G operators to consider for adoption. The role of edge/far edge for operational technology workloads, such as a robotic arm in a factory assembly line, will never be in the cloud due to latency needs. This makes the edge very important in this case. Hence, 5G operators are exploring managing the control plane in the public cloud but keeping the data at the edge. 5G operators can use cloud-managed services at operator locations. Figure 12.16 shows how Oracle, with its public cloud called Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), provides a flexible hybrid cloud for 5G operators: Oracle Cloud Oracle Cloud Dedicated Region Private Cloud Oracle Roving Infrastructure Cloud@Customer Appliance Edge Infrastructure Public Cloud Private Cloud Near Edge Near Edge 4G/5G Core: Primary, Disaster Recovery, Excess Capacity URLCC Use Cases CX/OSS/BSS MEC (User Plane) Enterprise IT vRAN (CU) vRAN (DU) Security-Analytics-Observabillity and Management Figure 12.17 - Splitting functionality in 5G to break the monolith [image credit: Sanya] Sometimes multiple cloud providers work with partners to provide support for multi-cloud solutions. Figure 12.18 shows one such example where OCI and AWS come together with their partner Equinix to help eliminate the complexities for operators in building the NFV deployment architecture while leveraging the OPEX models of the public cloud: 5G Infrastructure Design PLATFORM EQUINIX® Los Angeles Silicon Valley ORACLE ORACLE Cloud Cloud NETWORK Figure 12.18 - Enablers for NFV architecture In the preceding section, we looked at the emergence of the public and hybrid clouds in the context of 5G infrastructure design. This has provided opportunities for the public cloud providers such as AWS, Microsoft Azure, GCP, and OCI to become part of the 5G ecosystem. Google announced that it joined the O-RAN alliance in June 2021 (See: https://cloud.google.com/blog/topics/ telecommunications/google-cloud-joins-o-ran-alliance). Now, Communication Service Providers (CSPs) can embrace the public cloud for both IT and networ