• Colt provides some backbone for IBM's 'Cloud for Telecoms'
• IBM claims it has more than 42 partners ready to provide telco cloud applications
• IBM promises 'consistent access to cloud services wherever workloads reside' - as long as it’s deployed on Cloud Satellite it’s consistent

Colt is extending its partnership with IBM to include IBM Cloud Satellite on Colt’s cloud edge platform. IBM describes its Cloud Satellite as distributed cloud built on Red Hat OpenShift (Red Hat has been a subsidiary of IBM since 2019) and IBM says the Colt deal means its customers can now deploy IBM Cloud via a Colt location that is physically closer to where their data is created and processed. This makes a major difference in the speed and deployment choices customers have as they race to drive new value at the edge.

So what’s the payoff?

Both companies claim the move will give their clients across multiple industries consistent access to cloud services wherever their workloads reside.

“So as long as it’s deployed on Cloud Satellite it’s consistent,” avers Bill Lambertson, Vice President, Cloud, 5G and Edge at IBM.

Cloud Satellite, he explains, may reside ‘on prem’, on ‘third party clouds’ and on ‘Co-Los’.

So why Colt in particular?

“Colt has the ability to launch edge with private networking from a 5G standpoint; or they might be lighting up a factory floor with private 5G; or via private networking with SD-WAN where they’re building a cloud native version of SD-WAN services and onboarding network functions.”

Colt was the ideal partner for what IBM wanted to do, Lambertson explained. “They have fibre connectivity from their edge centres so they can provide low-latency connectivity into the enterprise businesses through their SD-WAN services, and they can actually light up a factory floor with private 5G as well. So they have both capabilities.”

He added: “Colt has built out a very robust fibre backbone with the Colt IQ network, so they’re equipped. And then they have a natural ‘in’ with large customers."

IBM is very keen to tap into the emerging ‘cloud native’ telecoms market, and with its pan-European fibre network, Colt is an attractive partner. Meanwhile IBM’s long list of corporate customers makes it an attractive proposition for Colt. 

“We know Colt is an operator’s operator and many operators across Europe who have an SD-WAN service may in fact use Colt already as the underlying transport.,” Lambertson points out. 

Colt will also use IBM’s network services delivery model and engage Global IBM Business Services for integration, he says

IBM has the telecoms industry firmly in its sights and has signed new agreements with Vodafone Portugal, Telecom Egypt, Lumen Technologies and Telefonica to embrace hybrid cloud technologies. Underscoring all of this, of course, is the IBM Cloud for Telecoms, built with IBM Cloud Satellite, which, with its ecosystem of more than 42 partners, is geared up to address the needs of telcos as 5G and edge transform everything.