Cloud computing is transforming enterprise telecommunications networks.

DISH Network Corp. has incorporated Dell Technologies Inc.’s networking savvy and hardware to implement infrastructure, bringing cloud software to the crucial, distributed edge.

“We’ve built a network from scratch covering the entire U.S., and we use a cloud-native base,” said Marc Rouanne (pictured, right), chief network officer and executive vice president at DISH. “So, from the bottom of the tower all the way to the internet, we use the cloud, distributed cloud. We’re starting to play with it, and that’s pretty cool. But it’s unique, and now it’s working.”

Rouanne and Andy Sheahen (left), global director of telecom cloud, core and NG Ops at Dell, spoke with theCUBE industry analysts Lisa Martin and David Nicholson at MWC 2023, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed the Dell technologies powering DISH’s telco products, including Boost Mobile. (* Disclosure below.)

Tangible benefits unlocked

While DISH wouldn’t share exact numbers, the capital and operating expenditure benefits of its Dell collaboration have been immense, according to Rouanne. The added edge capabilities have also allowed the company a speedier rate of innovation.

“One of the things that telcos would not do was to tap into the IT industry,” he explained. “So we have access to the silicon and software at a scale that none of the telcos could ever do and for us. It’s a very powerful industry, and we’ve been driving the ecosystem.”

The difference between facilitating distributed edge today compared to a few years ago is in the increased scale, considering new techniques and hardware supplier combinations, according to Sheahen. And Dell has to bring all those factors in check for its customers.

“You’ve got all the different hardware components, the extraction layer, and the virtualization layer, and all of that stuff together has to be managed,” he said. “You’ve got compatibility matrices that get very deep and very big, very quickly. And that’s the foundational challenge when we think of Open RAN: how these different pieces are going to fit together not just to work today, but every day as everything gets updated much more frequently than in the legacy world.”

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the MWC 2023 event:

(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for MWC 2023. Neither Dell Technologies Inc., the primary sponsor for theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE