Telecom company Nokia and Google Cloud have announced a five-year strategic collaboration that will see Nokia move its on-site IT infrastructure to Google Cloud
Nokia will migrate its data centres and servers around the world, as well as various software applications, to the Google Cloud infrastructure.
The deal reflects Nokia’s significant operational shift to a cloud-first IT strategy and its aggressive efforts to strengthen and transform its digital operations globally in order to expand the collaboration and innovation capabilities of Nokia employees and enhance its delivery to customers.
Under the agreement, the terms of which have not been disclosed, Nokia will use a suite of Google Cloud products and professional services. Over the past few months, Nokia and Google Cloud have worked together to develop a highly customised migration approach that will allow Nokia to exit its IT data centres on a timely basis while minimising business impact and laying a strong foundation for the future. Google Cloud will deploy strategic systems integrators, solutions specialists, and engineers to ensure a stable migration.
Google Cloud’s extensive infrastructure-as-a-service portfolio of compute, networking, and storage solutions offers agility, rapid development, and availability. These capabilities will accelerate cost optimisation, efficiency, and operational reliability for Nokia.
Nokia’s infrastructure and applications will run in the public cloud or in a Software-as-a-Service model going forward. Migration has begun and is expected to be extended over an 18-to 24-month period.
Rob Enslin, president at Google Cloud, said, “We're excited to help Nokia refurbish its IT infrastructure with our backbone network and our approach to data security through advanced software-defined networking. We look forward to providing a full menu of our capabilities to help Nokia deliver on its cloud-first strategy and meet its performance requirements.”
Ravi Parmasad, vice-president Global IT Infrastructure at Nokia, stated, “Nokia is on a digital transformation path that is about radically changing how we operate and do business. This is crucial to how our employees work together so that we continue to raise the bar to meet the needs of our customers.
“We are very pleased that Google Cloud, with its engineering and operational excellence, is joining our transformation work to help us meet the many goals we have set. Given Nokia's digital ambitions and plans, this is the ideal time for Nokia to take this step with Google Cloud to accelerate our efforts; and to do all this in a secure and scalable manner.”
