IBM and Telus are partnering to deliver new 5G and edge computing solutions across Canada.
Under the partnership, IBM will bring its Cloud Satellite solutions to Telus’ 5G edge computing platform, improving customers’ access to advanced AI and data analytics capabilities. By pairing the two, the partnership will allow enterprises to automatically deploy and manage latency-sensitive workloads, reaping the benefits of 5G, all through a single dashboard.
Targeting the hybrid cloud environment, IBM’s Cloud Satellite allows the operator to manage applications across public and private clouds anywhere. Telus’ 5G edge computing platform brings additional benefits including low latency, secure connections, and high data availability to customers across Canada.
“The power of this partnership is making a very serious move, finally, to monetize the enterprise opportunity, which is a very nascent marketplace,” said Ahmed Youssef, Partner IBM Telco Network Cloud, in an interview with IT World Canada. “So we’re taking advantage of this early move. And this in my view is the key benefit of this partnership between Telus and IBM.”
Telus, too, benefits from this partnership through the opening of a new avenue to sell to enterprises. The 5G edge computing solutions developed through this partnership will also provide a flexible way for Telus customers to integrate with public cloud solutions.
The partnership has already identified three key target industries: oil and gas, electricity, and automotive. Youssef said that conversations have already begun with key players in these sectors. Additionally, he expects it to expand into agriculture, manufacturing, and airlines.
IBM’s investment aligns with Telus’ growth verticals. The Canadian telecommunication technology company has heavily invested in the three aforementioned key industries, onboarding customers including Suncor and General Motors, to digitally transform their services using 5G edge computing. It’s also making a heavy play in digital healthcare and agriculture with services like Telus Health and Telus Agriculture.
“Telus has a very agile mode of operation, they are open to trying new technologies like mobile edge computing,” Youssef said. “So we have a very common view toward mobile edge computing and that’s in the sense that mobile edge computing… is one of the keepers of the future of telecom. And they believe in this.
“Telus is very advanced in agriculture, in digital health care, and making a stronger push toward the oil and gas [industry]. These are kind of the enterprise sectors that IBM is also interested in.”
What made Telus an especially fitting partner for IBM is its close relationship with Red Hat, which IBM had acquired for $34 billion in July 2019. All of Telus’ automation and distributed cloud is based on Red Hat’s OpenShift.
“Once we enable it once, we can redeploy it and repurpose it for other industries pretty easily thanks again to the…Red Hat OpenShift, the same platform is very easy to repurpose and redeploy with multiple clients,” Youssef explained.
Additionally, IBM Consulting will work with Telus to help it accelerate its digital transformation by adopting AI and automation.