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Private 5G is a hot topic as enterprises seek industrial wireless IoT solutions to modernize their business for increased productivity and efficiency. In newly emerging cases, wired solutions are not enough, such as in sectors like hospitality where “protected buildings” limit running new cables. For manufacturing and other industries, critical processes like robotic assembly of essential parts (jet turbines, automotive transmissions, or medical devices) and autonomously guided vehicles need a very low-latency, high-reliability solution like private 5G, particularly when those processes co-exist with humans.

On Feb. 3, 2022, we introduced Cisco Private 5G as part of “The Network. Powering Hybrid Work” launch. During this event, we shared our view that the future of hybrid work expands beyond people collaborating with people and now includes people collaborating with things. We now begin to share many attractive use cases for introducing private 5G alongside Wi-Fi into the enterprise networks. As we move towards Mobile World Congress (MWC) at the end of February, we’ll reveal more about our private 5G go-to-market strategies and discuss exciting new opportunities for our global service provider partners.

Connecting everyone and everything

Wireless networking and IoT will transform industries by digitalizing Operational Technology (OT) just as profoundly as the cloud transformed Information Technology (IT). And enterprises are already waiting in anticipation, with a 2021 GSMA Intelligence market report showing that a combination of digital transformation and labor shortages is expected to see enterprise IoT connections quadruple to 23.6 billion by 2030, accounting for 63 percent of total IoT connections. With all the pieces in place, companies with a strategy to converge their IT and OT operations will experience significant gains in productivity and efficiency, creating a major competitive advantage.

With the convergence of IT and OT, hybrid work becomes about connecting everyone and everything. Delivering IoT at scale is just as important as connecting people, allowing hybrid workers to gain access to sensors, monitors, robots, and more. Our vision of the future of work is built on wireless through a combination of private 5G and Wi-Fi, where enterprises can modernize, automate their operations, and benefit from the resulting productivity gains.

But making the change is not easy. There are all kinds of confusing options right now, so where do you begin? We can help by delivering a private 5G solution on your terms.

What separates Cisco Private 5G from the rest?

We believe the competitors are going about it the wrong way. They would have you adopt a complex, carrier-centric 5G solution that’s radically different from what you already know and use. Some even ignore Wi-Fi entirely. As the top enterprise networking, wireless, security, Industrial IoT, and collaboration IT vendor, we know how to build a solution that fits your enterprise needs, where Cisco Private 5G is integrated with Wi-Fi and existing IT operations environments. This makes your transformation easy, and we’re the only vendor to empower enterprise customers to extend what they already own and understand into new possibilities.

We know the many different technology choices and complexity of operating such an environment can make it difficult to start. It’s hard to commit financially to a new technology with so many uncertainties. Even the most visionary business leaders may hesitate to avoid making a wrong decision. With Cisco as your partner, you can feel confident you’ve made the right choice because our private 5G solution is ‘Simple to Start’, ‘Intuitive to Operate’, and ‘Trusted’ for enterprise digital transformation.

Simple to start

  •  The journey begins with a qualified business consultation.
  • You don’t have to choose between 5G and Wi-Fi – you can use both, protecting your current investments and strategies.
  • With your business goals in hand, a premium partner will perform a site survey to scope the necessary networking and radio coverage to support the intended IoT use case(s).
  • Cisco Private 5G networks will be Cisco Validated Designs (CVD).
  • Our “pay-as-you-use” subscription model means that you and your deployment partners will have minimal up-front infrastructure costs, so no matter how small the start or how massive the goal, costs remain in line with value. By comparison, traditional purchasing models force you to “spend a lot and wait” for productivity or profitability.

Intuitive to operate

  • A simple management portal integrates and aligns with existing enterprise tools. We handle all the complexities of the 3GPP mobile network stack.
  • Enterprise IT teams get a complete picture of their network and devices. You can maintain policy and identity across wired and wireless network domains for simplified operations.
  • AI/ML-based management tools can identify unexpected behavior patterns and potential issues, making it easy to proactively take intelligent actions. Intelligent analytics increase effectiveness, minimize exposure time and reduce damage.
  • Many problems in the network stem from outdated software, and nearly all are avoidable. As a continuously improving service, our private 5G software releases are automatically maintained from the cloud, ensuring the latest functions and security updates are in place.

Trusted

  • As the No. 1 provider for connectivity, collaboration, industrial IoT, and IoT-connected cars, enterprises trust our technology, products, and services.
  • Cloud-native architecture allows Cisco Private 5G to flexibly support different deployment models. Components may reside in the cloud, distributed edge, or on premises depending on needs for extra reliability or data privacy.

Learn More

We’ve talked a lot about the benefits to enterprises. For our managed and communication service provider partners, only Cisco allows you to deliver the private 5G experiences enterprises demand. Whether you represent an enterprise or a service provider, take a closer look at what Cisco Private 5G can do for you. Also be sure to visit us at MWC, where we’ll have so much more to talk about. We’ll be bringing these use cases and our success stories to the forefront and sharing the names of customers, projects, and pilots currently underway, so we hope to see you there!



Authors

Masum Mir

Senior Vice President and General Manager

Cisco Networking: Provider Mobility