Red Hat and Intel are opening a set of lab and testing locations across the globe to develop solutions and industrial use cases within 5G, edge, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML).

The sites include two newly launched 5G and edge-based centers in Houston, Texas and Stockholm, Sweden, as well as an upgraded site in Singapore.

Each site comes prompted by customer feedback, according to Kelly Switt, Red Hat senior director and global head of intelligent edge business development. The work aims “for customers to walk away with a fully developed solution and a concrete plan for implementation,” Switt told SDxCentral.

Through its collaboration with Intel, Red Hat is looking to reduce “the risk of attack surface” within developed solutions and advancing the software supply chain within the edge infrastructure. Switt noted that both Red Hat and Intel partners, “ranging from hardware providers to independent software vendors,” are contributing craft and technologies to support the sites' developments.

Switt says edge computing is an ongoing telecom priority to drive 5G and radio access network (RAN) innovation. “However, we see an increased need for edge computing to support Industry 4.0-plus use cases, particularly in areas such as AI/ML, autonomous production, smart factory, and industrial manufacturing,” she explained.

For organizations to function and scale at the edge “requires a coordinated approach and oftentimes technologies from multiple vendors to address unique IT and business needs,” she explained. “Collaborating across various vendors and technologies can be challenging, but it remains crucial for long-term success.”

According to Switt, each lab is tailored for specific customer feedback-based needs, both globally and within the labs’ specific regions.

“For instance, the [lab] in Singapore is an evolution of an existing facility previously focused specifically on virtual network functions (VNFs) and network functions virtualization (NFV)." Now, the lab functions to support telco service providers in the region through cloud-native network functions (CNFs), 5G and edge solutions.

According to the release, the lab will use "latest generation x86_64 servers optimized for running CNFs with Intel technologies, such as 3rd Gen Intel Xeon Scalable Processors and Intel Ethernet 800 Series network adapters."

The Stockholm 5G Innovation Center was established for a series of demos in 5G, AI/ML, and intelligent edge workloads running in hybrid multi-cloud environments.

The workloads rely on "building blocks and contributions" from independent software vendors, original equipment manufacturers, and systems integrator partners to allow for "end-to-end and commercially viable" solutions.

In Houston, the Intelligent Edge Solution Center is looking to support Industry 4.0 use cases in energy and manufacturing fields “in addition to what may be considered more traditional edge use cases for 5G,” Switt said.

“This facility is also focused on edge remote operations and supporting open process controls to enable the transition from custom, fixed-function hardware to software-defined architectures,” she explained.

The center includes hardware from a slew of vendors including Advantech, Axiomtek, Lenovo, OnLogic, Rockwell Automation and Winmate "that can support real-time workloads running partner software solutions," according to the release.