Singtel last Tuesday unveiled its all-in-one orchestration platform called Paragon to significantly reduce the complexity and time needed to adopt 5G MEC (multi-access edge computing) and low-latency applications and services. It also empowers enterprises to securely deploy applications in a hybrid fashion across the edge at Singtel
MEC and a public cloud of their choice.
Already, Singtel has conducted successful trials on Paragon. It also has invited partners in 5G-related fields – from chipset manufacturers, IoT devices, apps and software developers, content producers, systems integrators and solution providers - to join in scaling the platform regionally and globally with other telecommunication players.
“Many enterprises are undergoing rapid digitalisation while exploring and developing tailored 5G solutions for deployment in their industries. We understand the challenges and complexities that they face in managing the various networks, edge cloud applications and services with the required cyber security, resiliency and demanding service assurances required, cost-effectively. Paragon was conceived, developed and delivered to help enterprises meet these needs through a single platform,” said Bill Chang, chief executive officer, Group Enterprise at Singtel.
One platform to accelerate enterprise digital transformation
Compared to the current 4G and public cloud-enabled edge computing solutions, Paragon provides a huge improvement in latency with much higher bandwidth throughput from Singtel’s 5G network. This means better performance and faster decision-making at the edge where the data resides, critical for use cases like autonomous systems like robotics, drones and vehicles, immersive, video-rich experiences and powerful real-time edge AI use cases.
Without an all-in-one solution like Paragon, enterprises have to juggle multiple tools to manage their network connectivity, cloud and application lifecycle at the edge, according to Singtel.
“Paragon empowers enterprises to interact with the 5G network and deploy their edge computing applications and services on Singtel’s infrastructure independently, securely and within minutes. This shortens their innovation curve and improves time-to-market as well as reduces costs. Enterprises can also access a wide range of solutions from our partners to deliver their 5G use cases,” said Singtel in a press statement.
Other unique 5G features like network slicing – which usually requires weeks to acquire and set-up – can be done almost instantly, autonomously and as many times as needed. Enterprises can also optimise cost by utilising a network slice only when there is a need and for the intended duration.
Building a strong 5G MEC eco-system
Through the Paragon Marketplace, which operates like an app store, Singtel 5G ecosystem partners can integrate their offerings through robust industry-standard API to rapidly build and deploy their solutions on Paragon.
According to Singtel, some of these solutions are already available, including real-time fleet management, mixed reality and metaverse-based simulations, smart warehouse management, among others.
“As we scale Paragon across the region with a number of telecommunication leaders, partners in our 5G eco-system will have access to multiple markets based on their solutions they have built on the Paragon platform. We remain committed to helping partners through the Singtel Partner Programme to develop solutions needed by customers across industries, validation of the solutions, from the commercial structure and go-to-market support on Singtel’s 5G platform and finally onboarding the applications into the Paragon Marketplace,” Singtel said.
