S1E14: How Standards Drive Adoption and Enable the Intelligent Edge

Episode Summary:

Today’s episode features an interview between Matt Trifiro and Alex Reznik, Distinguished Technologist at Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and Chair of ETSI’s MEC ISG.

Alex literally wrote the book on Multi-Access Edge Computing, and as Chair of ETSI MEC he is helping to pioneer the industry standards for enabling the Intelligent Edge.

In this interview, Alex explains the role of standards bodies like ETSI, how standards drive market adoption, and why they are important for the future of the edge intersection between telcos, cloud providers, and developers.

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Key Quotes:

“In the final state of this MEC public edge computing game, there [will be] a presence from most of the major cloud providers in most of the operator networks.”

“If telcos are going to succeed in capturing value, they will have standards in a space where ETSI MEC plays. It doesn't mean they have to adopt ETSI MEC standards, but they will have to agree on a set of standards in that space. Our value is, we're the only standard right now that plays in that space. So you can either go and form a new group and start from scratch, or you can go with ETSI MEC.”

“With 5G, specifically because so many of the 5G applications need the edge, and edge means location, [the telcos] have leverage. Amazon and Microsoft and lots of other people have to talk directly to the telcos. That's real leverage. Now what are they going to do with it?”

“Show the operators the money. They want to see the money. They don't want to see a strategy talk about how much money the hyperscalers are making on the cloud and what portion of that market they can address and what the TAM for edge computing is...they want to see the money in six months.”
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Links:

Alex's book, "Multi-Access Edge Computing In Action"

ETSI MEC ISG

Connect with Matt on LinkedIn