Ericsson Heads for the Clouds

Data Deluge Demands Cooperation

On Monday at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Ericsson and Amazon announced a partnership to bring Ericsson’s customers — telecom network operators and service providers — access to Amazon’s cloud computing services.

Together, the companies expect to collaborate on the development of new technologies and approaches to building and deploying network infrastructure. The partnership will help service providers link their data centres to Amazon Web Services’ colossal computing and storage facilities and manage the workflow between the various data centres.

Amazon Web Services, a leader in cloud computing, offers enterprise customers computing power, storage space and networking capacity. Customers pay for what they use, similar to the services offered by utilities such as an electric company.

Ericsson, the world’s largest supplier of mobile infrastructure equipment, will establish what it terms “cloud innovation centres” for its operator customers. The first facility is expected to be set up with Australian operator Telstra.

In another announcement in Barcelona, Facebook revealed the establishment of Telecom Infra Project. In addition to Facebook, members of this new group include Intel, Nokia, Deutsche Telekom and SK Telecom. The initiative is expected to bring operators, infrastructure providers and technology companies together to develop technologies that will help the telecom industry cope with the data deluge from the Internet of things and connected devices.

With millions upon millions of devices coming online around the world, traditional telecom infrastructure is struggling to meet the demand of managing the data. It will take a new level of innovation and cross-industry cooperation to address the challenges and unlock new opportunities.