Nokia Oyj (NYSE:NOK) has entered a five-year strategic collaboration with Alphabet Inc.’s (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google Cloud for the transformation of its digital infrastructure.
Nokia to shift service to the cloud
The collaboration will see Nokia shift from the less efficient on-premise servers and data centers as well as software applications onto Google Cloud. Nokia currently owns and rents data centers across countries that it has accumulated from acquisitions. The collaboration is a reflection of the operational shift of Nokia into a cloud-first IT strategy. It also shows the company’s aggressive efforts to strengthen and transform daily operations worldwide to expand innovation and collaboration capabilities to serve clients better.
This deal will drive significant cost savings and operational efficiencies over time because of the reduction of hardware energy consumption, real estate footprint, as well as hardware capacity acquisition needs.
The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but according to the terms of the agreement, Nokia is expected to leverage various Google Cloud professional services and products. Google Cloud and Nokia have collaborated in recent months to design a highly tailored migration approach that will let Nokia shift from the IT data centers and servers quickly. Simultaneously, the approach will help reduce business impact and set a strong foundation going forward. Google Cloud is expected to deploy engineers, solutions specialists, and strategic systems integrators to ensure smooth migration.
Nokia battling it out in 5G development
Nokia, which was once a popular phone maker, is currently focused on developing 5G network equipment. Its new CEO, Pekka Laundmark is out to battle for the 5G market with China’s Huawei Technologies Co. and Sweden’s Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC).
Google Cloud offers rapid deployment, availability, and agility because of its networking, computing, and storage solutions. Rob Enslin, the President of Google Cloud, said they are delighted to work with Nokia to migrate its infrastructure to the cloud. He added that they will deliver their data analytics, networking, ML/AI, and other solutions to help Nokia achieve its cloud-first strategy.