TIM takes a Noovle approach to cloud and the edge

• Italian national operator forms new cloud and edge services company
• Noovle focused on services for enterprise users of all sizes and types
• Builds on existing relationship with Google Cloud
• Aims for €1 billion turnover by 2024

TIM (Telecom Italia) is taking enterprise cloud services, and the role that edge computing will play in the delivery of such services, so seriously it has formed a new wholly-owned company dedicated to that part of its business.

Noovle, named after the ICT and integration services company that TIM acquired in May 2020, will develop and provide a wide range of multi-cloud services to business users (from SMEs to large multinationals), “from the management of network infrastructure in its Data Centres, to design and support services, migration to the cloud and support for the related management activities, using the most advanced technologies based on artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things.”

TIM says all the services provided by Noovle "will have security at their core."

It's worth noting, then, that the Italian national operator, in a separate development, has appointed Eugenio Santagata as the head of Telsy, its security solutions arm: Santagata will also “also act as Advisor to the Group CEO for the development and management of cybersecurity products and services.” 

Noovle’s assets will include TIM’s 17 data centres, comprising seven core data centre facilities, four service centres, and six new facilities that are yet to be built, all connected by TIM’s fibre transport network.

It also begins operations with 1,000 staff, headed up by CEO Carlo d’Asaro Biondo, who joined last April from Google to build up the operator’s cloud services and develop key industry relationships. Noovle’s Non-Executive Chairman is Mariarosaria Taddeo, Senior Research Fellow and deputy director of the Digital Ethics Lab at the Oxford Internet Institute, Oxford University.

TIM expects Noovle to grow at 20% per year hit an annual turnover of €1 billion in 2024, with earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of €400 million.

The key industry relationship underpinning Noovle’s strategy is, not surprisingly, the one with d’Asaro Biondo’s previous employer, hyperscaler Google Cloud: It was the key partner to Noovle before it was acquired by TIM and has also been the company with which TIM has been developing services and striking key cloud deals during the past year, including the one with Italian bank Intesa Sanpaolo. (See Telcos flock to Google for enterprise edge, while Google gets in on telco 5G act.)

But Noovle has namechecked other key strategic partners, namely Atos, Cisco, Citrix, Microsoft, Salesforce, SAP and VMware

- Ray Le Maistre, Editorial Director, TelecomTV