マイクロソフト、AT&Tと複数年、数十億ドル規模のクラウド契約を獲得

AT&T CommunicationsのCEOであるJohn Donovanは、この合意はパブリッククラウドの最初の企業になるという目標に向けた大きな一歩だと述べた。Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella (left) and AT&T Communications CEO John Donovan (right). Microsoft scored a deal to provide AT&T with cloud services in support of non-network applications and the carrier’s deepening push into the cloud. The multi-year agreement is reportedly valued at more than $2 billion. The deal calls for Microsoft to be the “preferred cloud provider” for those applications as part of the carrier’s broader push toward the cloud. This includes Microsoft Azure support for AT&T as it consolidates its data center infrastructure and operations. AT&T will also provide its workforce with Microsoft’s cloud-based 365 tools. “This agreement is a huge step toward our goal of becoming a public-cloud first company,” AT&T Communications CEO John Donovan noted in a LinkedIn post, which is a convenient avenue as Microsoft owns LinkedIn. “This will reduce costs while making our business faster and more agile. On its Azure platform, we can go faster from concept to deployment for customers. And it assures us of leading-edge AI, machine learning, and security.” Donovan added that the migration of most non-network workloads to the public cloud will be completed by 2024. The carrier noted that this will allow it to “focus on core network capabilities, accelerate innovation for its customers, and empower its workforce while optimizing costs. That sentiment is similar to one struck by the carrier when it announced its SDN-based Domain 2.0 initiative in late 2013. That program was focused on gaining software-defined control of 75% of its network operations that could be controlled by software by 2020. Ed Anderson, research vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner, said the deal provides AT&T with “a means to combine its innovations in networking, including 5G, with Microsoft’s strengths in cloud and AI.” “With the emerging market opportunities in edge computing and distributed cloud, this partnership has noteworthy potential,” Anderson wrote in an email to SDxCentral. For Microsoft, the deal provides the company access to AT&T’s network capabilities. This includes its recently launched mobile 5G network that it plans to have nationwide within 12 months. It also bolsters Microsoft’s presence in the lucrative service provider space. The company is a solid No. 2 in the overall cloud infrastructure space behind industry giant Amazon Web Services (AWS), though it has managed to trump its rival in some metrics. “First, this is a good customer win for Microsoft,” Anderson noted. “Second, it’s a strong endorsement of Microsoft technologies by another strong technology company. Third, it’s a good competitive win relative to AT&T’s other choices.” Execution on the plan will also see the companies pool their resources in bringing to market integrated services targeting voice; collaboration and conferencing; intelligent edge and networking; IoT; public safety; and cybersecurity. Published reports indicate that the deal could be valued at more than $2 billion. “The announcement hints at future innovations between the two companies in areas that combine strengths from both – cloud computing and networking (including 5G),” Anderson added. The two companies have recently been working on applications and services tied to the intelligent edge and networking. This includes initial work on a test to use Microsoft Azure to bring network edge compute (NEC) capabilities into AT&T’s 5G network. An AT&T spokesman said that work “was an early stage proof-of-concept ahead of today’s more extensive, multi-year agreement.” The companies earlier this month announced that they improved network performance by upwards of 50% by deploying Microsoft’s cloud services at the edge of the network. The AT&T spokesman also explained that the deal was not exclusive, and that “AT&T will work with select cloud providers on a case-by-case basis for different needs.” AT&T earlier this week announced a multi-year deal with IBM that will see AT&T’s Business unit become IBM’s primary provider of SDN and for IBM to help AT&T improve and migrate its business applications to IBM Cloud. AT&T will also use Red Hat’s open source platform to manage workloads and collaborate with IBM on multi-cloud capabilities around 5G, edge computing, and IoT. Anderson explained that these two deals combined show “that AT&T is open to working with all technology companies and indicates AT&T’s multi-cloud approach.”