Orange Business Services is collaborating with Accenture to support large enterprises with their cloud strategy and the transformation of their infrastructure and applications to cloud-based models. Work will start in France before expanding to include companies in other European countries where Accenture does not have pre-existing alliances with other telcos.

The idea is to help large enterprises define their cloud strategy, transform their traditional IT infrastructure into a cloud-based model (either private or public) and migrate and manage their applications on a cloud-based infrastructure. Orange Business Services will provide enterprises with the telco’s end-to-end cloud infrastructure (IaaS) and its associated managed services.

“Cloud transformation is not just about transferring infrastructure and applications to the cloud,” said Philippe Laplane, Head of Orange Cloud for Business. “Each company’s IT legacy and strategy is unique. This is why they need customised support to make the right technology choices, to define their migration processes and pace and then manage their new cloud infrastructure.”

Accenture will utilise its industry experience in business planning, implementation and management to help clients take advantage of cloud services to improve IT and business agility.

“Every business is a digital business, and enterprises need a game plan to use cloud computing to their advantage,” said Gary Heffernan, senior managing director, Accenture’s Communications, Media & Technology Group. “Cloud underpins mobility, analytics, big data, social media and more.”

Orange Business Services says it has “thousands of enterprise customers” and 1.4 million mobile data users across 220 countries and territories, with local support in 166.