Microsoft adds more 5G

Credit: Microsoft

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This week, Microsoft's new product announcements at Mobile World Congress (MWC) are focused on its telecommunications customers. Microsoft is taking the wraps off four new families of Azure services that span its hybrid-operator and edge-computing platforms on February 27.

Microsoft first unveiled plans to create a "telco-grade cloud" with its September 2020 announcement of its Azure for Operators initiative. Earlier that same year, Microsoft had acquired two other 5G-centric companies, Metaswitch Networks and Affirmed Networks, both of which became part of its Azure for Operators strategy. Microsoft officials said they had no intentions for Microsoft to become a telco; instead, they wanted to make Azure the best place for telcos and telecommunications-focused partners to operate.

Last year, Microsoft announced Azure private multi-access edge compute (MEC), aimed specifically at operators and system integrators focused on the enterprise 5G space. Around the same time, Microsoft acquired AT&T's Network Cloud platform technology and engineering team. The Network Cloud Platform is what AT&T has used to run its 5G technology since 2018.

At MWC, Microsoft is announcing a new offering, Azure Operator Distributed Services, which builds on top of the AT&T Network Cloud technology. This new platform supports 5G mobile and voice networks.

Officials said Azure Operator Distributed Services will combine Azure security, Azure Arc management, monitoring, analytics, AI, machine learning and other Azure services. Customers can run this platform on the Azure public cloud or at AT&T on-premises. Azure Operator Distributed Services was designed to support the AT&T mobile core network, which includes more than 60 cloud-native network functions (CNFs) and virtual network functions (VNFs) from 15 different vendors which are currently deployed and running on the A&T Network Cloud platform.

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