Accedian, a leader in performance analytics, cybersecurity threat detection and end user experience solutions, released new analyst research on the future of 5G in manufacturing. Conducted in partnership with Analysys Mason, a leading management consultancy focused on telecoms, media and technology (TMT), the research found that while 76% of manufacturers plan to use private 5G locally by 2024, key barriers to adoption include management complexity, difficulty of deployment and high costs.
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Manufacturing holds extreme promise in being transformed through 5G network adoption. As a sector largely reliant on the quality of connections between technologies and machines, 5G can expedite processes, reduce latency, enable automation and the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI), robotics and augmented reality (AR). Most manufacturers agree that high reliability (82%), security (78%) and support for low-latency applications (75%) make a 5G private network an attractive choice.
“5G is set to transform industries, and no sector is more ripe for this than manufacturing,” says Sergio Bea, VP of Global Enterprise and Channels, Accedian. “Our research with Analysys Mason clearly shows the appetite for adoption among manufacturers is there, but network performance monitoring and management remain barriers to entry. With the right network monitoring tools, IT teams at factories can be sure they’ll have both the visibility and security they need to make 5G adoption a success.”
More than 200 respondents from Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States across six verticals provided insights into private 5G network adoption.
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Key highlights from the research include:
- The most likely types of 5G deployments are: hybrid models (45%) and network slice (35%); while 18% of manufacturing respondents prefer fully private on-prem networks.
- Security (63%) is the biggest factor influencing the choice of 5G deployment model, followed by network performance (49%), speed/simplicity of deployment (49%), application performance (45%) and data privacy (43%).
- In terms of barriers to adoption, respondents considering a hybrid network model are most concerned about management complexity (43%).
- Most agree that important metrics to monitor are application performance KPIs (61%), closely followed by network performance KPIs (59%) and security KPIs (55%).
There is a complex balance of risks and deployment choices that manufacturers will need to make as they move forward with 5G.
“Our research shows there is appetite for 5G in the manufacturing industry, which means there’s also immense opportunity for service providers to uplevel their relationships with factories, as well,” says Michele Mackenzie, Principal Analyst, IoT and private networks, Analysys Mason. “CSPs need to capitalize on this momentum to become more than just vendors, but strategic partners to manufacturing organizations looking to navigate the future of the sector.”
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