Technology Reseller - v19 2019

01732 759725 26 5G for growth are distribution (£3.6bn), manufacturing (£2bn), professional services (£1.1bn) and business services (£1bn). These benefits are not guaranteed, and the report warns that a slower than anticipated roll-out and lower 5G take-up by consumers and businesses could limit the economic benefit to £8.3bn of added revenue. Sean Duffy, Head of TMT at Barclays, says it is concerning that just 39% of decision-makers know how their business can make the most of 5G and only 15% of the 526 businesses surveyed are currently thinking about how they can harness the technology. He said: “To ensure the UK can realise the full potential of an accelerated rollout, the Government, mobile operators and other corporate partners have a job to do in order to raise awareness amongst businesses so they can harness 5G.” 5G mobile communications could supercharge the UK economy by up to £15.7bn per year by 2025, according to the most optimistic scenario (rapid roll- out/enhanced uptake) outlined in a new report from Barclays Corporate Banking. Even at today’s rate of progress, 5G: A Transformative Technology states that the UK economy might receive a boost of £13 billion, as peak data rates 20 times faster than 4G and simultaneous connections for one million devices per square kilometre drive innovations in artificial intelligence, robotics and the Internet of Things (IoT). The sectors with the most potential Mobile providers are beginning to introduce 5G capabilities on a large scale, with pilots underway in London, the Midlands, Edinburgh and Belfast (see caption). One of the applications that has most to benefit from 5G is the Internet of Things (IoT). In Vodafone’s sixth Internet of Things Barometer , 52% of IoT adopters said they plan to use 5G, along with mobile edge computing, which will process application traffic closer to the network edge, to achieve better performance and faster data speeds. Sixty per cent of businesses in the automotive, healthcare, financial services and transport and logistics sectors believe that IoT has already completely disrupted their industry or will do so in the next five years; 74% warn that that non-adopters will have fallen behind their rivals within five years. www.barclays.com 5G The imminent rollout of the 5G mobile communications network and the significant increase in data that will need to be processed, stored and distributed is likely to have a significant impact on the data centre sector. So, what should data centre operators be doing to prepare for it? The 5G mobile communications network is expected to revolutionise the mobile experience for us all by matching and surpassing the wireless network currently on offer. With faster upload speeds, increased mobile capacity and considerably lower latency, page loading times could take just one millisecond. 5G will also help support the expansion of IoT-enabled devices, facilitating the use of wireless sensors in the home and in factories and warehouses. It will direct industrial robots and enable machine-to-machine communication, not to mention autonomous vehicles. Coverage won’t be universal to begin with – the roll-out will probably start in main conurbations, followed by rural areas – but data centre operators still need to be prepared for what’s likely to be a tidal wave of data that will now be processed/stored in the cloud. Added to which, data centres will have to support the low latency delivered by 5G to maximise the potential of this very agile service and provide users with instant access to a constant data stream. Some of these pressures can be eased by decentralising IT infrastructure and expanding local edge data centres. The advance of edge computing, which essentially provides computing resources at the perimeter of a given network, allows data to be processed at source, taking advantage of low latency while supporting the real-time applications required to run systems. Edge data centres remain connected to the cloud, which takes care of any less time-dependent data analyses. Rittal, for example, offers enterprises of all sizes a complete one-stop solution that combines the iNNOVO Cloud and an Edge Data Centre. Not surprisingly, many data centre owners have already anticipated the arrival of 5G. Those that haven’t may need hardware refreshes or upgrades to deliver the low latency and bandwidth needed both for 5G and edge computing processing within the cloud. It’s worth noting that the general trend towards standardisation is helpful in this regard and should help deliver the fast deployment time and scalability that the market now demands from data centres. Clive Partridge is Technical Manager, IT Infrastructure at Rittal, a provider of software, services and solutions for industrial enclosures, power distribution, climate control and IT infrastructure, including modular and energy-efficient data centres. www.rittal.co.uk More education needed to maximise economic benefits, warns Barclays 5G and the data centre In March, Vodafone invited West Midlands Mayor Andy Street to try out 5G speeds via a 5G router, as Birmingham New Street became the first UK train station to trial the technology – and Vodafone the first operator to bring 5G to the city. Vodafone is rolling out the super-fast network to key commuter locations across the UK during 2019 and will switch on the new network in 19 towns and cities by the end of the year. The Rittal Edge Data Centre can be combined with an as-a-service offering from Rittal and iNNOVO Cloud, giving enterprises of all sizes a complete, one-stop solution Data centre managers need to prepare for a tidal wave of data likely to follow the 5G roll-out, warns Clive Partridge