Ericsson and Telstra take enterprise cloud to the edge

Ericsson and Telstra are to collaborate on developing an enterprise edge cloud solution developed specifically for the Australian operator’s domain. They hope to unlock new potential enterprise use cases in sectors such as agriculture, industrial internet of things (IoT), enterprise branch services and smart cities.

The partnership is designed to help drive innovation across industries by developing technology to enable efficient orchestration, network exposure and service assurance. These capabilities will help make consumption-based interfaces between cloud providers and the Telstra network possible. With agile, enterprise-tuned network services across its network, Telstra says it will be able to promote enhanced services for enterprise customers.

The new enterprise edge cloud solution is expected to be delivered within months and will be presented as a catalyst for the development of a reusable and open framework. With this solution, the Telstra network will be offered as catering for “unique” customer needs, where network services can be offered either on the edge or on-premise.

The collaboration builds on the 2019 announcement between Ericsson, Telstra and an Australian financial institution to trial 5G edge computing technologies for the financial services sector. Other potential enterprise use cases envisaged will encompass agriculture, industrial IoT, enterprise branch connectivity services and smart cities. Ericsson and Telstra say they will continue to explore solutions for various industries over the coming months.

They say these industries will benefit from repeatable design and orchestration of edge computing’s foundational capabilities for use cases with high requirements on scalability, security, availability, low latency and bandwidth.

Emilio Romeo, head of Ericsson Australia and New Zealand, said: “With this extended partnership with Telstra into enterprise edge cloud, we continue to push the boundaries of technological innovation, bringing the benefits of 5G and edge to enterprises, while supporting Telstra to create new services across its network.”

Nikos Katinakis, executive at Telstra Group Networks & IT, added: “We are pleased to be working with Ericsson to develop this enterprise edge cloud solution. This is a natural progression from last year’s trial around 5G edge computing and will serve as a framework for us to bring the benefits of 5G to the hands of Australians. It also paves the way for future use cases in other industries, such as agriculture and manufacturing.

“As the 5G roll-out continues across Australia, harnessing edge computing will enable us to tap into the potential of 5G technology, ensuring that Australia and our customers remain at the cutting edge of mobile technology.”