• Nokia opens Global Cloud Design Center in the UK dedicated to leveraging IT and telco multi-vendor cloud capabilities

• New Prime Integration Service draws on expertise for design and deployment of tailored multi-vendor cloud networks

• Launch of 'cloud wise care services' to provide software validation and testing and comprehensive cloud monitoring services using Nokia's global expertise

• Transformation Consulting Framework extended to support operators' evolution to 5G and IoT

Espoo, Finland - Nokia is to simplify the design, delivery and management of operators' multi-vendor cloud networks with the opening of a dedicated global Cloud Design Center and the extension of its 'cloud wise services' expertise.

The move towards the cloud promises new agility and flexibility for operators. Nokia is now extending these benefits to the implementation and management of a multi-vendor cloud. At its new Cloud Design Center in Fleet in the United Kingdom, Nokia will leverage its expertise in network design and systems integration as well as its extensive cloud partnership ecosystem.

Nokia is launching Prime Integration Services , under which it will act as the single point of contact, working in a development and operations (DevOps) based approach, to design and build open, standardized multi-vendor cloud networks tailored to meet operators' specific needs. Nokia will showcase these capabilities at the Design Center in Fleet, which incorporates an integrated multi-vendor IT and telco cloud platform upon which Nokia will test, validate and demonstrate new services. The delivery of the cloud will be managed at various regional centers.

Along with the Cloud Design Center, Nokia has also launched its new ' cloud wise care services ', providing:

• Care software validation and testing services tailored to an operator's network environment to ensure network quality is maintained and customers are not impacted during upgrades.

• Cloud monitoring services, offering a comprehensive package of network monitoring, analytics and troubleshooting from the Nokia Global Delivery Centers or by providing a cloud 'expert as a service' at the operator's premises.

Nokia is also extending its previously announced Cloud Transformation Consulting Service to include all aspects of a virtualized network and deliver a structured end-to-end cloud transformation that will also prepare operators for the evolution to 5G and IoT.

Chris Antlitz, telecom senior analyst, Technology Business Research, said:

"Operators' migration to software-mediated technologies delivered within cloud-centric environments is a radical change from the way networks have been architected and provisioned historically, and this shift requires new competencies and support models. Nokia's new cloud-related services, therefore, fill a critical need in the market."

Deepak Harie, head of Systems Integration Services at Nokia, said :

"The level of complexity in an operator's network is increasing as new technology, services and software are introduced. Nokia has a long history of systems integration and deep network services expertise. In addition, we are investing in IT, cloud and data center capabilities to address the challenges for operators as they deploy and manage their cloud networks and to prepare them for the evolution to IoT and 5G.