A large part of AT&T’s internal workload is transferred to the IBM Cloud, reports SiliconAngle. This is a billion-dollar agreement, as has now been confirmed. The deal would be valid for several years, although it is not exactly clear what the exact time span is.
The deal involves AT&T Business Solutions, the division that offers mobile services to business customers, transferring all operational applications to the IBM Cloud. The process is expected to be accompanied by software modernization, and IBM’s expertise will therefore be used to transfer certain older workloads that cannot simply be moved directly to the cloud.
Precise content deal unknown
According to SiliconAngle, the deployment of IBM expertise means that the deal largely includes professional services. IBM specializes in this, which in turn can be a reason for AT&T to choose IBM, even though IBM is still lagging behind suppliers such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure or Google. Red Hat, the supplier of IBM-owned open-source software, will also play a role in this deal. Red Hat’s expertise is likely to give IBM a better position to operate hybrid and multi-cell networks; in addition, both companies have long been AT&T customers.
In addition to the Business Solutions division, IBM will also be active in the management of AT&T’s infrastructure, both in terms of the cloud and the on-premise physical infrastructure. In return, IBM is now using AT&T as a provider of all software-based mobile network services. The latter deal also has to do with a planned collaboration in the field of edge computing platforms, on which not much information is yet available. The only thing the companies are letting go of is that the goal is for companies to make better use of the high-speed wireless 5G infrastructure that AT&T is currently rolling out.
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