Connecting thousands or millions of devices to achieve meaningful business results can be complex and costly. Bridging the gap between an Enterprise's and a Service Provider's network, Cisco's IoT Control Center delivers visibility and control across a Service Provider's network in the form of a service that Enterprises can use for adopting, managing, and scaling their connected devices.

We've recently reached a momentous milestone as the first Connectivity Management Platform that spans across an entire nation, enabling 5G Standalone (SA) IoT deployments to be manageable as a service through a major service provider, China Unicom. The launch spans China Unicom's network which will be used to serve enterprises in 31 provinces across China.

With 5G, we are at the cusp of a major transformative change that will empower enterprises with new technologies, introduce industrial automation and reshape business models. Cisco, in collaboration with Service Providers worldwide, is helping to incubate new use cases and deliver new transformational tools across industries and enterprises for managing connectivity on Control Center. Initially, Control Center will support full lifecycle management of 5G SA SIMs, billing capabilities, and network slice provisioning to help Service Providers monetize their 5G services.

5G Use-Cases Today and Their Near-Term Evolution

In the not too distant future, global M2M connections will reach 14.7 billion and the Asia-Pacific region will have the highest share of public wi-fi hotspots growing at a rate of 37% (CAGR), according to the latest Cisco Annual Internet Report. Broadband use-cases across diverse industries-Retail, Security, Energy, and FinTech -are leading Enterprises to adopt 5G technologies. According to the report, cellular-enabled wireless hotspots is trending to become the predominant device type for many industries as opposed to traditional IoT endpoints. We can also expect to see big growth in 5G use cases for connected cars, in the neighborhood of 30% (CAGR). Cars will come equipped with new 5G services for fleet management, in-vehicle entertainment systems, emergency call, Internet, vehicle diagnostics, and GPS navigation. Service Provider networks have a need to support C-V2X applications and real-time monitoring at a massive scale. As the prospect of self-driving vehicles becomes more real, the networks they will be connecting to will as essential as the roads they run on. Connected city applications will follow similar trends for adopting 5G connectivity, estimated to grow at a rate of 26% (CAGR).

All this growth in 5G brings a major leap forward for Enterprises, Service Providers, and all the other players in the end-to-end value chain. As 5G becomes mainstream, Service Providers can influence enterprise adoption with a holistic network deployment strategy encompassing Public and Private Networking solutions for Industry 4.0 use-cases, showcasing a path to enabling business outcomes.

How Service Providers and Enterprises Can Benefit from One Another Today

Cisco's Control Center opens a new market for services with its deep integration in Service Provider networks. 3GPP standards-based interfaces between the Packet Core Network Functions and network components as part of the Cisco Control Center technology stack were used to deliver key functionalities. Global Service Providers with a 5G SA Network can leverage Control Center to provide 5G services to enterprise IoT customers, helping them prepare for 5G device adoption. Service Providers can kick start their 5G service offerings using Control Center to package, provision, and begin monetizing new Enterprise focused services. A Service Provider with Control Center can help enterprise customers adopt 5G and provide end-to-end service which can lead to improved business outcomes and lower OpEx.

Looking Ahead, What's Next for Cisco Control Center with 5G?

Control Center is distinguishing with market leadership, providing the framework for innovative value-added services and new functionality. We are continuing to add new functions and features that will support a growing, diverse set of IoT use-cases.

To date, the Cisco IoT Control Center has been implemented in over 52 Service Provider networks and 30,000 enterprises with more than 160 million connected devices.

Come discover what the Control Center can do for you.