Two announcements made by AT&T yesterday could have significant impacts on its business services offerings. The first is a new, multi-year strategic relationship with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to optimize the delivery of cloud-based services, while the second is an expansion of its existing strategic partnership with IBM to make it easier for companies to set up virtual network functions (VNF) on mobile devices.
The moves aim to shore up AT&T’s position in business IT services, a sector that is increasingly becoming dominated by cloud-based offerings. Both deals should help the company maintain an important role in delivering such services to business clients.
That is particularly true for the agreement with AWS, which is designed to help both existing and new customers more efficiently migrate to and utilize the AWS Cloud with the AT&T network. The solutions are intended to span cloud networking, mobility, Internet of Things (IoT), security and analytics.
Tantalizing and Challenging
“For many enterprises, the cloud’s potential can be equal parts tantalizing and challenging. Emerging technology trends and fluctuating needs mean that a company’s plans are dynamic, and can quickly change,” said Mo Katibeh, senior vice president of Advanced Solutions at AT&T Business Solutions, in a statement. “Together, AT&T and AWS can help streamline the leap to the cloud.”
The collaboration with AWS will focus on three main business areas: business cloud networking, IoT, and threat management, according to AT&T. The two companies are already effectively working together in some of these areas. AT&T’s NetBond service, which provides businesses with high-speed, secure connections to the AWS Cloud has seen a four-fold increase in the number of connections and an eight-fold increase in traffic in the last year, the company said.
The companies said they will now be working together to optimize networking capabilities by identifying new enhancements to security, performance, and mobility.
The partnership will also involve coordinating on the introduction of AT&T IoT-connected sensors and devices preconfigured to send data into the AWS Cloud. According to AT&T, the deal will involve integration with the AT&T IoT (Internet of Things) Starter Kit and IoT Data plans to allow customers to build their own solutions using AT&T IoT and AWS IoT.
Expanding the IBM Partnership
The expansion of the company’s existing agreement with IBM, meanwhile, will focus on helping enterprises better manage their networking services. The expanded partnership will take advantage of AT&T FlexWare, a new service for managing VNFs (virtual network functions) announced this summer. FlexWare, formerly called Network Functions on Demand, features both software-defined networking and network function virtualization technologies.
Under the deal, IBM’s sales and marketing teams will extend AT&T’s reach while providing new capabilities and additional cost savings to customers. AT&T will also be able to run applications on IBM’s cloud, cognitive, analytics and security infrastructures. In addition to making this available to clients, IBM said it has started rolling out AT&T FlexWare in many of its own sites.
