US tech giant Dell Technologies and South Korean mobile carrier SK Telecom said Monday they would forge a multi-access edge computing alliance to expand its global 5G footprint targeting enterprise and government clients.

Under the plan, SK Telecom’s 5G MEC solutions -- ranging from network virtualization to MEC application for operation and user experience optimization -- will be mounted on Dell‘s servers to meet the global demand for 5G private network infrastructure.

Moreover, the two companies aim to offer consulting, deployment and maintenance services to its clients.

Multi-access edge computing, formerly known as mobile edge computing, refers to a cloud computing architecture designed to reduce communication latency and enhance security for a stable network operation.

Those setting up the 5G private radio access network infrastructure for smart factories, connected cars and immersive media would no longer need to rely on data centers distant from the 5G private network location for data processing. Data are stored and processed at the network’s edge within the MEC infrastructure, instead of a data center.

“The computing speed goes faster and more consistent when (data are processed) in close proximity to where data came from, driving telecom business innovation further in the future,” Kevin Kim, president of Korea and senior vice president at Dell Technologies, said in a statement.

Dell, headquartered in Texas, is dedicated to enterprise server, personal computer, mobile business and enterprise storage, among others.

SK Telecom said it is working to allow Dell‘s MEC servers to be interoperable with other telecom carriers’ MEC solutions.

SK Telecom announced a commercialization of Korea‘s first MEC solution with Amazon Web Services in December 2020.

Korea is the first country to deploy the commercial 5G mobile network. The Science Ministry and three Korea-based telecom carriers -- SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus -- pledged in 2020 to invest a combined 25 trillion won ($20.4 billion) to achieve the nationwide 5G network penetration by the first half of 2022.

(consnow@heraldcorp.com)