Regulatory Roundup: Regulators Are Making Moves to Drive Industrial 5G, but Deeper Cooperation with Industry Partners Is Needed

M. Rogers

Summary Bullets:

• In the month of March 2022, telecoms regulators around the world have been implementing initiatives and programs to encourage enterprise adoption of 5G services.
• Despite initiatives from governments and operators to drive use of 5G by industry, adoption is still low and increased collaboration is necessary.

Regulatory Support for Industrial 5G Development

Across the globe, regulators are taking various steps to encourage non-telecoms industry to participate in the development of a 5G ecosystem.  The promise of 5G goes beyond enhanced connectivity and download speeds for consumers to being a force for economic uplift within the enterprise sector as well.  To this end, regulators are encouraging 5G development through policies such as temporary spectrum licenses, enhancing the interoperability capabilities of private 5G networks, or developing 5G testbeds accessible for businesses.  These policies are generally done in concert with moves from private industry to support take-up and trialing of 5G services by enterprise.  This brief post reviews and analyzes some of the recent moves in the month of March 2022 from regulators trying to encourage industrial 5G development.

Cisco’s Webex Adoption Methodology Is an Antidote to Competitive Homogeneity

G. Willsky

Summary Bullets:

• Three market drivers are causing the lines between competitors’ UC&C platforms to blur.
• Facilitating platform adoption is a meaningful source of competitive differentiation.

The lines are blurring between competitors’ UC&C platforms. Feature sets are beginning to look similar.  Interoperability between disparate hardware and between disparate software is becoming more commonplace.  Acquisitions and partnerships are bringing functionality from opposing players under one roof.

Radian Arc, the Tiny Edge Infrastructure Provider Driving 5G Monetization

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Summary Bullets:

M. Rogers

• Radian Arc, a Perth-based edge infrastructure provider is helping telco monetize 5G with cloud gaming, but is turning its sights on enterprise applications.

• Radian Arc’s built for purpose edge infrastructure and partner marketplace could offer a template for a CAPEX free way for telcos to monetize 5G.

Radian Arc, founded only in 2020, is making a name for itself in the emerging cloud gaming industry. Cloud gaming works largely the same way as video streaming services, with content and processing stored and run on remote servers with the visual outputs of the game being streamed to an end user device. Radian Arc, however, is not a gaming company, instead positioning as an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) provider, specifically focusing on providing graphical processing unit (GPU) and storage solutions. However, unlike IaaS providers in the public cloud space like AWS or Azure, or traditional private cloud IaaS, Radian Arc is focused exclusively on delivering their infrastructure at the edge of telecom operator networks.

Follow the Hardware to Gauge Enterprise Metaverse Adoption

Summary Bullets:

S. Schuchart

• Headset hardware, especially size and weight, is the greatest inhibitor of metaverse plans coming to large scale fruition

• The speed and commitment of headset hardware vendors is an indicator of metaverse acceleration

Hype over the metaverse may be subsiding slightly as world events overtake everyone’s available attention, but one of the biggest inhibitors to the fruition of the metaverse is headset hardware. AR or VR glasses are available, but it is reasonable to look at the large, clunky, and tethered-box offerings that dominate the market as the current equivalent of acoustic modem adapters or six-pound “mobile” phones.

Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine Has Created a Host of Economic, Political, and Ethical Risks for Chinese Tech

C. Drake

Summary Bullets:

• Most Chinese tech firms appear to be maintaining a business-as-usual approach in Russia, despite facing a host of challenges related to the enforcement of Western sanctions.
• Chinese firms that continue doing business in Russia could face secondary sanctions, the risk of reputational damage, and loss of business due to ethical and ESG concerns.

The response of Chinese tech companies to Russia’s continuing war in Ukraine is coming under increasing scrutiny both at home and internationally.  Chinese tech companies doing business in Russia include: mobile device producers Xiaomi and Oppo; cloud service providers Alibaba and Tencent; telecoms and IT infrastructure providers such as ZTE, Inspur, and Huawei; semiconductor producer SMIC; and PC manufacturer Lenovo.

Officially, China remains committed to maintaining ‘normal trade co-operation’ with Russia.  In response, most Chinese tech companies appear to be maintaining a business-as-usual approach, despite facing a host of challenges related to the enforcement of Western sanctions against Russia and its ally, Belarus.

Cisco and Private 5G – Clarification

Summary Bullets:

S. Schuchart

• Cisco’s Private 5G solution will be offered through its service provider partners

• Enterprises need the integration of private 5G solutions with their existing network management, identity, and policy tools

In early February, Cisco made an announcement of some new Wi-Fi 6E access points, new Catalyst switches, and lastly the new Cisco Private 5G offering, and I wrote a report for our clients about it. However, there was a mistake on my part. I posited that Cisco was challenging the service providers and offering the product directly to customers. The truth is that Cisco is offering its new Cisco Private 5G offering with service provider partners, not against them. Cisco was kind enough to point out my mistake and provided me with more details on their go to market strategy for Cisco Private 5G. For that mistake, I apologize to Cisco. However, it does bring up the opportunity to talk a little bit more about why the Cisco Private 5G offering is important to enterprises, regardless of where it was sourced.

In the Shadow of a War, the US Senate Passes Legislation to Drive Data Breach Transparency

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Summary Bullets:

Amy Larsen DeCarlo – Principal Analyst, Security and Data Center Services

• As Russia continues to press into Ukraine, both countries are targets of cyberattacks raising concerns about emboldened hackers escalating their efforts to critical infrastructure in other regions

• With the SolarWinds hack of 2020 still a prominent memory, the US Senate passed legislation it promises to both improve transparency around security events and strengthen support for breached entities

With the Russian invasion of Ukraine looming large over the geopolitical climate, cyberattacks hitting both countries are evidence that threat actors are already playing a major role in the early days of the war. Cyberthreats have long been a top concern, but the current turmoil is lending an increasing urgency around threats to critical infrastructure beyond the current conflict. Russian-based threat actors proved their effectiveness with the SolarWinds attack in which multiple US government agencies including the Department of Defense, the State Department, and the Department of Homeland Security were breached.

One of the major challenges both public and private sector organizations face is a lack of information. This is in part because of actual security incidents getting buried in an impossibly high volume of false positives. But it is also the result of a lack of information sharing between and among peers. This week the US Senate passed legislation that promises to both help drive greater transparency around data breaches and ransomware payments and improve support for impacted organizations.

Geopolitical Impact on the Future Global Financial Sector: How Cybersecurity Providers Should Realign

R. Muru

Summary Bullets:

• The global financial sector continues to experience exponential increases in cyber-attacks, influenced by geopolitics and the recent Russia invasion of Ukraine.
• Cybersecurity vendors should not be complacent because of recent positive performances if they are to stay relevant and drive future growth in the financial sector.

Exponential Cyber-Attack Increases in the Financial Sector

The global financial sector has experienced an exponential rise in cyber-attacks over the last four years.  Today, this is even more of an issue both from sector and geopolitical perspectives, and Russia’s recent invasion of Ukraine further impacts geopolitical order with a high number of DDoS attacks on both Russian and Ukrainian targets, including the Ukrainian Defense Ministry and Ukrainian banks PrivatBank and Oschadbank.

Russia-Ukraine Conflict: Potential Impact on ASEAN ICT Industry

A. Amir

Summary Bullets:

• There is no immediate impact from the Russia-Ukraine conflict on the enterprise ICT sector in ASEAN, but there could be several indirect influences such as an increase in cyberattacks, rising energy prices, and more shortages in the global supply chain.
• ASEAN businesses should strengthen their cybersecurity framework, expand the use of renewable energy, and accelerate updates and rollout of critical infrastructure.

It has been a week since Russia launched a large-scale military attack on Ukraine, and there have been various economic and supply-chain impacts across industries such as energy, manufacturing, automotive, and transportation, especially in Europe.  While there is no direct impact on the ASEAN ICT sector so far, there could be several potential indirect influences on the industry in the longer term.