The 110th Tech Day @ Altice Labs took place on the 30th of September under the theme “The Dawn of Edge Computing”.
The session was moderated by Francisco Fontes, from the Technology and Innovation Strategy department and was attended by José Cananão, from the Altice Portugal’s Cloud and Virtualization Strategy area, Marco António Silva, Microsoft Digital Adviser, and Nuno Folhadela, ONTOP CEO.
In his introduction, Francisco Fontes presented a definition of edge computing, identified some of the existing solutions on the market, commercial and open-source, and some areas of application of edge computing, such as interactive mobile gaming, AR/VR, IoT, etc. He also referred to the state of normalization for edge computing and the business expectations that exist regarding the edge computing market, which is expected to be quite significant.
Giving word to the speakers, Marco Silva, as a representative of a solution provider for edge computing, had the opportunity to present in general terms Microsoft’s offer for this area and how this offer integrates with telecommunications operators.
José Cananão referred, from the operator’s point of view, the tasks necessary to prepare the network for the edge, namely in the definition of the optimal network conditions for a specific edge, as well as the impact that edge computing introduces in the operators ecosystem.
Nuno Folhadela, as an edge user, mentioned the limitations he hopes to see resolved by the introduction of edge computing, specifically in the area of mobile edge computing to support online gaming with a strong AR/VR component.
In a very active session, the speakers also discussed topics such as the size and diversity of the application ecosystem, the use of proprietary or common APIs for other edge computing solution providers, and the business models that may be implemented on the edge.
The speakers also had the opportunity to answer some of the questions raised by the audience, namely the sharing of computing and storage infrastructures by the operators and the adequacy of the existing security mechanisms, the expected impact on energy consumption, and expectations regarding the appearance of new services supported by these new technologies.