The full arsenal of technology required to deliver on the promise of 5G hasn’t reached commercial networks yet, but the 5G core and, more importantly, its makeup is essential to realize that potential, according to Nokia. The 5G core, which will enable operators to deploy a Standalone 5G network that doesn’t rely on 4G infrastructure, must be cloud native, the Finnish vendor argued in a blog post.

Nokia outlined five key business objectives for 5G that can only be delivered by a cloud-native environment. Those include: better bandwidth, latency, and density; the extension of services via network slicing to new enterprises, industries, and IoT markets; rapid service deployments defined by agility and efficiency; new services that go beyond traditional broadband, voice, and messaging; and the advent of digital services that harness end-to-end networking to capture more revenue.

The core network of 5G must be dynamic, efficient, and scalable to connect new devices, deliver high performance, meet ever-rising traffic demands, and extend services over any access technology, according to Nokia. And it argues that a cloud-native core is the only way to achieve these goals.

“What’s needed is a core that can operate in any cloud environment, whether that is based on VMs or containers, and that has a breadth of cloud-native capabilities,” according to the blog. Those capabilities encompass microservices architecture, agnostic infrastructure, open APIs, and DevOps.

“This allows operators to deploy a cloud-native core that can competitively support all access technologies, mobile and fixed,” Nokia explained. “It can be rolled out to support existing 4G services, and it’s ready to deliver the more exciting business opportunities when the move to 5G Standalone deployment is made.”

Nokia isn’t alone in this view. A new report from ABI Research contends that the “momentum of enterprise 5G will come to screeching halt without a cloud-native platform.” The firm predicts the market for cloud network elements in 4G and 5G networks will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 25% reaching $20 billion by 2024.

However, because cloud-native computing poses some challenges for operators that are primarily focused on a specific country or region, “there is no one-size-fits-all model that [managed service providers] can adopt in a way that is sufficiently impactful and not disruptive,” said Don Alusha, senior analyst at ABI Research, in a prepared statement.

Prior to deploying a cloud-native 5G platform, network operators are trying to determine if it will help them re-engineer existing processes, scale across a wide geographic and technology footprint, and acquire the human capital required to foster global software-centric operations, according to the firm.

While cloud-native technology is imperative to drive new growth, it also requires changes in culture and processes, and this necessitates operators and vendors to develop new areas of expertise, ABI Research concludes. It noted that Nokia and Ericsson are both aiming to blend strengths in telecom, artificial intelligence and cloud to deliver that framework in a commercial offering.

“Cloud-native methodologies bode well for an industry that is firing on all cylinders to streamline existing processes and operations, pursue new revenue streams, and compete as effectively as possible with non-telecoms players,” Alusha said. “It is viable for the leadership to influence the culture, but it will take relentless communication. It is what they say and how they say it, and it may also be how often they say it.”