5G has been technology that has been looming for quite some time. Now, we’re about to see it start to deliver. Predications are that this is the year where 5G will start to go mainstream and “live up to its hype,” and it would be a mistake to underestimate the impact that it’s going to have. It is expected to be the driver behind Industry 4.0 – the next industrial revolution – and its benefits will resonate across all sectors and industry types. Even small business, usually not one to derive much value from technology, is expected to see a big boost in opportunity from having access to 5G.
Being successful with 5G involves more than buying and installing a new modem, however. Businesses that want to take advantage of the opportunities that 5G offer will need to understand that 5G is a foundation, and capitalising on that requires a re-think of a lot of the IT environment.
Five Steps To Supercharge 5G
There are five areas in particular that every business will want to look at as they begin their journey with 5G. These are technology areas that the CIO or IT leader will need to invest in - often for the first time - to make the most of 5G, and these areas include:
1) Data and storage: 5G enables download speeds of as high as 10gbps. Not only does this allow a company to do more with their Internet (think higher quality video feeds or streaming services), but it also results in a lot more data flowing through the organisation, which, for many businesses, will require a re-think about how to approach the storage of all that data.
2) Edge computing: 5G also means lower latency – where response times for 4G were around 50 milliseconds, 5G gets it below 10 milliseconds as standard, and often below one millisecond in optimal circumstances. This is a major advantage, as it allows real-time computing for the first time. Think AI, robotics, and automation – latency was one of the things holding them back from realising their full capability, but with 5G that changes. The only issue is that to take full advantage of this, organisations need to move away from traditional datacentre models for compute, and instead adopt edge computing, where the servers and storage is located on-site to handle some parts of the application processing. Given the environmental conditions that servers need to operate safely, edge computing often requires some strategic design of the work environment.
3) IoT: 5G will be an enormous boost to IoT, both because of the data and low latency capabilities of 5G, but also because 5G allows for more devices to be connected at once. With both fixed broadband and 4G there was an upper limit in the number of simultaneous devices that could be connected to the network, but those limitations are swept away by 5G. Given that IoT environments often require dozens of devices to be connected to the network, only 5G will be able to deliver the complete IoT experience.
4) Mobility: 5G enables organisations to fully embrace mobility, with everywhere, anytime computing allowing employees to conduct video calls, leverage cloud capabilities, and work while on the road. Organisations should look at this as an opportunity. Not only to enable existing staff to be more flexible in how they work, but to take advantage of the gig economy, and work with talented people from around the planet, gaining access to greater skills, greater efficiency, and greater capabilities. Previously, limitations to remote work made it difficult to fully collaborate with people that weren’t able to spend time in the physical office. 5G removes that limitation.
5) Security: Finally, the advent of 5G will require a re-think around security. Currently, security is typically based on a “perimeter” strategy – lock down the computing environment so no one can break it. However, as workplaces become more mobile and 5G enables more work to be done in the cloud, this approach will leave too many gaps. Instead CIOs are going to need to shift to a “zero-trust” approach to security, where the entire network assumes that the person logging in or interacting with the network is hostile until proven otherwise. This approach will require new security solutions and a new security environment.
5G is a significant opportunity and, importantly, it’s also a “great equaliser.” Once small businesses have access to the same kind of speeds as large enterprises, they will be able to better innovate and compete, even with the biggest companies out there. At the same time, while 5G is an iteration on from 4G, deploying a 5G environment effectively involves a lot more than purchasing a sim card and setting up a modem. The entire IT environment needs to be motivated behind using 5G as an opportunity, and not just “fast Internet,” because the reality is that the Internet speeds are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what 5G can offer.
