China Unicom and Telefónica sign a global agreement to exchange data center capabilities driving enhanced value for multinational clients

Madrid/Beijing, 28 September 2015 – Telefónica and China Unicom have agreed to share their international data center capabilities as a first step towards broader and larger scale cloud cooperation. Initially the agreement will focus on three major data centers from each operator with the inclusion of additional facilities over time. The cooperation across the cloud computing service segment will include among others IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) with virtual servers and multi-cloud solutions. These additional initiatives are designed to further enhance the global capabilities of both companies.

Specifically, China Unicom’s customers will be able to benefit from Telefónica’s three world leading main data centers located in Brazil (Sao Paulo), USA (Miami) and Spain (Alcalá de Henares in Madrid). This will be further enhanced as Telefónica commits additional investment towards new infrastructure, facilities and multi-cloud solutions. Conversely, Telefónica will be able to leverage the robust cloud capabilities of China Unicom’s data centers located across China in Langfang, Shanghai and Chongqing to enable end-to-end service delivery for its multinational customers

Combining strong service capabilities and comprehensive data center facilities enables both organisations to fully address their respective markets in contrast to a standalone approach. The benefits this delivers include more efficient aggregation, easier sharing of data, opportunities to develop common data platforms and foster global collaboration plus the ability to leverage economies of scale. Importantly, both companies bring many unique attributes to the agreement, creating a win-win combination.

Telefónica has over 10 years’ experience in the construction and design of data processing centers, all built to meet ISO 20000 certifications that recognise the implementation of best practices and continuous improvement within the scope of housing services. China Unicom’s customers will now have access to first-rate infrastructure and efficiencies derived from having no new build requirements.

Pooling expertise in this way also allows for greater flexibility and the capacity to draw from technology innovation without the need to recruit new technicians or provide additional training to staff due to the in-built access to specialised levels of resources and IT skillsets.

Collaboration of this kind also frees up resources for strategic tasks that are more valuable to enterprises and multinationals. Furthermore, customers can rest assured of the contractual service quality and use of industry best practices from a world leading and established service provider.

China Unicom’s data center product is a combination of two types of classic services from its global solutions portfolio which includes secure housing of equipment; computing, storage, network servers operating space; power, HVAC and other core environment support.

It also provides international connectivity services including VPN, MPLS and Global LAN. Furthermore, Internet access for customers’ servers can be offered as an option to the standard service.

Every China Unicom Point of Presence where this combined data center product is available meets strict essential service level requirements including the availability of ‘meet me’ room services. Similarly if a customer requires a neutral connection point in order to secure local connectivity -including last mile- to reach the office of their final customers in the country where the colocation service is available as well as ‘hands and eyes’ service for customers’ equipment.