The News: Cisco and Intel are expanding their collaboration to give partners and customers access to three new innovation centers that will serve as test beds for enterprises seeking to evaluate private 5G use cases. Read the full blog on the Cisco website.
MWC24: Cisco and Intel Debut Innovation Centers for Private 5G
Analyst Take: Cisco and Intel are expanding their collaboration to launch three new innovation centers that provide test beds for enterprises to assess private 5G use cases. The first innovation center opens in March 2024 at Cisco’s San Jose headquarters and will help customers test a wide array of private 5G solutions in a real-world environment through pilots and prototypes prior to full deployment. Additional labs are planned for Frankfurt, Germany, and Tokyo, Japan.
The new facilities will build on a partnership with Intel announced last year to help accelerate engineering innovation and drive adoption of Cisco Mobility Services Platform (Private 5G) based on Intel technology. Each innovation center will provide local access points for global enterprises across regions to validate 5G applications and network configurations tuned to their specific requirements.
Cisco and Intel Strengthen Ecosystem-Wide Private 5G Credentials
Cisco and Intel are adeptly addressing growing enterprise demand for decreasing risk, cost, and complexity in the adoption of private 5G by delivering a sandbox environment to test early private 5G, validate proof-of-concept, and evaluate customized solutions ahead of full production rollouts. Cisco partners and other vendors who visit an innovation center will be able to validate their 5G end devices and demo systems with Cisco’s Mobility Services Platform and Intel Mobile Edge Computing applications. Multiple RAN vendors have also partnered with Cisco to realize private 5G use cases for real-world applications.
Now customers can test their end devices, RAN, and applications with an array of existing end-to-end private 5G use cases including anomaly detection, autonomous retail, video surveillance, remote assist and work instructions, and Webex Expert on Demand. Specifically, for video surveillance, Cisco has integrated support for the General Mobile 5G IP Camera, powered by Fii (Foxconn Industrial Internet), enabling ultra-high-definition video surveillance in real time. This is supported by advanced analytics for use cases such as smart cities, perimeter security, and commercial outdoor environments. With LTE/5G NR support, this camera is designed to ensure low latency, high bandwidth, and reliable video transmission, making it a more cost-effective choice for private network and MEC applications.
Cisco Benefits Directly from Intel’s Private 5G Portfolio and Partnership Acumen
Moreover, Cisco is a Titanium partner in the Intel Partner Alliance program and the Intel Network Builders community. Intel’s hardware and software products portfolio, consisting of processors, Ethernet, FlexRAN, OpenVINO, and 5G core software offerings, are driving the partnerships key to enabling operators to monetize their networks and enterprises to swiftly design and deploy intelligent private networks across industry verticals such as manufacturing, transportation hubs, mining, utilities, healthcare, and education.
As such, both Cisco and Intel are well positioned to fully address the burgeoning global private 5G market that is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 51.2% from 2023 to 2030 from a market size valued at $2 billion in 2023 (according to Grand View Research).
For example, Cisco and NTT DATA are collaborating to transform RAI Amsterdam into a pacesetting smart venue in Europe. Using Intel technology, Cisco provides the private 5G core and network hardware while NTT DATA delivers the private network as a service for the venue. The solution running on Intel architecture provides high-speed, low-latency connectivity for the large number of smartphones and IoT devices, as well as for processing large amounts of data for real-time insights.
Key Takeaway: Cisco and Intel Ready to Catalyze Global Private 5G Implementations
Overall, I anticipate that the expansion of Cisco’s collaboration with Intel can further catalyze and power global private 5G implementations. Now partners and customers can access three new innovation centers that can serve as comprehensive test beds for enterprises that are prioritizing their evaluation of private 5G use cases.
Disclosure: The Futurum Group is a research and advisory firm that engages or has engaged in research, analysis, and advisory services with many technology companies, including those mentioned in this article. The author does not hold any equity positions with any company mentioned in this article.
Analysis and opinions expressed herein are specific to the analyst individually and data and other information that might have been provided for validation, not those of The Futurum Group as a whole.
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Author Information
Ron is an experienced, customer-focused research expert and analyst, with over 20 years of experience in the digital and IT transformation markets, working with businesses to drive consistent revenue and sales growth.
Ron holds a Master of Arts in Public Policy from University of Nevada — Las Vegas and a Bachelor of Arts in political science/government from William and Mary.
