European first for Vodafone as global telcos tune into AWS Wavelength

AWS Wavelength, designed to support the development of edge-based cloud applications that serve users with single-digit millisecond latencies over a 5G network, has received endorsement from a number of leading global telcos, including Verizon, Vodafone, KDDI and SK Telecom.

During the second day of the cloud giant’s annual re:Invent user and developer conference in Las Vegas, Amazon Web Services (AWS) focused on means of providing users with a route to moving low-latency workloads off-premises. AWS plans to supplement its “mega” datacentre regions with smaller cloud data processing hubs in major cities to support enterprises requiring low-latency connections to its compute and storage resources.

AWS Wavelength extends this concept, supporting latency-sensitive use cases such as machine learning inference at the edge, autonomous industrial equipment, smart cars and cities, internet of things (IoT), and augmented and virtual reality. It is set up to reduce the time taken by mobile devices in crossing multiple network hops when connecting to applications, which can result in latencies of more than 100ms, even on 5G networks. Wavelength is said to address these problems by bringing AWS services to the edge of the 5G network, minimising the latency to connect to an application from a mobile device.

Vodafone Business will be the first telco to introduce AWS Wavelength to Europe and will embed AWS compute and storage services at the edge of its 5G network. The operator assures that this will enable developers with the ability to build applications that serve users with single-digit millisecond latencies over the 5G network to provide the required responsiveness for applications such as artificial intelligence, augmented and virtual reality, video analytics, autonomous vehicles robotics and drone control.

AWS Wavelength will be available first on the Vodafone 5G network in the UK and Germany, and then expanded to its other markets across Europe. “With Europe’s largest 5G network across 58 cities, and as a global leader in IoT with over 90 million connections, Vodafone is pleased to be the first telco to introduce AWS Wavelength in Europe,” said Vodafone Business CEO Vinod Kumar. “Faster speeds and lower latencies have the potential to revolutionise how our customers do business.”

“Vodafone is pleased to be the first telco to introduce AWS Wavelength in Europe. Faster speeds and lower latencies have the potential to revolutionise how our customers do business”

Commenting on the announcement, Nick McQuire, vice-president of enterprise research at analyst house CCS Insight, said the introduction of AWS Wavelength was a massive move and one of the most interesting in cloud computing this year.

“What we are seeing now is the convergence of the cloud, the network edge and 5G happening in real time,” he added. “For 5G to meet the enormous hype and expectation surrounding it this year, operators are now desperate to woo developers to the platform to create 5G applications which, at the moment, are very thin on the ground.

“AWS has the cloud, edge computing and IoT assets – some of the best in the market – and it also has developers, so it’s no surprise it’s pushing into this area and partnering with leading telcos. The jury is still out on when we will actually see operators delivering truly innovative 5G applications, but Wavelength certainly puts them a step closer. It is a major marker down against the other cloud providers as well, which will no doubt be feeling the pressure to generate similar telco deals of their own in the future.”