5G, friend or foe? Your tech stack will decide

As 5G becomes the standard and with 6G already peeking its head over the horizon, how confident are you that your technology can accommodate the demands of 5G, IoT, edge computing, and whatever comes next? Here's a quick checklist to evaluate if your technology stack is ready for 5G and beyond: If you haven’t factored in these considerations yet, you could be in for a nasty surprise as the grim realities of legacy technology meet the laws of physics and the new fast-data world of 5G. . So, what exactly is pushing your technology stack to the edge of oblivion?

• Does it support the real-time online execution of millions of database transactions by thousands of users while also making accurate decisions at scale within single-digit milliseconds?
• Is it designed to minimize data trips and latency?
• Is it simple and vertically integrated to allow for the minimum practical amount of time processing in a highly available manner?
• Does it easily support data in motion? Does it have inbound and outbound connectivity to Kafka, Kinesis, and messaging technologies to integrate multiple streams of data?
• What are the implications of limitless connectivity on upgrades and downtime, especially when you rely on open-source technologies?

5G is a latency game

5G squeezes the latency possibilities (and expectations) from 4G’s 200 milliseconds to single-digit milliseconds. This squeeze is 5G’s most exciting promise but also the biggest existential threat to your technology stack if it can’t handle the data volume and velocity. Multi-layered, complicated technology stacks thwart latency objectives by forcing data packets to take a circuitous, value-sucking route around the network. Because we are limited by how fast light travels through a fiber optic cable, when the scale and latency needs reach a point of redlining the capacity, we’re going to be out of options. Clearly, throwing more hardware or even faster hardware at this problem isn’t going to achieve anything. Neither will patching together different technologies and adding layers help. We’re going to have to radically rethink our technology stacks and architect built-for-5G systems from the ground up.

The limitations of limitless connectivity

In the age of 5G, enterprises can’t afford to wait for their data to travel to and from the data lake or data warehouse. The exploding demand for low latency, initially driven by video streaming, and massively augmented by IoT and Industry 4.0, triggered the build-out of edge data centers. This doesn’t just upend a decade of consolidating systems into massive regional data centers, it also places unrelenting demands on your technology stack. Edge processing—combined with the deployment of IoT devices and active digital twins—pushes the boundaries of real-time decisioning, placing more stringent latency demands on your technology stack. We will now have billions of these digital twins doing things we depend on every day, all of which are themselves dependent on reliable, ultra-low latency decision-making throughout the network. Any failure to meet these requirements could crash the entire system or potentially much worse if the devices are directed to actively do things based on out-of-date information. Billions of connectivity-hungry IoT devices are the new “users” of the 5G communications networks. Without constant connectivity, “always-on” data processing, and real-time decisioning, these devices will fail to function. This limitless connectivity means that we may not be able to turn off the systems we deploy without creating a network-wide outage. With 5G, IoT and edge computing, we’re now building systems that can’t afford to go offline, even for a few seconds to accommodate essential activities such as updating and maintenance. Can you imagine the stress this places on your technology stack?

The key to averting oblivion

The good news is, with the right technology in place, you can avert tech stack oblivion and actually turn it around and into a huge advantage for your enterprise and its applications. You need a leaner and faster technology stack that scales seamlessly to meet ultra-low latency requirements and future-proof our systems. You need to get rid of excess stack layers and replace them with a simplified, built-for-5G stack that incorporates both current and contextually near-past data to make intelligent decisions in single-digit milliseconds. Only a unified stream processing data platform can handle in-flight data, apply rules transactionally, and respond to events within the ultra-low latency SLAs that modern 5G applications require to succeed. You will need to proactively architect this lean and agile technology stacks that today’s (and tomorrow’s) applications require, and doing so will likely involve some tough decisions. You’ll probably need to shed technology you’ve leaned on for years while investing in new technology. You may also need to reorganize your approach to internal resources and what your developers are focusing on. This overhaul could require reskilling and upskilling your IT team to use technologies that will better prepare your organization to handle the promising future. That said, the effort will pay off because your company will be ready to fully capitalize on 5G and all the opportunities it brings.