Security and 5G were very top-of-mind at this year’s MWC Barcelona. And this is strongly echoed in a recent survey conducted by the BPI Network called, “Securing the Future of a Smart World.”
Mobile operators see tremendous potential for 5G networks to drive new revenue streams and business models for carriers and their customers. But before that happens, service providers believe they will need to make significant upgrades to their security infrastructures to protect their network core and new mission-critical use cases 5G will enable.
In this global survey of some 145 business and technology leaders, predominately from mobile carriers, it’s clear just how rapidly the industry is now moving toward 5G. It’s also evident that operators believe advanced security is a major challenge and requirement for 5G networks—one that is nearly as fundamental to next-generation networks as higher capacity and throughput.
Included below are a few key data points that are extremely important:
- 67% – will deploy their first commercial 5G networks within 18 months and another 20 percent within two years.
- 94% – expect growth in network traffic, connected devices and mission-critical IoT use cases to significantly increase security and reliability concerns for 5G networks.
- 79% – say 5G is a consideration in current security investments
Operators see significant new revenue streams and service models coming with 5G.
- 67% say overall growth of the mobile market will be a top benefit
- 59% point to better customer service
- 43% say new business models
New IoT use cases that leverage massive machine-type communications (MMTC) and ultra-reliable low-latency communications (URLLC) services are seen as major drivers for the adoption of 5G. Top drivers for 5G include:
- 61% – Smart cities
- 48% – Industrial automation and smart manufacturing
- 39% – High-speed connectivity
- 37% – Connected vehicles
- 35% – Fixed wireless
AI-driven automation at hyperscale
There is a need to define and build the new security infrastructure for 5G and it is clear that mobile operators see huge revenue and services opportunities across the entire ecosystem with 5G, but security is a critical hurdle they must cross.
There is a lot to consider. Service providers need to look at existing 4G and emerging 5G requirements with consolidated security solutions (ADC, Carrier-Grade NAT, DPI and DDoS), AI-driven automation at hyperscale across the Gi-LAN, virtualized evolved packet core and multi-access edge computing environment and lower latency. Mobile operators need to find security partners that can deliver Gi/SGi-firewalls and DDoS at hyperscale around the world, enabling them to prepare their networks for secure 5G commercial services.
The independent 5G survey demonstrates that service providers understand that advanced security is fundamental to the success of 5G, and service providers need to find partners that are laser focused on delivering those advanced capabilities across the globe.
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