Ericsson and Supermicro recently announced they will engage in a strategic collaboration to accelerate Edge AI deployment. The parties have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to explore the combination of Ericsson Enterprise Wireless Solutions’ 5G connectivity with Supermicro’s Edge AI platforms into commercial bundles that will:
- Deliver advanced Edge AI capabilities that leverage 5G network connectivity as a key value-add attribute
- Simplify procurement and deployment with a unified solution with pre-validated AI compute and 5G connectivity
As AI becomes further integrated into a wide range of business functions, many of those AI applications require low-latency response times. This development is leading demand for Edge AI solutions that deploy pre-trained AI models, generative AI (GenAI), and agentic AI to the network Edge, outside the data centre, for local processing. The combination of Supermicro and Ericsson technology is intended to enable businesses in retail, factories, health care, and others to rapidly deploy Edge AI infrastructure together with wireless connectivity.
Supermicro continues to expand its extensive portfolio of infrastructure products supporting Edge AI applications with product choices ranging from small fanless devices to shoe-box sized systems to 1U rackmount systems. These new stand-alone wireless systems can be deployed in diverse environments yet deliver industry-standard data throughput comparable to wired systems.
“Supermicro delivers cutting-edge solutions that allow enterprises to harness the power of AI at the edge,” said Mory Lin, Vice President, IoT/Embedded & Edge Computing, Supermicro. “Our compute platforms combined with Ericsson’s 5G technology will allow enterprises and public sector organisations to extend the reach of their AI applications where wired technologies are not a viable option, such as smart intersections, industrial manufacturing, and remote infrastructure.”
Ericsson’s wireless WAN portfolio of indoor and outdoor low-and-mid band wireless adapters and their 5G, SD-WAN, and security appliances are key components for an enterprise when traditional wired connectivity may be inconvenient or even unavailable for some of these Edge deployments. In these situations, 5G can serve as the primary WAN connection or even as a backup WAN connection for business-critical deployments. With Ericsson’s solution, enterprises will also be able to take advantage of 5G functionality including network slicing, cellular intelligence, and zero trust security.
“Ericsson has been transforming the WAN Edge for almost a decade, allowing enterprises to connect anything, anywhere with speed and agility. We are excited to collaborate with Supermicro to extend this same speed and agility to the emerging Edge AI space. Together, we have an opportunity to make it easier for enterprises to operate Edge intelligence,” said Jonathan Fischer, Vice President, Global OEM & Embedded Partners, Ericsson.
Specific industry applications include:
- Retail: accelerate checkout processing through real-time image recognition of items, enhance inventory tracking, and detect and alert against theft
- Smart factory and industrial automation: monitor and control industrial machinery by locally processing sensor and camera data
- Traffic safety: enhance traffic safety by data analysis directly from camera and sensor sources for adaptive real-time traffic management
- Healthcare management: support healthcare operations such as just-in-time inventory management to reduce waste and ensure critical medical supplies are available
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