etisalat by e& announced successful development and deployment of Microsoft private Multi-access Edge Compute (MEC) as one of the first operators in MENA region. The solution is available for manufacturing, energy, critical infrastructure and retail industries to deploy modern connected applications for their operational needs.
Azure private MEC deployment enables etisalat by e& to deliver reliable, high performance, low latency private 4G and 5G connectivity with applications utilising robotics, video analytics and IoT at the edge, helping to deliver the next wave of digital transformation.
This successful collaboration is part of a 5G and private networks commercialisation programme that enables etisalat by e& to leverage the Azure platform and ecosystem of application Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) to solve business challenges such as production quality inspection in manufacturing, store management in retail sites or asset tracking at critical transportation hubs.
This partnership and deployment is in line with UAE leadership’s 2030 vision to build an open, efficient, effective and globally integrated business environment, opening opportunities in many different industry verticals to build knowledge based, sustainable and innovation focused businesses.
Khaled Al Suwaidi, Senior Vice President of Core Networks and Platforms, of etisalat by e&, said: “Delivering services and solutions that generate more value than connectivity will be an important driver for operators in the private networks market. Building the ecosystem is the key to realising the promise of 5G in different verticals. This collaboration with Microsoft and our investments in 5G related technologies earlier this year support our vision to enable and empower the enterprise digitalisation ecosystem.”
Shriaj Gaglani, VP Product Management at Microsoft, said: “etisalat by e& is a strategic partner empowering Industry 4.0 transformation for enterprises in the MENA region. Their vision of embracing a flexible edge computing architecture that has a range of networking options along with a modern connected app ecosystem is emboldening customers to design and deliver innovative solutions to solve real business problems.“
With Azure private MEC, etisalat by e& enterprise customers can easily deploy a complete set of 5G core network functions, and a variety of applications on a small edge-compute platform, at tens to hundreds of locations, within minutes. Radio Access Network (RAN) deployments and SIMs configuration is provided and managed by etisalat by e& existing network infrastructure. Applications serving business needs can be on boarded on the Azure private MEC platform at the edge to deliver reliable, scalable, secure solutions serving our customer needs. Over time, we plan to bring forward many new ecosystem applications partners to serve a variety of industries such as retail, infrastructure, manufacturing, etc.
