Dell and Ericsson Form Strategic Partnership to Accelerate Cloud Transformation

Dell Technologies and Ericsson have announced a strategic partnership to combine their industry expertise with telecom software, solutions and support, to guide communications service providers (CSPs) through their radio access network (RAN) cloud transformation journeys.

“Communications service providers have a crucial window of opportunity to lay the foundation for network cloud transformation and drive business growth,” said Dennis Hoffman, senior vice president and general manager for the Telecom Systems Business at Dell Technologies. “Our collaboration with Ericsson, combined with our decades of digital transformation expertise, will provide network operators the full plan and technologies they need to accelerate their network and operation transformations to positively impact the trajectory of their businesses.”

Dell and Ericsson plan to collaborate on the development of tailored network cloud transformation plans and advise CSPs on network architectures and operating models, while also reducing the risks associated with deploying on open, multi-vendor environments. The two companies also plan to co-create solutions that drive energy efficiencies and innovate on Cloud RAN infrastructure operations, and co-develop services that simplify the deployment process.

The solution will offer continuous integration testing and lifecycle management to speed deployment and de-risk day-2 operations around updates and upgrades, with Dell as a solution partner.

Last year, Ericsson and Dell Technologies began a collaboration to develop Cloud RAN solutions, leveraging Ericsson Cloud RAN software and RAN equipment paired with Dell Technologies infrastructure, with the common goal of broadening the ecosystem and bringing more flexibility to customers.

“Working closer with Dell Technologies will help further develop cloud-native programmable networks that bring new ideas and practices to the telecom market,” says Fredrik Jejdling, Executive Vice President and Head of Business Area Networks at Ericsson. “The cloud-native network will enable frequent updates and the rollout of new features using continuous deployment. It will ease the adoption of Cloud RAN technologies and prepare both companies’ portfolios for new markets.”

Channel Impact^®
CSPs are looking to network cloud and operations transformation to achieve improved economics and agility, while maintaining network reliability. However, many CSPs say their network transformation vision is lagging due to a variety of factors including limited time and budget, as well as reliability and security concerns. Dell and Ericsson’s partnership aims to address these concerns by working alongside CSPs to develop simple and reliable Open RAN-based network cloud transformation strategies.