Partner Ecosystem Coalesces, Deploys “Farm of the Future” to Enable Precision Agriculture and Builds Digital Transformation Showcase
BOULDER, CO – June 30, 2020 – The Rural Cloud Initiative (RCI), a unique coalition of network and edge innovation partners committed to promoting and accelerating the digital transformation of rural America, announces a series of technology and business value milestones. Launched by Trilogy Networks earlier this year, the RCI is rapidly gaining momentum, having formed partnership agreements with 26 Network Providers and 11 Edge Innovation Partners. The purpose of the initiative is to deploy a unified, distributed cloud covering an area of 1.5 million square miles of rural America. Today, the RCI is unveiling a series of solution deployments, as well as the establishment of its ACRES leadership council.
At Hurst Greenery in Westboro, MO, the RCI has launched the first phase of its “Farm of the Future” series, using distributed cloud edge capabilities to facilitate and unlock the value of precision agriculture. The RCI has also launched a Digital Transformation Showcase in Chicago to allow Trilogy and its Edge Innovation Partners to architect upcoming solutions.
“The proliferation of smart technology has sparked America’s fourth Industrial Revolution, with a massive impact on the opportunity to drive enhanced productivity and increased security. The rural market is rife with IoT devices critical to industries like agriculture and the digital oilfield,” said George Woodward, CEO of Trilogy Networks. “Supporting this transformation will require the deployment of connected devices at the network edge that will enable new business models for both network operators and rural industries. While others are talking about it – Trilogy and our RCI partners are proving that both the technology and business value of edge solutions is provable, scalable and repeatable across a number of use cases and vertical applications.”
“Farm of the Future” Series
Deployment of the distributed cloud with real time data processing capability at Hurst Greenery reflects the RCI ecosystem in action; requiring coordination spanning sections of a two states area as well as the input and technology support of RCI Edge Innovation partners. Trilogy’s ConEx edge delivery platform will be deployed across four locations, including sites operated by RCI partners IAMO Communications, Chat Mobility and Farmers Mutual Telephone Company. Trilogy and fellow RCI partners Pluribus Networks, ClearBlade and Lanner are teaming to deploy the project, which will include a private LTE network inclusive of Intel technology; machine vision solutions, such as crop tracking and inventory monitoring; and connected device solutions, such as temperature and humidity monitoring. With access to real time data control and decision-making of connected devices, Hurst Greenery will significantly increase overall efficiency and yield, through reductions in spoilage, energy costs, insurance and human resource costs.
“Automating energy, water and yield management with such transformative technologies are critical for family farms to protect future agriculture production,” said Blake Hurst, owner of Hurst Greenery, as well as President of the Missouri Farm Bureau and Vice-Chair of the FCC Precision Connectivity Working Group. “As this network scales it will be able to address the needs of the 2,300 farms in this coverage area.”
Digital Transformation Showcase
Trilogy Networks and other RCI partners have built a Digital Transformation Showcase currently supporting Internet offload, rich media streaming, AI-based network capacity planning and AI-based video analytics for customers, ecosystem partners and the media. Based at the New Continuum West Chicago NAP data center, RCI partner AlefEdge’s Software-Defined Mobile Edge (SD-ME) platform for application enablement is deployed on the Trilogy ConEx edge delivery platform with its LinX private network access, along with direct Internet peering from United IX. Trilogy worked with Intel to develop the solution, including the use of Intel Xeon processor-based servers, and the resulting 5G like experience is a vast improvement in video performance over traditional networks, enabling network providers to improve customer satisfaction and reduce churn.
ACRES Advisory Council Established
With a market in complete transformation the RCI announces the formation ACRES – the Advisory Council for Rural Edge Solutions. This council will be made up of industry thought leaders, operators and stakeholders representing the ever-changing landscape. These executives will bring industry and legislative insight to the RCI assisting them to shape the strategy and evaluate these market dynamics.
“Within rural markets, there is clearly demand for services running at the edge and the adoption of advanced LTE and 5G will only drive that demand further,” said Caroline Chan, Vice President and General Manager of Intel’s Network Business Incubator Division and member of the RCI’s ACRES leadership council. “RCI is bringing together organizations that are able to contribute at every stage of the edge computing value chain. This provides meaningful opportunities for leading technology providers to help spur digital transformation across rural America through a viable, scalable and repeatable model that addresses this unique market.”
About Trilogy
Trilogy is an established leader in the emerging Edge Compute ecosystem with the deployment of
distributed Cloud installations across the United States. Trilogy recently founded the Rural Cloud Initiative, a coalition of network operators and technology providers committed to promoting and accelerating the digital transformation of rural America. In conjunction with network operators and edge innovation partners, Trilogy is utilizing its LinX™ virtual private network and ConEx service delivery platform to build a unified, distributed cloud capability on a single network fabric to cover 1.5 million square miles. To learn more, please visit www.ruralcloud.com or www.trilogynet.com.
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