In today’s climate, many Managed Service Providers (MSPs) are at a crossroads. The industry is growing at an impressive rate of 12.5% annually since 2014, but despite this wave of optimism, many providers remain apprehensive about the road that lies ahead. The good news, though, managed services aren’t going anywhere, as there is currently an increased demand for MSP services, even from large enterprises.
However, with the rapid rise of digitalization, customer demands are drastically changing how MSPs tailor their offerings. This can be seen in the shift from on-premises to cloud-based systems, by the growing volume of connected devices, and through the increased adoption of emerging technologies by end-users.
Nonetheless, the emergence of innovative technologies will create even more industry change, which presents a great opportunity for MSPs to grow and break into new revenue streams. Devices and applications like the Internet of Things (IoT) have already greatly affected the MSP industry, but the advent and rollout of 5G offer MSPs with the greatest opportunity in recent years.
5G, or fifth-generation wireless technology, offers extremely low latency rates, making for faster, smoother, and more reliable connections. While 5G networks began rolling out in the United States and around the world in 2018, the tech is still in its early days, but experts say the potential is huge. The global 5G services market size was valued at USD 47.3 billion in 2021 and is expected to expand at a whopping compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 52.0 percent from 2022 to 2030.
With 5G, along with the adjacent technology it optimizes, such as edge mesh networks, MSPs are able to improve their offerings across a variety of aspects. Enhanced speed, reliability, and security can be obtained by MSPs for their solutions with the aid of 5G. And for MSPs, the market for high-speed 5G broadband services is ready and available, with 85 percent of the world and almost 50 percent of the US homes and businesses lacking quality 5G broadband services.
With 5G, MSPs can mold their offerings to what organizations need, now and in the future, giving them huge opportunities to grow alongside these companies. The only thing that stands in the way for MSPs is to add 5G services to their portfolio, in which many have already begun looking for 5G platforms that can help boost their offerings and usher in a new era for MSPs.
Recently, Veea Inc., a leader in integrated smart edge connectivity, computing, and security technologies for hybrid edge-cloud managed services, announced STAX@Home “Smarter Home” solution for its STAX-5G CPE, which is the first-ever 5G-based broadband access CPE, with a globally carrier certified 5G modem, as a stack module that can be purchased together with, or separately as an add-on to, the STAX base unit supporting a highly integrated Tri-band Wi-Fi 6 Mesh Router, IoT connectivity gateway and distributed computing delivering hybrid edge-cloud managed applications and services, at Mobile World Congress taking place in Barcelona this week.
“The Smarter Home of the future is no longer limited to managing a few door locks, thermostats, light switches, or cameras,” said Allen Salmasi, Chairman and CEO of Veea. “In the near future, besides the typical use cases, our homes will be an extension of the enterprises that we work for, retail stores, local theaters, sports stadium and arenas, concert halls, and similar venues with user experiences that require a variety of edge services and capabilities.”
“This is an extremely exciting time in our industry, and network operators who rapidly roll-out 5G-based fixed broadband access and support subscriber’s use cases with one highly integrated and easy to install and manage CPE solution at the edge – in the subscriber’s home – can gain significant market share while accelerating the return on their initial investments with a stand-alone Smarter Home bundle, other application bundles or potentially even bundled with their mobile service offerings providing for even larger CapEx and OpEx savings while substantially improving subscriber retention.”
STAX’ distributed computing, delivered through the whole house Wi-Fi 6 mesh network, supports a virtualized software environment on each STAX mesh node with each application securely running in another industry-first lightweight Secure Docker container with service policies. The VeeaHub platform provides for convergence of services, applications, and policy, which is essential to the delivery of a consistent user experience while providing for end-to-end management of STAX devices.
The unique architecture enables an application mesh, a microservice-based mesh, and an edge intelligence mesh over the entire coverage area created by Wi-Fi 6 mesh network, with hybrid edge-cloud managed networking and computing, facilitating many possibilities, including 5G network slices directly serving application endpoints running in complete isolation on any mesh nodes.
This confluence of technological, social, and enterprise developments point to 5G-based broadband service delivery through hardware and software solutions at customer premises that are highly secure and can readily be customized to offer value-added services combined with Zero-Touch Installations (ZTI), advanced networking, and backend APIs for integration with network operators’ BSS/OSS for edge managed services.
For example, with this architecture, Smarter Home solutions offered by service providers may include dedicated network slices over 5G Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) service offerings for office applications and services used by remote workers at home while the remote workers can simultaneously, seamlessly and securely connect to all typical systems at home, including lighting, HVAC, cameras, etc., anywhere in his or her home over the whole house mesh with multiple “data traffic lanes” over public network connections for office use cases and typical home broadband services.
Veea’s mission is to bring service providers an easy-to-sell, easy to provision, and automated ‘plug and play’ solution for 5G-based broadband access with Smart Computing Hub solutions that support network-managed applications and services with an intuitive mobile app and web interface for their subscribers.
“Veea offers a highly modular edge computing and wireless access network solution that provides service providers and enterprises with the flexibility and capabilities they need to address a fast-expanding frontier of heterogeneous computing and network opportunities across the edge,” said Leonard Lee, Managing Director & Founder of neXt Curve. “The STAX platform’s modular design allows developers to design and deploy tailored wireless networks and distributed edge applications supporting innovative solutions in retail, the home, and more. VeeaHub also offers edge infrastructure managers with cloud-based tools to manage the full lifecycle of edge computing and network services. These are all important features and elements of mobile edge computing that Veea has integrated into an integrated portfolio of hardware, software, and services that can accelerate the realization of novel edge applications in the era of distributed edge intelligence.”
Edited by
Luke Bellos
