later this year. Alef AdVision API brings real-time targeted advertising to life and embeds intelligence to bring new revenue opportunities for connected screen owners and additional revenue for participating brands.
April 29: Big coffee and edge computing startup Veea returns to the king
The network edge can have many meanings, but for the team at Veea, a New York startup, the edge is where end-user devices connect to a larger network. Whether through Ethernet, cellular, Wi-Fi or Internet of Things (IoT) protocols, Veea hopes to provide packaged services with sufficient computing power to process data locally. This is also the new goal of Allen Salmasi, chairman of Veea, a Silicon Valley serial entrepreneur.
The legendary experience of Allen Salmasi: For 40 years he has been in the communications industry and helped develop the CDMA protocol. He was once one of Qualcomm's largest shareholders. Salmasi then founded NextWave Telecom in 1996 to bid for the PCS spectrum for US$4.7 billion, filed for bankruptcy when unable to pay, and in 2003 applied to the Supreme Court for control of the spectrum, and then sold it to Verizon in 2005. Salmasi then started using NextWave Wireless and has since acquired companies such as PacketVideo and IPWireless. After Salmasi sold the NextWave Wireless spectrum to AT&T in 2013, Salmasi and his son Michael founded Max2, and launched an edge computing server called VeeaHub in 2018. Later in the same year, Max2 was renamed Veea and acquired Virtuosys as a mobile edge computing platform, adding key software to the edge server hardware.
This kind of hardware is equivalent to a Wi-Fi router box and can be connected to local devices through traditional protocols such as LTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, LoRa, Zigbee, Ethernet, USB or RS232. Later this year, Veea plans to combine 5G and 802.11ax. VeeaHub has three products, one for families or small businesses, one for corporate customers, and one for outdoor. All of these can be managed through a smartphone application.
Since VeeaHub can use cellular network backhaul, the company is marketing them as a permanent installation solution. They are sold as a service, starting at $20 per box per month. The Veea team believes that customers will realize that VeeaHub can act as an LTE router, public Wi-Fi access point, IoT gateway and firewall, Bluetooth receiver and beacon, and Linux VPN server to see the value of VeeaHub.
Veea's senior vice president Michel explained that local servers are meaningful for emerging 5G application cases, especially AI. He cited Veea's new AdEdge software, which captures and analyzes people's images when people stop to watch digital advertisements. Michelle said: "Unless you really process the data locally to distinguish whether the data is a face or not, the massive amount of data you send to the cloud will far exceed your needs."
Michel and his team envisioned the migration of applications from the cloud to VeeaHub. "Because we are running containers, we have software portability," Michel said. "You can migrate applications to the edge of the device and run on VeeaHubs. He said that Veea's Linux-based platform supports the operation of containerized software, as well as the company's own retail, municipal and smart building vertical applications. Veea also has an application Development kits that enable third parties to write software for their platforms.
In order to get software developers into the car, Veea will need to cultivate the market with hardware, because the company's software and hardware are tightly integrated. Veea has 100 full-time employees, including global sales staff, and it is marketing its integrated solutions to network operators who want to extend connectivity and computing power to buildings and small business owners who want to create private networks.
April 20: Trilogy network brings edge computing to the countryside
Trilogy network is using the Rural Cloud project to bring edge computing to the most remote rural areas in the United States. The company's goal is to provide these services to agricultural operations, oil and gas companies, and other companies that want to upgrade to the latest, low-latency, wireless computing services.
The company has made some significant progress: it has signed agreements with a few wireless network operators to cover nearly 50,000 square miles of territory in the interior of the United States. The company’s recent goal is to increase this area to 100,000 square miles. And gradually achieve the long-term goal of 2 million square miles.
The company’s partner ChatMobility plans to install Trilogy’s equipment in its data centers, central offices, and several cell phone tower sites. The company provides wireless services to Southwest Iowa. Other partners include Inland Cellular, which covers eastern Washington and northern central Idaho, and RINA Wireless Networks, a cooperative organization composed of nearly a dozen small wireless network operators across the country.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai proposed to devote up to US$1 billion to precision agriculture as part of his US$9 billion fund to build 5G in rural areas. When talking about his plan, Pai said: “American farmers and ranchers use modern technology to innovate to provide impetus to today’s agricultural economy. This left a deep impression on me and gave me a lot of inspiration. For example. , I visited an autonomous farm in Horace, North Dakota. In Greensboro, Vermont, I learned how to craft cheese companies using modern technology. I saw a farm in Charles, Virginia, which uses a mobile phone The application of GPS and GPS has brought record corn production. Ingenuity like this helps bring better and cheaper food to the table, is more environmentally friendly, and makes the U.S. agricultural sector more internationally competitive."
Pai formed the Precision Agriculture Connectivity Task Force, which was composed of Trilogy CEO and executives from John Deere, New Horizons Farms, Microsoft, Hughes Network Systems, and the American Farmers Association.
Trilogy CEO Woodward hinted at the cooperation with the edge computing startup Vapor IO, and pointed out that “to promote the most advanced edge computing and edge technology within the dynamic edge alliance Kinetic Allicance”, the Kinetic Edge Alliance is an edge led by VaporIO supported by the tower company CrownCastle Calculation items.
The game has just started
Quoting a famous quote from Churchill of World War II: "now isn't end ,end even still no start But now probably is preludial' end." (Now is not the end, the end has not even begun, but now is probably the end of the preview.)
The tide of 5G construction has begun, and the prelude of 5G To B is about to begin. Edge computing has become a market coveted by cloud and Internet giants, and it is also the territory of various Startup companies.
And this game has just begun, just like the first few kilometers of a marathon, the surrounding companies or opponents may not always exist, and there will be constant influx of new capital and players. In this game or game, Endurance, concentration, and ecology are the keys, and the winner is the one who accumulates strength and runs the course.