By Aduragbemi Omiyale
A partnership aimed to help communications service providers (CSPs) to digitally transform and unlock new enterprise and consumer use cases through the development of 5G and Edge solutions has been entered into between Google Cloud and Ericsson.
As part of the deal, Google Cloud and Ericsson are also piloting enterprise applications at the edge on a live network with TIM.
The project, which will automate the functions of TIM’s core 5G network and cloud-based applications, will use TIM’s Telco Cloud infrastructure, Google Cloud solutions and Ericsson’s 5G core network and orchestration technologies.
The joint offerings will help enterprises in the automotive, transportation, manufacturing and other sectors improve efficiencies and lower latency by bringing connectivity close to companies’ physical locations.
Globally, industries with edge presences – including communication service providers, retailers, manufacturers, transport businesses, healthcare and media/entertainment providers – face pressures to build more digitized businesses and new digital experiences for their customers.
To help businesses address this shift, Google Cloud and Ericsson are working together to develop new solutions at Ericsson’s Silicon Valley D-15 Labs, a state-of-the-art innovation centre where advanced solutions and technologies can be developed and tested on a live, multi-layers 5G platform.
Ericsson and Google Cloud have already completed functional onboarding of Ericsson 5G on Anthos to enable telco edge and on-premise use cases for CSPs and enterprises.
“Organizations have a tremendous opportunity to digitally transform their businesses with 5G and cloud capabilities like artificial intelligence and machine learning at the edge.
“We are proud to partner with Ericsson to help build a foundation for communications service providers and enterprises alike to take advantage of cloud technology and cloud-native services, from the telecom network core to the edge and enterprise premises,” the CEO of Google Cloud, Thomas Kurian, said.
Also commenting, the President and Head of Ericsson North America, Niklas Heuveldop, stated that, “5G is a powerful innovation platform. Combined with edge cloud capabilities, 5G has the potential to accelerate the digital transformation of virtually any sector of industry or society.
“We are excited about our partnership with Google Cloud as we engage with our customers to leverage our combined capabilities to solve real-world business challenges for the benefit of consumers, enterprises and society at large.”
Ericsson and Google previously formed a services partnership to enable the digital transformation of operator networks and application migration through cloud-native, container-based solutions.
Adedapo Adesanya 
Modupe Gbadeyanka