5G, along with companion technologies like mobile edge computing, data analytics, and artificial intelligence, is viewed as foundational to digital transformation of enterprises in virtually all high-value verticals. But to live up to that vision, operators will have to spend billions of capital dollars to build out pervasive public and private network infrastructure.

In this process, it’s imperative to find ways to cut costs while also being mindful of short- and long-term technological needs. Many operators, taking a cue from hyperscalers, are looking to virtualization and cloudification of network infrastructure to simultaneously reduce expenditures while baking-in the flexibility necessary to address current and future 5G use cases and deployment models that necessitate a new level of infrastructure distribution.