Connectivity is the backbone of today’s digital world. Thus, advancements such as 5G networking serve to bolster that backbone and advance the telecom sector with existing enterprise requirements in areas such as speed, bandwidth and latency.

The future of telecom, cloud computing and security is a complex landscape filled with challenges and opportunities, and the transition to 5G represents an unprecedented ground-up overhaul. The implications of doing so are only now becoming apparent.

“When you look at 5G and you move it into the cloud, all of a sudden you go blind,” said Bruce Kelley (pictured, left), senior vice president and chief technology officer of NetScout Systems Inc. “That means you’ve got microservices talking to each other inside the cloud, east, west, where, you’re not seeing that traffic. Observability is critical because you’ve got gaps.”

Kelley and Darren Anstee (right), chief technology officer for security at NetScout, spoke with theCUBE Research analysts Dave Vellante and John Furrier at MWC Barcelona, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed the integration of 5G, the nuances of cloud-native architectures and the imperative of security, shedding light on critical aspects shaping the industry’s trajectory. (* Disclosure below.)

The crucial role of observability and security in 5G networking

As telecom operators provide enterprise services powered by 5G, observability and security are even more crucial. Enterprises are demanding stringent service-level agreements, so operators must guarantee robust security in addition to high performance.

“[Telcos] are going to have to be able to see [and] improve the SLAs,” Kelley said. “At the same time, they’re going to have to offer clean slices to these banks and enterprises.”

Observability, which involves gaining visibility into microservices and network traffic, is now a critical tool in assuring SLAs and identifying potential vulnerabilities. This is especially more pressing as critical industries, such as healthcare and finance, begin to rely on 5G, Kelley added.

“The enterprise is going to want guarantees. They’re not going to just sign up for 5G and say, ‘Well, I hope it works,'” he said. “They’re going to hold them to a certain latency, a certain throughput that’s promised. [With] the service they’re signing up for, they’re going to want to guarantee it all the time. It could be life or death, it could be loss of revenue and it could be brand reputation.”

Unlike previous generational upgrades that primarily focused on speed improvements, the transition to 5G represents a fundamental restructuring of telecommunications infrastructure. Moving toward cloud-native architectures means abandoning traditional physical networks in favor of cloud-based, encrypted systems. This transition not only introduces new levels of complexity, but also necessitates a diverse skill set encompassing cloud technologies alongside traditional telecommunications expertise, according to Anstee.

“One of the key things that we’ve realized recently is that the data set that we build for observability to help our customers assure performance and all of those kinds of things within their networks, within the services that they deliver to their enterprises, that data set can also drive a lot of different security value propositions,” Anstee said. “We announced a partnership yesterday with Palo Alto where we’re going to feed some of our data sets into their solutions so that they can make more use of them to enrich their capability and the overall service that the mobile operator can offer to the enterprise.” 

Also important in 5G networking is slicing, which promises to revolutionize how operators deliver services to enterprises. By partitioning the 5G infrastructure into virtual networks, or “slices,” telcos can cater to diverse enterprise needs with customized offerings. These slices not only guarantee specific performance metrics, but also enable telcos to monetize their expertise and infrastructure, Anstee added.

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

(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the MWC Barcelona event. No sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE