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The Security and Cost Considerations of 5G Rollouts in 2022

The Security and Cost Considerations of 5G Rollouts in 2022 Image Credit: Benophotography/Bigstockphoto.com

In 2021, 5G networks were launched across the world. It is now predicted that operators will spend 80% of sector capex on 5G over the coming five years - meaning 5G will reach 45% of the global population. Undeniably, expectations on what this technology can deliver are extremely high; consumers and businesses alike are hoping for far more reliable connectivity and ultra-low latency use cases that represent an entirely new era of digital transformation.

So, what changes will we see in 2022 in relation to 5G and service provider priorities?

#1: UK Service Providers will be prioritising one thing - cost

There has been a fair amount of discussion around how 5G may be able to bridge the digital divide in the near future. However, given the current stage of 5G rollouts across the UK, Communications Service Providers (CSPs) are certainly not at the right stage to be prioritising this issue – instead they are focusing on how they can successfully deliver the 5G core in the most cost-effective way. And while 5G may well help bridge the digital divide, the way that the network is put together means that Cost Per User (CPU) is significantly higher in rural areas. What’s more, the 5G network will run across many more, much smaller cell sites and it will be a challenge to implement these across remote locations. For context, for 2G to reach the entire country 20 years ago, there was only the need for around 1000 cell towers. This grew to around 1 million by 2017 and, for 5G, this would have to grow another 10x. Are we really willing to implement 10 million cell towers across the UK? The issue remains that connectivity will always be better in urban environments, yet now trials and pilots have been complete, and 5G environments (stand-alone cores) are set to be engineered across the next year, time will tell whether the infrastructure to bridge this divide will be possible.

#2: 5G will transform IoT, but cybersecurity needs prioritising

Telecommunications organisations have been leveraging IoT platforms for years, but as 5G rollouts continue and speeds increase, we’ll begin to see just how much lower latency and more reliable connectivity can mean for these large networks of devices. From connected cars to smart bike lights with GPS integrations, leading CSPs are transforming formerly simplistic devices into innovative products that will ultimately help to publicise the wide-reaching benefits of 5G and IoT. With assets that streamline and enable end-user productivity, CSPs are personalising the 5G journey and showing their customers that there are benefits far beyond the industrial.

However, wherever there are connected devices, there is also the capability to infiltrate a network. Therefore cybersecurity must be a priority for CSPs leveraging IoT, and visibility into all assets and their data is essential, especially as recent reports claim that malware attacks on IoT devices rose by 700% during the pandemic. When providers deploy 5G, this is largely on a sub virtual, container-based environment, typically the hybrid cloud. While hybrid infrastructure, and hybrid clouds, are increasingly common, organisations often fail to implement the right tools that ensure visibility across all environments, and blind spots can quickly cause issues for security and network performance. To ensure CSPs get the most out of IoT platforms, a unified view into all environments must be a top consideration.

#3: Observability will be central to optimising tech in Industry 4.0

In recent years, we have seen manufacturing organisations lean more and more on interconnected technology to boost productivity. And 5G is ensuring solutions in this industry are more capable and wider reaching than ever before. In 2022 and beyond, smart factories will become the de facto, especially in light of the critical skills gap and the possibility that social distancing will again be a requirement. Automation will be an integral support for sites with a decrease in staff and an increase in customer demand.

However, Industry 4.0 will also be shaped by the need for enterprises to cut costs and make the most of their investments. Over the next 12 months, business will still feel the pressure to do more with less, so optimising processes and implementing automation in the warehouse will be key for industry. To allow this optimisation, deep observability into all data running across these technologies will be essential. The insight gathered from this visibility will lead to actions that improve both cybersecurity and network performance.

Author

Matt Percival is EMEA Senior Director - Service Provider at Gigamon. Within this role he grows Gigamon’s Service Provider footprint within EMEA, spearheads team strategy, supports major Service Provider customers and works to bring the EMEA customer need to the business. Matt has over a decade of experience in the network and network security space, driving multi-million pound revenues with small sales teams.

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