5G and data ownership | The comparison

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• 5G and data ownership | The comparison

About the Author

Simon Wilson is the CTO of HPE Aruba.

Whether it's news of Vodafone changing its 5G network in seven UK cities, comparisons of the latest speed tests from US carriers, or global predictions on how the world will change, it rarely happens that a day goes by without 5G to be at the top of the media agenda.

Among all these noises, one of the growing topics of discussion is the relevance of Wi-Fi in a 5G world, and many commentators are beginning to speculate that the new technology will make the other one redundant.

Far from it, a number of well-used and highly credible arguments argue for a more hybrid future for 5G and Wi-Fi, primarily related to the likely cost of the network and the scale of the infrastructure required. . appliance updates.

However, one argument that hasn't had a lot of airtime is that of data ownership. And it is something that, in my opinion, deserves to be discussed.

Provide data-driven customer experiences.

Recently, I've thought a lot about the future of customer experiences. To differentiate themselves in the digital age and respond to market and stakeholder expectations, Aruba believes that companies must offer their audiences more connected, faster and more personalized experiences.

Are you with me so far? Well data is at the heart of the analysis, creation and dissemination of these experiences. So what happens if (in the most extreme scenario) you turn off your Wi-Fi network and put all your traffic on a 5G network? In your opinion, who has all this valuable data? Tip: it's not you anymore.

Of course, you may not have immediate plans to exploit all that intelligence yourself, but in an increasingly data-driven world, this is no longer the case. And what about the more immediate implications of moving to an operator-hosted network?

In my opinion, companies considering switching to 5G connectivity should focus on four main areas:

Analytics - In addition to the fact that they can possibly be used to improve the customer experience, there are a number of ways that network data feeds a business's daily analytics. These include, for example, the use of security scans, looking for bad or abnormal actions on the network, such as downloading data from a device at a normal time of day, and location analysis. where the data is used to obtain an impression. traffic and use of real estate. None of these analyzes would be possible without the visibility of the people who are in the network, their location and what they do;

Confidentiality: If the analytical argument is to make sure that a company can see your data, the principle of confidentiality is to make sure that no one else can see it. With a cellular network model, you automatically introduce outsiders into the data chain. It would be difficult today to find a company that is not afraid to leave its data in a place where a third party may have the least possibility of consulting it;

Performance: By switching to 5G connectivity, businesses would effectively send their data off-site to a network of carriers only to have it routed back to a local device. Having such a complicated data path would not only increase the risk of latency issues, it would also prevent the business from troubleshooting the issues. This results in lost productivity and a satisfactory user experience.

Security: With security in mind more than ever, today's companies are using a variety of increasingly sophisticated methods to authenticate users on the network, segmenting the access they can access, where and on what device. authentication level, current cellular systems cannot match this depth. Going through an operator to authenticate would also add additional steps to all requests to change people's access or remove them from the network (for example, if they left you), all of which could be security conditions for a business.

That makes you think, doesn't it?

With so much excitement about 5G, from media titles to device launches, there is a very real risk that companies will get excited about all the possibilities and go off without looking. As the system begins to develop more widely, I would advise companies to think carefully about how they plan to use Wi-Fi and more importantly, what will be the impact on Wi-Fi? ownership and control of your data.

Would you agree that owning data will become an important consideration for companies when planning 5G? Is it something you've already had conversations with?

Simon Wilson is the CTO of HPE Aruba.