Deutsche Telekom, Huawei partner to deliver 'Open Telekom Cloud'

Deutsche Telekom is continuing to expand its leading position in the European market of cloud services. The Group signed a cooperation agreement with Huawei Technologies, under which Deutsche Telekom will deliver computing services from the public cloud. The Open Telekom Cloud is expected to be launched at CeBIT 2016.

This collaboration will allow Deutsche Telekom to enter a market segment that up to now has been dominated by its U.S. competitors. Huawei Technologies will contribute hardware and solutions expertise, while T-Systems will be in charge of operations, network, data center and cloud management at the interface to the customer.

Deutsche Telekom's network will provide reliable availability and T-Systems' certified German cloud data centers will ensure top quality and maximum security.

"More and more business customers are discovering the advantages of the public cloud, but they want a European alternative," explained Dr. Ferri Abolhassan, Director of the IT Division at T-Systems, who heads Telekom's cloud growth initiatives throughout the Group. Anette Bronder, Director of the newly found T-Systems’ Digital Division which will drive the Public Cloud business, said after the contract was signed at the Telekom headquarter: "With the Open Telekom Cloud we are now adding the right platform. It is designed to be simple, secure, and affordable."

“With T-Systems as a partner, we are looking forward to further build a strategic cooperation with one of the leading ICT providers in the world. Huawei and Deutsche Telekom can build their new cooperation on their long, close and trustful relationship,” said Shengli Wang, President of the European Region and Member of the Board of Huawei. “Open Telekom Cloud is the result of innovation and collaboration of both partners. The combined innovative power of both companies enables us to deliver together the best customer experience to our global enterprise customers.”

Trial run with some 30 customers

In the Open Telekom Cloud, small, medium-sized, and large companies can flexibly stock up on computing capacity, memory, and hard disk space at the click of a mouse. Some 30 companies of different sizes – start-ups, SMEs, and long-established corporations – have already tested the new platform extensively. The experience with, for example, the user interface or the speed of service delivery will now be incorporated into the platform's further development up until the launch.

Deutsche Telekom intends to double its revenue from the cloud for business customers by the end of 2018. Last year, revenue from cloud services rose by a significant double-digit figure at T-Systems alone. Up to now, customers have mainly used the specially secured private cloud.

Building on its market position among business customers is an important step for Deutsche Telekom towards becoming the leading telecommunications company in Europe. Business in IT and telecommunications services from the cloud is growing unabatedly and in response, the Group is constantly expanding its cloud ecosystem with technology partners who are in turn market leaders. Since 2005, Deutsche Telekom and its subsidiary T-Systems have offered secure end-to-end cloud solutions for companies of all sizes – from consulting to implementation, billing and customer service through to maintenance. Telekom's growing partner ecosystem includes solutions from SAP, Microsoft, Cisco, Salesforce, VMWare, Huawei, Oracle, SugarCRM and Informatica, and others.