Microsoft today announced the preview of Azure Edge Zones, which are designed to embed compute, storage, and networking resources at the edge of carriers’ 5G networks. With the move, Microsoft is embracing a trend that is percolating throughout the industry to blend cloud computing with mobile networks to bolster edge computing for enterprises, IoT, and applications that require low latency.

A pool of operators, including AT&T, CenturyLink, Etisalat, NTT Communications, Proximus, Rogers, SK Telecom, Telefónica, Telstra, and Vodafone, have partnered with Microsoft on the effort and plan to make Azure Edge Zones available to customers later this year. Microsoft said it also plans to deploy standalone Azure Edge Zones in various cities during the next 12 months and it is seeking deals with enterprises to deploy private edge zones.

The company’s wide-ranging cloud deal with AT&T is also gaining momentum with an Azure Edge Zone slated to be available in Los Angeles before this summer, according to Microsoft. The companies have facilitated an early adopter program for developers and enterprises that want to gain access to the new features and resources.

Mobile edge computing has been a long time coming and it will likely be many years before operators and hyperscalers reach the level of pervasiveness envisioned. “Two worlds that have been very separate for quite some time are now starting to really kind of come together,” said Nick McQuire, SVP and head of enterprise research at CCS Insight.

“On some levels it does strengthen Microsoft’s position in the telco arena, but they’re not the only player in the cloud space that has been organizing for this opportunity,” he said. 

Azure Edge Zones is Microsoft’s answer to Amazon Web Services (AWS) Wavelengths, which the cloud giant made commercially available almost four months ago. The distinctions between the two offerings are relatively narrow, but the goal is the same, according to McQuire.

“What the telcos need is to reach developers, particularly software developers that are heavily oriented around the cloud ecosystems [of] Microsoft, Google, AWS,” he said. “What makes these moves interesting, where you start to integrate the 5G network with the clouds, is that it provides a lot more options and simplicity for developers to build applications that can actually leverage the advantages of 5G, particularly low latency and high availability and bandwidth.” 

While most operators have noted that the greater financial opportunities in 5G rest with enterprises, actual instances or applications of that “are really thin on the ground at the moment” and the technology is still in its early stages, McQuire explained. “We’re still early in the cycle because the coverage in the infrastructure is just not there.”

Operators are at different stages of development on mobile edge computing, but what matters more than that at this stage is the level of involvement and buy-in from developers, he said.

Microsoft is, in addition to targeting developers, putting a foundation in place to appeal to various capabilities of interest to enterprises in private deployments. The company is tapping into services offered by more than a dozen hardware and software vendors to enable virtual network functions (VNFs), virtual machines (VMs), Kubernetes container orchestration, SD-WAN, firewalls, and support for IoT edge devices.

One of those vendors, Affirmed Networks, was acquired by Microsoft last week for an undisclosed sum. The company’s virtualized evolved packet core (vEPC) platforms that support 5G deployments will now play a role in Azure Edge Zones.

Other companies involved in Microsoft’s Azure Stack Edge include Arista, CommScope, NetFoundry, Mavenir, Metaswitch, Nokia’s Nuage Networks, Palo Alto Networks, and VMware’s VeloCloud. 

“With cloud and 5G, there are new possibilities by combining cloud services, including compute and artificial intelligence, with mobile high bandwidth and ultra-low latency connections,” Yousef Khalidi, corporate VP of Azure Networking, wrote in a blog post. Azure, Azure Edge Zones, and Azure Private Edge Zones are built on a common architecture that enterprises can use to meet specific needs, he explained.

“For example, enterprises running a headquarters’ infrastructure on Azure may leverage Azure Edge Zones for latency sensitive interactive customer experiences, and Azure Private Edge Zones for their remote locations,” Khalidi wrote.