Peter Maquera (Globe Business)
Philippine telecommunications provider Globe Telecom is drawing upon Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) technology to offer low latency cloud services at the edge of its mobile network.
Globe, the country’s largest mobile network operator, has inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with HPE to use the vendor’s new multi-access edge compute (MEC) solution.
The offering will be made available to select users via a newly built Edge Incubation Lab, with Globe working to move data-intensive workloads, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, closer to customers for faster data processing and analysis.
The Globe Edge Incubation Lab is underpinned by telco-grade infrastructure, including HPE ProLiant DL360 and DL380 Gen10 Plus server technology.
Broadly, HPE is enabling this new offering from Globe with a pre-integrated, telco-grade MEC solution designed to be capable of integrated management, service operation and traffic control.
HPE’s MEC solution is designed to provide telcos with an end-to-end edge application management platform that can be configured across a multi-vendor, multi-cloud environment. The as-a-service offering is delivered via HPE GreenLake, meaning Globe and its customers have the flexibility to scale up to meet future requirements if needed.
As an integrated solution built on carrier-grade infrastructure, HPE’s MEC solution can be deployed at 5G edge sites, as well as local offices and on customers’ premises, according to the vendor.
The HPE solution has been developed in partnership with technology partners, including Intel and Saguna, and comes complete with a fully equipped management platform for use by telcos.
It is hoped that the new offering will, in addition to improving data and computing services, also encourage innovation that will contribute to the Philippines’ growing digital economy and allow businesses to create new revenue streams with faster connectivity.
“We aim to provide our customers with the best possible experience at the edge and in the cloud across both 5G and fixed-line networks,” Globe Business senior vice president Peter Maquera said. “HPE has been a trusted technology provider to our infrastructure for many years, so we are delighted to have them as one of our partners in building our innovative edge services portfolio.
“HPE’s solution is working well in the Globe Telcom lab and has been designed to be deployed rapidly and at-scale across our growing 5G network,” he added.
According to Khai Peng, HPE vice president and managing director of growth and emerging countries, telcos like Globe are in the best position to offer 5G edge services, since they have the resources to provide more than just mobile bandwidth.
“HPE’s MEC as-a-service solution enables Globe Telecom to secure its position as a trusted edge services provider — offering differentiated, high-value enterprise services as well as new edge applications for their customers,” Peng said. “The HPE MEC solution is highly scalable, secure and reliable, and we expect many telecoms operators will follow Globe’s lead in adopting this platform.”
Late last year, Globe Telecom revealed it had moved the majority of its technology infrastructure to Amazon Web Services (AWS) to enhance experience levels for more than 80 million customers across the Philippines.
As of December 2020, the business has so far migrated “carrier-grade and mission-critical” applications from on-premises data centres to AWS, spanning contact centre operations, customer analytics, network and service assurance systems, in addition to infrastructure operations, monitoring and security tools.
