Google Cloud targets telcos with Global Mobile Edge Cloud

Aiming to help telcos innovate and accelerate digital transformation, Google Cloud has revealed a raft of partnerships and technology releases that it says will tap into and monetise the 5G revolution.

The principal element of the Global Mobile Edge Cloud (GMEC) strategy is an alliance with leading operator AT&T to develop a portfolio of 5G edge solutions in industries such as retail, manufacturing, transportation and more to help enterprises address real-world challenges. It has also released a dedicated telecoms version of its Anthos multicloud platform and has struck partnerships with back office and operational telecoms technology firms Netcracker and Amdocs.

In making its moves, Google Cloud said it recognised that telecommunications companies continued to face pressures to digitally transform. Not only were rapid technology advancements disrupting the industry, with Google Cloud citing the rise of 5G and network-centric business models, but also new connected devices and applications have dramatically raised consumer expectations. Google Cloud said many of these disruptors also offered significant possibilities for business transformation, and that it was partnering with the telcos to tap into these opportunities.

The campaign will see Google Cloud focus on three strategic areas: helping telcos monetise 5G as a business services platform; empowering telcos to better engage their customers through data-driven experiences; and assisting telcos in improving operational efficiencies across core telecoms systems.

GMEC will aim to deliver a portfolio and marketplace of 5G solutions built jointly with telecommunications companies, an open cloud platform for developing these network-centric applications, and a global distributed edge for optimally deploying these solutions. These jointly developed solutions will be powered by AT&T’s 5G network and Google Cloud’s capabilities in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), analytics, Kubernetes and networking. They will be delivered at AT&T’s 5G edge and across a global footprint.

“We’re working with Google Cloud to deliver the next generation of cloud services,” said Mo Katibeh, executive vice-president and chief marketing officer at AT&T Business. “Combining 5G with Google Cloud’s edge compute technologies can unlock the cloud’s true potential. This work is bringing us closer to a reality where cloud and edge technologies give businesses the tools to create a whole new world of experiences for their customers.”

Anthos for Telecom, which will bring the Anthos cloud application platform to the network edge, allowing telcos to run their applications wherever it makes the most sense. Working in a similar manner to Android for mobile-centric applications, the open source Kubernetes-based Anthos for Telecom platform will provide a similar open platform for network-centric applications.

Google Cloud is also partnering with telcos to enable a global distributed edge by lighting up thousands of edge locations that are already deployed in these telecoms networks. Google Cloud is also offering its expertise in data- and AI-driven technologies to allow operators to transform their customer experiences.

The partnership with Amdocs is designed to enable communications service providers to run Amdocs’ software and services portfolio on Google Cloud, and to deliver new data analytics, site reliability engineering and 5G edge solutions to enterprise customers. As part of the Amdocs and Google Cloud joint go-to-market initiative, Amdocs is also proud to announce that Altice USA has already gone live with Amdocs data and intelligence systems on the Google Cloud. Altice USA is hoping to drive better intelligence into its core operations for enhanced customer insights and experiences.

Additionally, digital transformation solutions firm Netcracker will now deploy its digital BSS/OSS and orchestration stack on Google Cloud. This means service providers can now scale and purchase their mission-critical IT applications on demand, with access to unlimited Google Cloud resources with the claimed benefit of reducing the total cost of ownership and accelerating the availability of new services.