MWC25 | Paul Savill, Kyndryl & David de Lancellotti, Nokia

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Paul Savill

Global Practice Leader for Networking and Edge Compute

Kyndryl

David de Lancellotti

Vice President of Enterprise Campus Edge Business, CNS Cloud and Network Services

Nokia

The rise of private 5G: Why enterprises are investing in secure, scalable networks

Private 5G is reshaping industrial operations by providing secure, high-performance connectivity that integrates seamlessly with enterprise IT infrastructure.As industries increasingly depend on real-time data, edge computing and private 5G are revolutionizing operations by enhancing performance, safety and efficiency. These technologies provide mission-critical connectivity in high-risk environments, ensuring secure, scalable digital infrastructure

play_circle_outline Benefits of partnership in providing complete solutions to customers

play_circle_outline Private 5G partnership between Kyndryl and Nokia

play_circle_outline Maximizing Deployment Efficiency with Global Reach: The Role of Edge Computing and Far Edge Applications

play_circle_outline AI's role in driving revenue at the edge in 2025

play_circle_outline Addressing outdated technology in networks for improved security

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Paul Savill, Kyndryl & David de Lancellotti, Nokia

Paul Savill

Global Practice Leader for Networking and Edge Compute Kyndryl

David de Lancellotti

Vice President of Enterprise Campus Edge Business, CNS Cloud and Network Services Nokia

Paul Savill, a senior leader at Kyndryl, teams up with David de Lancellotti from Nokia to delve into their collaborative initiatives at MWC25 Barcelona. The discussion, facilitated by theCUBE analysts, Savannah Peterson and Dave Vellante, centers on their private 5G partnership, exploring customer stories and strategies for industrial edge solutions. Savill and de Lancellotti emphasize the synergy between Kyndryl's system integration prowess and Nokia's cutting-edge networking technology, offering complete solutions that align with customer needs.

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What were the reasons for partnering with Nokia in the 5G space? add

What are some of the challenges in understanding the true size of the private 5G market? add

What fuels AI and what role does edge play in the future of information accumulation and gathering? add

What is Nokia's strategy in the private network and private wireless space and how do they plan to differentiate themselves? add

What is the regulatory environment doing to address security exposures in enterprises with critical infrastructure? add

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Paul Savill, Kyndryl & David de Lancellotti, Nokia

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Savannah Peterson

>> Good morning CUBE community, and welcome back to Barcelona, Spain. We're here for our third day of live broadcast on theCUBE at Mobile World Congress. My name's Savannah Peterson, joined for all of these fantastic segments with Dave Vellante. Dave, the conversations just seem to get more and more interesting.

>> Yeah. I have PTSD from when I got my backpack stolen here

Dave Vellante

>> and I lost my passport in Barcelona, but it's all good.

Savannah Peterson

>> It's all good. You got your wallet yesterday after that situation.

>> I did. I had it in the safe. I'm very careful now.

Savannah Peterson

>> Never hurts to be safe.

Dave Vellante

>> I mean, we talk about security in our roles here in the telco world, in the tech world, but also when it comes to literal, physical objects.

>> I know, and I'm a pretty experienced traveler, so... I

Dave Vellante

>> literally had my backpack right there. I turned around, boom, it was gone. Do not let go of your backpack overseas, or even the US anymore.

Savannah Peterson

>> Important words of wisdom from Dave Vellante to start off this segment. Speaking of important words of wisdom, we're about to get a lot of them from our next two guests. Thank you both so much for being here, Paul and David, it is great to have you.

David de Lancellotti

>> Thanks. - Thanks, Savannah.

David de Lancellotti

>> Thanks for having us. - Yeah, our pleasure.

Savannah Peterson

>> You guys are doing so much cool stuff together.

Paul Savill

>> We're going to talk about multiple aspects of the partnership. We're going to dig into some customer stories. We're going to be talking about industrial edge. I can't wait for it. To open things off, let's talk about the private 5G partnership that y'all got going.

David de Lancellotti

>> Sure. - And Paul, you want to kick us off?

Paul Savill

>> Sure. Yeah. So a few years ago, we decided to partner

Savannah Peterson

>> with Nokia around the 5G space. We thought that it was a natural fit for the two companies to start working together, because Nokia makes some of the best networking technologies. We know that because we spent a lot of time evaluating their technology and testing it ourselves and proving it on the customer. But the other reason why the partnership really worked for us is because we're so complementary in the capabilities that we bring. So Nokia really brings the tech, the hardware tech, the knowledge in the space around the wireless networking, and we bring all of the system integration that ties it all together with the rest of the customer's IT infrastructure. So the combination of those two things really enables both of our companies to provide a really complete solution to meet whatever the customer's trying to achieve.

David de Lancellotti

>> Yeah. I mean, partnership... Sorry, you probably want to introduce me.

>> No, no, go. Please, please, please.

Savannah Peterson

>> No, no, go for it. You're good.

>> Awesome. Yeah, I mean,

David de Lancellotti

>> we spent a bit of time yesterday talking. We are at a partner event and Paul and I had a chance to talk on stage together, and partnerships are really unique. You need to be able to, whether it's a marriage or whether it's positioning private networks together, you need to be able to be very complementary. You need to be able have open and honest conversations. Sometimes things are great, sometimes things get difficult. When you do that, if you have a transparent and open relationship, you kind of drive it forward. So Kyndryl and Nokia are very, two dynamic companies, two complementary companies, and together we're much better than we are, them trying to position something, a setup solution, or maybe us kind of go direct. Us going together and utilizing our best foot forward together is always a better thing.

>> And when you evaluated the market, I mean,

Dave Vellante

>> everybody talks about, the big telcos talk about 5G and monetization, and we are hearing, maybe it hasn't worked out as they planned, but private 5G clearly has legs. So when you guys looked at the market, there was obviously alignment there on the opportunity. I wonder if you could...

>> Well, actually, wait. I want to just build on that,

Savannah Peterson

>> because when we were doing our prep call, one of my takeaways was it's actually hard to understand the true size of the private 5G market because of customer sensitivity. So when you're talking about looking at the market, it's actually more convoluted than looking at most markets.

>> Yes. Right. So how did you guys align

Dave Vellante

>> and squint through all that sort of confusion?

>> Well, there's a lot of analyst reports that they pretend

Paul Savill

>> to know exactly how big the market is, and I'm not so sure how accurate they are on that.

David de Lancellotti

>> Very true. - But one thing that we generally do agree,

Paul Savill

>> maybe we're not precise in understanding the total size of the market, but we do know what is happening, and what is happening is that this adoption is growing fast, and it's expanding around the world. Other countries opening up spectrum to allow these types of configurations. And I think the market fit made sense between the two of us because Kyndryl really, our main enterprise base is large multinational corporations. They trust us to manage critical infrastructure. And the thing about Nokia is that their wireless solutions really fit well in those types of environments where you have mission- critical infrastructure running things like big industrial plants, dangerous chemical processes. And that's one of the reasons why we felt like going at specific market segments like that with Nokia made a lot of sense.

>> Makes sense. - And enabling, when you look at an oil

David de Lancellotti

>> and gas plant, like you're talking about,

Savannah Peterson

>> the first thing we enable is worker safety. People have to be safe in what they're doing. It also helps pay the bills, because if everyone's safe, the plant operates 24/7, it doesn't have to stop. If the plant operates 24/7, what's it doing? It's making money. So workers are safe, the plant's enabled to be collaborative and the plant's making money. Those are really all critical things, again, that we do better together as a partnership.

Dave Vellante

>> And worker safety, that's a key metric. That's a KPI that board meetings start with.

Paul Savill

>> That's right. - It's like table stakes,

Dave Vellante

>> but it's vital, sustainability.

Paul Savill

>> It's a KPI that regulators watch. So I mean, they're really laws, I mean, these companies can face huge penalties if they have a certain amount of worker safety incidents. So it's important all the way up to that.

>> And rightfully so. - Yes, rightfully so.

Savannah Peterson

>> Yeah. No, I think that's really interesting.

Paul Savill

>> But there's a lot of complexity.

Savannah Peterson

>> I mean, I'm looking at some of the numbers you have for these deployments. 28,000 digitized documents, which is insane, and access to 3,000 mobile devices, deploying coverage for sites that are 20 square miles. I mean, that's a lot of people with a lot of access to knowledge that aren't flipping through things, have it at their fingertips where they need it now. This really enables people to help do their best work as well, too.

>> For sure. Yeah. - And that's just at one location.

Savannah Peterson

>> Wow. - Okay? That's not like, all over the world.

Paul Savill

>> That's just an example in one location.

Paul Savill

>> And the reason that that is so important is because

David de Lancellotti

>> whenever you eliminate all of that paper and you give information to people right at their fingertips, at the spot when they need it, where they need it...

>> Real time, instant.

Savannah Peterson

>> Then what that does is...

Paul Savill

>> This is an interesting, I learned through this experience. What that does is, it keeps people from walking around, because they don't have to walk around as much, because it's instantly at, they're there. And there's a direct correlation between limiting the amount of time people are walking around to reducing safety incidents. It's almost a one-for-one ratio. So that's why that stat is so important.

>> Wow. That's a really interesting piece

Savannah Peterson

>> of data. Holy moly.

Paul Savill

>> Yeah, I mean, if you're only walking around five miles a day instead of 10 miles a day, your worker safety incidents...

>> And you're more productive at the same time.

David de Lancellotti

>> Right, exactly. - Especially when it's all so critical.

Savannah Peterson

>> Everybody feels better. - You're

Paul Savill

>> half as exposed as you were before.

David de Lancellotti

>> And you don't feel like you're wasting your time, which

Savannah Peterson

>> I think is also really mission-critical.

Savannah Peterson

>> Yeah. - How long does it take you

Savannah Peterson

>> to do deployments like this?

David de Lancellotti

>> A single deployment can be done over several weeks, right?

David de Lancellotti

>> Yeah, getting it from beginning to implement.

>> Pretty quickly. - Yeah, pretty quickly.

David de Lancellotti

>> We can also, if someone wants to kind of just come in

Savannah Peterson

>> and get a sense of what it is, we can get a proof of concept set up in a matter of a day or two, as well. And that gives you a flavor of what to expect. And sometimes those POCs, proof of concepts, end up staying, or end up being something that we build on as well.

Paul Savill

>> Yeah, and talk about the partnership. One of the things that we did in our partnership is that Nokia provided us with little mini mobile units that we deployed all over the world in our operating environments, so that our engineers could be ready to go do a quick proof of concept on site in a matter of a day or two's notice.

>> Another layer of the partnership right there, right?

Savannah Peterson

>> Absolutely. Yeah.

David de Lancellotti

>> And I think he alluded to the global piece as well. So Kyndryl is a global organization. Nokia is a global organization as well. So we are not just looking at things in an oil field in Texas, but it could be a mine in the Philippines, or it could be a manufacturing facility in Europe. We are, together, we're going after things that are really on a global basis.

>> And the scale,

Dave Vellante

>> because you're global companies, you're able to handle... I see a chemical company digitized 28,000 documents. Another one, mobile access on 3,000 devices, and it says coverage across up to 20 square miles.

Savannah Peterson

>> And like they said, that was just one site. That's what we were just talking about.

>> Right. - I mean, that's one example,

Dave Vellante

>> But to your point about global, so you're able to, you

Savannah Peterson

>> think big, and you're able to do this at a massive scale.

Dave Vellante

>> Absolutely. - Yeah. That's one of the great value

Paul Savill

>> propositions that we bring together also,

David de Lancellotti

>> because this, you think of a large multinational corporation like Kyndryl serves. They don't want to do a snowflake deployment in each of their plants around in different places in the world. They want some consistency in the way that that operates and how it integrates with their back office systems. They don't want to invent it for every single plant and make it a one-off for every single plant. And so, that's the benefit of having two global organizations team up to provide a solution that can be copied all over the world.

>> Because the marginal cost here goes down

Dave Vellante

>> as you deploy at scale.

David de Lancellotti

>> Yeah, and scale is really what it's all about. For Kyndryl and Nokia to be really ultra successful together, when we're talking to one of the many customers that we work together on, it's not about doing one or two deployments. It's about, Mr. Customer, how do we look at 20, 30, 40, 50 of your plants? And, right, to scale up the model together. It's more cost-efficient, but it's also all the key learnings that you can get across these are really, really, really critical when you're looking at doing a deployment bigger than one or two sites.

Savannah Peterson

>> Absolutely. And we're talking about a lot of different edge devices. I know your edge partnership is really critical and also helpful in this scenario. What is it that makes the edge such a wonderful place for both of you to play in?

Paul Savill

>> Well, the edge is wonderful for us to play because it ties into Kyndryl's mission to support our customers up and down the entire IT stack. And the edge is really the future of where information's going to be accumulated and gathered, because all these operations that have sensors and all of this information, today, much of it just gets dropped on the floor and not used.

Savannah Peterson

>> 50% of data is at the edge. - That's right.

Paul Savill

>> And you think about how much time we spend

Savannah Peterson

>> thinking about the data that's not on the edge. This is why I'm super excited to talk to you guys about this.

>> So when the world starts adopting AI, what is it

Paul Savill

>> that AI really needs? What fuels AI is data and information, accurate data. And so, that's why edge plays such an important role in what's going to happen with the AI transformation that companies go to.

>> We actually even consider ourselves a far edge player.

Savannah Peterson

>> Tell me more about that. - We know the hyperscalers are

David de Lancellotti

>> going to own the edge space,

David de Lancellotti

>> and then the far edge space is where we're going to sit with our equipment. And when we're looking at the far edge and we have our equipment there, we're not just looking at connectivity. What we're really looking at, and again, what this partnership brings is, what can we do beyond connectivity? For us, for Nokia and how we're unique in the marketplace is everybody, our competitors really look at connectivity as the play. But for us, connectivity is just an application that sits on our far edge device. There's so many other applications that sit there, whether it's worker safety applications, AI applications, unifying Wi-Fi and your 5G together. Wi-Fi is not the enemy here. It's not Wi-Fi versus 4G or 5G. We have applications that sit on our Far Edge server that combine both of them together, that utilize both technologies. So when we talk about the edge or far edge, we're also talking about the beyond connectivity play, and that's really how Kyndryl and Nokia separate themselves from the competition. It's talking about something more than just how do you connect the device.

Dave Vellante

>> It's very interesting how you phrased it. I like this near edge and far edge, because we talk about a lot. And I also liked the way AI was one of many attributes. We made a prediction in our, earlier this year, we said AI inference at the edge will show meaningful revenue in 2025. I'm not sure how we're going to measure that, kind of sticking our necks out there, but I want to ask you, we haven't talked much about AI, which is kind of refreshing, actually.

Savannah Peterson

>> I was thinking that. - Yeah.

Savannah Peterson

>> Concur. - But the idea,

Dave Vellante

>> and Nokia obviously is a player here,

Dave Vellante

>> and the device is low power, being able to run small language models at the edge. Is that something that actually you think will show meaningful revenue in 2025?

David de Lancellotti

>> Absolutely. I mean, by the way, Nokia itself has, we are the market leader in the private network space, in the private wireless space. We'll continue to be that. We'll continue to grow that because we're just not talking connectivity, because we have a great partner like Kyndryl. That's how we're going to continue to differentiate ourselves. When you just talk connectivity, you kind of talk yourself into kind of pricing game and a me-too game. But when you start taking the customer on a journey and actually solving problems for the customer, you totally differentiate yourself.

Savannah Peterson

>> Let's hang out there for a second, because that was going to be my next question.

David de Lancellotti

>> See, I knew it. - Yeah. We're on the

Savannah Peterson

>> same wavelength here, David. We're locked in. You, too. Don't worry. I am curious, just because our audience might not be as familiar with the delineation between the various edges, can you give us some customer examples of what far edge means?

David de Lancellotti

>> You want to take that, or you want me to grab it?

>> Well, far edge to us means

Paul Savill

>> that you're really placing compute very close to the point of digital interaction.

David de Lancellotti

>> Yeah, or on top. - That's really where far edge is,

Paul Savill

>> because they can talk about dropping compute in a metropolitan area, and it serves a big, wide range of markets. But this is very, very localized. And eventually, as this technology continues to evolve, as quantum computing comes along too, we're going to be able to start pushing AIs to be more and more localized and start to run, eventually, AIs on that far edge to provide very specialized operations. I mean, imagine an AI that sits on the factory, in that 20 square mile factory production facility, that becomes an expert at managing the power distribution through there, to optimize that, to make it more efficient. That's the future that we're working for.

Dave Vellante

>> I see as lack of human high touch. It could be a windmill, right? There could be a device in a factory. Ideally, I'm not doing truck rolls. I'm eliminating that. And it is connected. That's kind of the starting point, but then there's so much of a value chain above that.

David de Lancellotti

>> For sure. For sure. I can give you a day- to-day example of how... I hate to use the word AI.

Dave Vellante

>> Bring it. - I'm going to get you on this,

David de Lancellotti

>> but in the worker safety space. So right now, we have real examples of equipping workers with IoT devices and utilizing AI, and keeps workers safe on the facilities. If their hat's off, if they're in the wrong part of the plant, if they're not wearing the right corrective safety gear, AI lets you know it, and it's really clear. And that's an application we have today that's running on our NDAAC Mixi server, and it's a real-time, real-data, real application.

Dave Vellante

>> The human is the edge. - Yeah, exactly right.

David de Lancellotti

>> We are the open exercise. - I have to revise my

Savannah Peterson

>> definitional thinking.

David de Lancellotti

>> I like that. Can I steal that phrase?

Dave Vellante

>> Oh, yeah, please. - We definitely are. I mean, think

Savannah Peterson

>> about wearables.

Dave Vellante

>> Think about anything that's connected. Think about RFID in sports jerseys when you're thinking about AI and sports, whatever that is. We are the edge, quite literally, and this is how most people are going to get the most value out of AI. It's not going to be browser-based for every single human being on this planet. It's going to be... And not even just AI. Technology in general right now, it's going to be because there's a greater value in using the products or solving the things that they're doing already in their environment, and then they have more time to think strategically or be creative or whatever it is that comes next.

>> Yeah, absolutely. - Which is really exciting.

Savannah Peterson

>> What's next for you guys?

David de Lancellotti

>> This is a very exciting partnership. I'm so stoked you're sitting here.

Paul Savill

>> Yeah. Well, we continue, I mean, we're continually evolving the way that our capabilities are integrating with each other. We're also bringing in additional partners into the equation and starting to do integrations there with the technology, with our capabilities. We're certifying additional interactions and engagements with back office systems that customers, so that we can basically make it much easier to expand the range of solutions that we can quickly deploy for customers on-site.

>> Yeah. - Yeah. I think for us, it's just going into more

David de Lancellotti

>> and more different marketplaces.

Savannah Peterson

>> What's the next great retail outlet that's going to utilize our stuff? What's the next great warehousing chain that's going to do it? What's the next great data center that needs private networking? I think for me, the way I just, really in the last few days and looked at it is, security is becoming quite the use case, as opposed to worker safety or sustainability. Just securing the network. Again, not to knock our friends in Wi-Fi, but we have data center applications now that are looking at security as a use case, and that's also another great application.

>> Well, the stat you have about this study

Dave Vellante

>> that you guys did at Kyndryl, saying half of the mission- critical business technology is outdated or nearing end of life. I think of critical infrastructure, as obviously we all do. Maybe we don't think about it enough, as a security exposure. How do we address that?

Savannah Peterson

>> Yeah. - Well, I'll tell you,

Paul Savill

>> the regulatory environment is starting to force it. Regulation around security in the past had largely been focused on personal information, protecting people's personal information. Now, governments are realizing that there are enterprises that have critical infrastructure to the operation of the benefit of the people of their countries. And this infrastructure, if it has security exposures, then that can be a threat to the citizens of a country. So, new regulation is working through that's now being focused on making sure that enterprises that performing critical functions and safety issues, that their infrastructure is secure from outside hacking intervention. And that's a big role that we play, because we're, a big part of our business now, and in my area, one of the biggest parts that's growing fastest, is addressing that issue, helping customers understand the legacy technology that they have in their networks, where the exposures are, and then giving them a roadmap and a plan and a financial business case to clean all of that up in a way that makes sense for them.

Savannah Peterson

>> Yeah, it makes a lot of sense. I've got two last questions for you. What is the reaction as you deploy these solutions within, going down to that person who's working in this plant or in this factory? Are people receptive to the technological upgrade? I know sometimes when we retool, there can be a little bit of resistance.

>> I think people are mostly just blown

David de Lancellotti

>> away by the automation.

>> Oh, I love that. - Yeah.

David de Lancellotti

>> I mean, if you look at, I know Paul was talking earlier

Savannah Peterson

>> about you guys are bringing up this large footprint scenario. Well, these people before were using paper and pencil to get the stuff, and now when everything's on a pad on a notepad and you can look at it and do it, that's an impact, right? Or if I can check a car that's coming off a dock, that's an impact. Or if I can automate a self-driving vehicle in a mine, were before I had people deployed and down there, that's not very safe, is it? Speaking of worker safety. So the impacts are prevalent and clear and concise from day one, right when you turn the network on.

Paul Savill

>> And let me add to that because, just to make a plug, if you want to go to Kyndryl. com, you can look under customer stories and you can see people, our customers, actually talking about the personal impact that the technology made on their lives in some of these videos.

>> Oh, I'll have to check that out.

Savannah Peterson

>> So, yeah, check that out and ask them.

Paul Savill

>> We'll have some of on. We'll have to do a whole little

Savannah Peterson

>> series on that. It would be very cool. Because I do, sometimes these conversations can get stuck in a lexicon, in a dialogue that's very C-suite heavy, and that's not necessarily a bad thing, but it doesn't necessarily welcome everyone to our discussion, our dialogue, and to get to learn and to be a part of that. So I think it would be super cool. All right, last question for you, because this has been fantastic. When we're hanging out at Mobile World Congress in 2026, what do you hope to be able to say then that you can't say today? Paul, I'm going to start with you.

Paul Savill

>> I would say, I'd love to be able to announce some additional industries that we've expanded these use cases into, and how it's helped those customers, how technology adoption in these new segments are panning out for them and helping them.

Savannah Peterson

>> Love that. We look forward. - 100%. I would say,

David de Lancellotti

>> we're back here a year from now and we're a more productive, safe and secure industry than we've ever been before, and we have many customers that are happy because of it. I think it would be a great outcome a year from now.

Savannah Peterson

>> Fantastic. Well, we look forward to telling both of those stories, or all those stories. It's actually a whole basket full of stories. Paul and David, thank you so much for taking the time. Busy week for you all.

>> Thank you, Savannah. Thank you, Dave. Thank you very much.

Paul Savill

>> Great work you're doing. Thank you.

David de Lancellotti

>> Yeah. - Thank you, Dave,

Savannah Peterson

>> and thank all of you for tuning in wherever you might be

David de Lancellotti

>> enjoying these fantastic conversations from today. We're in Barcelona, Spain, day three of Mobile World Congress. My name's Savannah Peterson. You're watching theCUBE, the leading source for enterprise tech news.

Dave Vellante

>> Thank you.