Dell Technologies Inc.’s 5G strategy became a lot clearer today as it outlined its plans for a “cloud-native telecom ecosystem” consisting of network infrastructure and software, dozens of reference architectures, a new innovation lab and a host of industry partners.

The company said it’s targeting communications service providers and that it wants to help them to rapidly evolve their network infrastructures while mitigating the risk and complexity of doing so.

“An open, cloud-native approach is the answer to quickly capture this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and move beyond the hype of 5G to the reality of a resilient next-generation network that creates more opportunities for operators, industries of all kinds and communities around the world,” said Dennis Hoffman, senior vice president and general manager of Dell’s Telecom Systems Business.

Dell announced its new cloud-native telecommunications ecosystem at its online Telecom Transformation event, saying it combines a number of software and hardware solutions it has developed with partners such as VMware Inc., together with reference architectures designed by Dell and partners such as Red Hat Inc.

Hoffman said in a press briefing that enterprise demand for low-latency edge computing capabilities is driving massive investments in 5G infrastructure. He said the sector could be worth as much as $700 billion a year by 2030.

Three things need to happen for communications service providers to take advantage of the enterprise edge, Hoffman said. They need to build and make money from edge computing, modernize network architectures and embrace cloud-native operations.

One of the key initiatives Dell outlined to help CSPs do this is Project Metalweaver, which is an effort to scale cloud-native infrastructure across broad geographies, the company explained. It’s described as a flexible software platform that CSPs can use to choose and then autonomously deploy and manage multivendor compute, network and storage hardware across multiple regions of the world, backed by Dell’s global support and services.

The other aspect of Dell’s 5G cloud-native ecosystem is the reference architectures it has created that span edge, core and Open RAN environments, it said. These will be available in the summer to provide CSPs with full-stack guidance, deployment options and operational recommendations for various types of use cases, enabling them to deploy the applications and services their enterprise customers demand more rapidly, Dell said.

The ecosystem is supported by Dell Financial Services’ flexible payment solutions, Dell said, so CSPs can select from a range of plans to pay for the products and services they use.

Besides working with VMware and Red Hat, Dell said its cloud-native 5G ecosystem also includes core software solutions built with Affirmed Networks Inc., private network solutions from CommScope Inc., multi-access edge computing platforms with Intel Smart Edge, core software solutions from Nokia Corp., and 5G Open RAN software developed in collaboration with Mavenir Systems Inc., paired with Dell EMC PowerEdge XR11 servers.

The final piece of Dell’s puzzle is its new Open Telecom Ecosystem Lab, which is intended to serve as a place where its customers and partners can explore ways to collaborate on future telecoms infrastructure and applications. It will be hosted at Dell’s Round Rock, Texas headquarters, giving CSPs the opportunity to mirror customer locations and test multivendor solutions and services.

Omdia analyst Daryl Schoolar said telecommunications infrastructure is being rapidly transformed as networks disaggregate themselves.

“Communications service providers need strategic partners to help organize the ecosystem, provide validated solutions and take responsibility for deployment and operating outcomes,” the analyst said. “With its experience in digital transformation, IT infrastructure, services, and global network of partners, we are seeing Dell make significant investments in being this missing link supporting CSPs as they build modern mobile communications networks.”

Hoffman appeared on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE’s video studio, last month to explain in more depth why it’s necessary for telecommunications infrastructure to shift to the network edge:

Image: Starline/Freepik