As the hype around crypto currencies, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) dies down, the same love and attention has been captured by none other than 5G.
Essentially, 5G is a communication technology that is believed to open up even faster data transmission avenues that we currently have at our disposal.
However, the dawn of 5G won’t be as quick and spontaneous as it apparently seems. This technology demands a major revamp of the existing cellular and network communication infrastructure.
When we say a major revamp, we are talking of tens of billions of dollars. Given the prevalent global Geo political and economic environment, we reckon that even cash rich entities would prefer to exercise some caution.
The second most hyped issue, like any other new technology around the block is, which old technology will fall prey to it. So far as 5G is concerned, that likely casualty is being portrayed as the Cloud Computing industry.
We think this assessment is contrary to the situation that is likely to develop on the ground. Currently, high quality cloud computing is converged around major metropolitan cities of the world.
This means Cloud Service Providers (CSP) do not feel the incentive to trickle down the same level of service to the suburban and rural areas. This in turn deprives such localities from availing a decent cloud offering.
The way 5G tends to work is that you can’t pick and choose among geographies. If 5G goes somewhere, it goes with all the flair. This high speed network will work as a boon for cloud users of adjoining localities.
By leveraging 5G, the cloud tenants of rural and suburban localities will also be able to avail super fast cloud infrastructure, thus opening new commercial avenues and opportunities.
This super fast connectivity brought about by 5G will motivate cloud averse entities to execute computing workloads over the cloud, while still maintaining business critical data on premise.
One of the major deterrents to cloud migration has been serious concerns around security of the public cloud solutions. With 5G, this simply won’t be an issue.
Maintain sensitive data on premise but outsource processing intensive workloads to the cloud, without procuring costly data processing resources for on premise deployment.
Both these factors should immensely lend support to the apparently disadvantaged cloud industry. The addition of a whole new client base that was previously not on the cloud will be a welcome revenue stream.
Similarly, even if entities fall short of availing cloud based storage, even the use of cloud processing resources will translate into revenues for CSPs.
It can safely be concluded that 5G would be less of a decimator and more of a helping hand for the already thriving cloud industry, at least for the initial few years down the road.
