Amazon has partnered with Ericsson to help telecos make best use of the cloud as they adapt to a marketplace transformed by mobile networks and the internet of things (IoT).
Amazon and Ericsson announced the agreement at Mobile World Congress, the technology conference going on this week in Barcelona. Ericsson, the Swedish company that manufacturers most of the hardware-backbone on which wireless networks operates, plans to create a team focused on helping telecos around the world use the cloud. The company will also build “cloud innovation centers.”
All of the systems will, of course, run on Amazon Web Services, the companies said.
The goal is to provide an improved infrastructure whereby telcos can develop new applications around mobile, IoT and big-data analytics.
“Ericsson has always taken great ideas, industrialized them, and made them available in every country. Building upon AWS’ platform, we will drive new growth opportunities,” Anders Lindblad, Head of Business Unit Cloud for Ericsson, said in the companies’ joint statement.
Ericsson plans to dedicate a staff to focus on AWS Cloud and and will open cloud innovation centers. Some of the staffing will come from the Swedish network-equipment maker’s 25,000 R&D engineers as well as 66,000-person service workforce.
The partnership with Ericsson is another example of how AWS continues to expand.
Earlier this month, the unit announced the launch of Lumberyard, a new 3D game engine offered free-of-charge to developers. A few days later, Amazon also acquired NICE, an Italy-based software company that provides services for supercomputers.
Meanwhile, AWS’ revenues are growing. In Amazon’s fourth-quarter report, the retailer announced that AWS generated $2.4 billion in sales, a 69-percent increase from the same period last year.
