5G never delivered for cloud computing

I recall this as if it was yesterday. I entered the conference room to talk about cloud computing and 5G. I gave this type of presentation often a few years ago. The executives were excited about 5G’s potential. I took a deep breath, knowing I had to voice my concerns. “Forgive my candor,” I began, “but the promises surrounding 5G are exaggerated. We’re banking on a technology that hasn’t yet delivered on its hype, and given the current adoption patterns, it may not.”

The room fell silent, disbelief etched across their faces. “David, you’re mistaken,” one executive replied, with a tone of some condescension. “5G is the future of cloud!” Others chimed in, ridiculing my skepticism. Once again, I found myself being the lone dissenter, pushing back on what my peers and clients were asserting.

Was I wrong in the long term? Nope. Did it help my career? Also, nope. As I’ve been told in many performance reviews: “You need to learn to go with the flow.”

Skeptical of any magic bullet

Having been in the tech world for 30-plus years, I consistently follow a single rule: There are no magic bullets, and anything promoted as such is typically a lousy investment. I’ve gotten used to technology cheerleaders barraging me with new ideas, some with a billion dollars of marketing behind them. Generative AI is the current darling, and although some ideas are sound and reasonable investments, many are not.

For whatever reason, people get invested in specific technologies or products, and anybody who questions them becomes an enemy. I’ve never understood that line of thinking, but I always run into it. You must break down any technology into parts and determine what parts bring ROI.

In the early days of 5G promotion, marketing teams painted a picture of ultra-high speeds, reduced latency, and massive connectivity capabilities that would revolutionize industries. It was an enticing vision of fully autonomous vehicles seamlessly communicating with smart city infrastructures, and Internet of Things devices maneuvering effortlessly through a hyper-connected ecosystem. Many organizations envisioned that 5G would elevate their operations by enhancing real-time data processing and supporting advanced applications, including augmented reality and machine learning.

Unfortunately, in the wild, 5G has proven to be less of a fearsome beast and more of a timid creature.

5G benefits we’re still waiting for

The expectation of rapid ROI lured numerous enterprises into overcommitting resources to 5G initiatives. More than merely a poor financial decision, this over-investment has become an enormous distraction. It’s true that 5G delivered some value. However, this came at the expense of other efforts that could have brought much more benefit to the business.

Time, talent, and treasure have been poured into 5G implementations when enterprises should have focused on solidifying their cloud infrastructure, optimizing their existing systems, and leveraging 4G technology, which still meets the needs of most applications. 

5G has faced several challenges that have hindered its ability to deliver significant benefits to cloud computing users. Here are the specific shortcomings:

Making the extensive upgrades to existing infrastructure has proven to be a slow, costly, and technically complex process. Many areas still rely predominantly on 4G LTE, limiting the immediate availability and benefits of 5G connectivity for cloud applications.

Many users (including me) have reported only modest improvements compared to 4G LTE in real-world scenarios, even though 5G was marketed as offering ultra-high speeds. This inconsistency must improve so companies can gain the expected advantages for data-heavy applications reliant on cloud computing.

We’re still waiting for ultra-low latency. The necessary infrastructure to achieve such low latency (such as edge computing) is still under development, resulting in only marginal improvements in performance for cloud services.

5G has yet to achieve comprehensive geographic coverage, particularly in rural and suburban areas. This disparity limits the potential benefits for enterprises that rely on cloud computing, especially those in less densely populated regions.

Many organizations have been deterred by the financial burden of transitioning to 5G in infrastructure and enterprise devices. Companies are skeptical about whether the benefits justify the expense, especially when current 4G capabilities are often sufficient.

Transformative applications, such as autonomous vehicles and smart cities, have yet to see widespread adoption. Many enterprises find themselves waiting for these applications to materialize while existing cloud solutions continue to adequately meet their needs.

Many enterprises overinvested in 5G’s potential without realizing that cloud services could deliver expected outcomes using existing technologies. Organizations were distracted by 5G promises and as a result missed other opportunities to enhance their cloud computing capabilities.

We were led to believe that 5G would replace Wi-Fi for homes and businesses. However, infrastructure costs, inconsistent availability, and device compatibility problems persist. For many, Wi-Fi remains adequate for everyday use. Again, this is for most use cases, not situations where 5G was force-fitted at a significant cost.

Of course, if you look down at your new smartphone, chances are it says “5G” in the upper right corner of the screen. So why was 5G not a success?

I’m pointing out that 5G was promoted as more than just bandwidth. A speed upgrade would not have created so much hype. The large network providers marketed 5G as a true game-changer for technology users, including cloud users. That never happened, and it’s time we start calling balls and strikes with this stuff.