5G in the Cloud
It seems like companies are moving everything to “the cloud” these days. There are many reasons for this phenomenon; one is that by moving to the cloud a company no longer has to deal with managing server and networking infrastructure. The canonical example of this is Netflix choosing to rely on Amazon Web Services (AWS) for their streaming infrastructure. Judging by Netflix’ position in the market, this seems to have been a good bet.
If streaming content providers can rely on the cloud for infrastructure, why can’t 5G cellular service providers? This is a topic of much discussion in telecom circles and the term “cloud native” is often used to describe new 5G offerings from the major equipment vendors. And in recent months Microsoft has made a few opening salvos in what could turn into an all-out war amongst cloud providers to court 5G business from telcos around the world. Microsoft appears to have spent over a billion dollars to acquire both Affirmed Networks and MetaSwitch. These companies both provide 5G products and have been in the telecom business for many years.
So, soon we may be streaming Netflix over a 5G network and all of the traffic will be running through the cloud. Not that it really matters to the average viewer.