Dell, Nokia team to advance network cloud transformation, private 5G

Dell Technologies and Nokia have committed to each other’s expertise and services to advance open network architectures in the telecom ecosystem, and quickly scale modern telecom networks and private 5G use cases among businesses.

As part of the agreement, including infrastructure services and private wireless connectivity, Nokia will adopt Dell as its preferred infrastructure partner for existing Nokia AirFrame customers, offering Dell’s technology as the infrastructure of choice for telecom cloud deployments.

Nokia and Dell will also help transition existing AirFrame customers over time to Dell’s broad infrastructure portfolio, including Dell PowerEdge servers, purpose-built for modern telecom network workloads from core to edge to radio access network.

Building on existing research and development efforts around core network functions, the two companies will collaborate on platform and application testing and lifecycle management in the Dell Open Telecom Ecosystem Lab.

Dell and Nokia plan to certify workloads on Dell Telecom Infrastructure Blocks that support Nokia Cloud offerings, while also continuing to collaborate on original equipment manufacturer engagements.

In addition, the Nokia Digital Automation Cloud (NDAC) private wireless service will become Dell’s preferred private wireless platform for enterprise customers’ edge use cases.

The companies will work together to integrate Nokia’s NDAC offering with Dell NativeEdge, the edge operations software platform, to provide what the firms have assured will be a “comprehensive” scalable service for enterprises.

Dennis Hoffman, senior vice-president and general manager of the Telecom Systems Business at Dell Technologies, said: “Through our collaboration, Nokia and Dell Technologies will harness each company’s expertise and expanded distribution. With our decades of digital transformation experience, we’re ready to work together with Nokia’s customers to continue their network cloud transformation journey on the industry’s top-selling compute platform.”

Nokia chief strategy and technology officer Nishant Batra added: “Dell’s digital transformation expertise and global scale, services and support will provide a seamless transition option for Nokia AirFrame customers, and Nokia’s vast experience in the design, deployment and operation of high-performance public and private mobile networks will provide Dell’s customers with a comprehensive, scalable private wireless solution.

“In line with our technology strategy, our continued collaboration with Dell will help address the future needs of our customers brought on by the increasing demands on networks and provide solutions to help communications service providers scale modern networks to the cloud.”