HCL Technologies has announced the opening of a centre of excellence (CoE) with IBM. This CoE will help communication service providers (CSPs) modernise their network infrastructure, transform service delivery and simplify operations. The centre is a virtual hub to develop offerings designed to help telco clients transform their networks, including telco core, virtualized radio access networks (vRAN), open radio access networks (O-RAN), private networks, edge modernisation and 5G labs. HCL Technologies will also leverage and deploy products in Telco Network Automation like HCL SoFy, HCL ANA (augmented network automation), Actian, HCL BigFix, DRYiCE MyCloud to further accelerate network performance and streamline the transformation process for clients.
As part of this initiative, HCL Technologies will establish an IBM Telco Initiative Practice team to develop network outsourcing and modernisation solutions using IBM’s open hybrid cloud approach. This includes the IBM Cloud for telecommunications, an open, hybrid-cloud architecture built on IBM Cloud Satellite and leveraging Red Hat OpenShift – to meet the requirements of the telco industry. HCL Technologies and IBM will also collaborate to integrate associated IBM Cloud technology such as IBM Cloud Pak for network automation, IBM Cloud Pak for Watson AIOps and IBM Edge Application Manager into HCL Telco offerings and industry solutions.
Commenting on the development, Kalyan Kumar, chief technology officer and head, Ecosystems, HCL Technologies, said, “Our joint solutions will be designed to help telecom players accelerate the modernisation of their network infrastructure. This is not only about automation; CSPs can build their cloud platform and bring much-needed flexibility to their network functions. Along with IBM, we are looking to help accelerate the transition to 5G, drawing on our service excellence and unmatched domain expertise to develop end-to-end transformation solutions.”
An IBM Institute for Business Value study titled “The end of communications services as we know them” found that among the 500 global telecom executives surveyed, 50 percent of high-performing CSPs agreed they must become strategic cloud platforms blending diverse partner ecosystems. HCL Technologies and IBM will provide clients with education and skills development, design and planning support, and technical assets to implement IBM Telco technologies.
Meanwhile, Inhi Cho Suh, general manager, Strategic Partnerships, IBM, said, “The centre of excellence for telecommunications aims to combine HCL Technologies’ deep industry experience and IBM’s open hybrid cloud approach to provide much-needed technical resources and support for clients in the industry. By growing our alliances with ecosystem partners such as HCL, we are seeking to bring solutions for companies in regulated industries to help modernise their operations through accelerated cloud adoption.”
HCL Technologies is part of IBM’s partner ecosystem collaborating on the IBM Cloud for telecommunications to help network equipment providers, independent software vendors, software-as-a-service providers, and hardware partners accelerate business transformation by unlocking the power of 5G and edge.
