IBM and AT&T partnership on building 5G-powered hybrid cloud initiative

Nov. 9, 2020, 1:46 p.m.

TL;DR

In a historic collaboration initiative, IBM and AT&T announced their partnership on building a hybrid cloud that’ll be powered by 5G. The idea here is to use the 5G power provided by AT&T to manage applications hosted in a hybrid cloud architecture using the IBM Cloud Satellite. The key benefits for organizations being introduced using this partnership are ease and convenience of application management, enhanced user experience and cybersecurity.

AT&T’s 5G networks will be deployed in IBM’s Thomas J Watson Research Center where the development and implementation of this technology will take place.

Key Facts

1
According to a report by Gartner, it’s expected that 75% of enterprise-level data will be processed in non-traditional data centers. One such non-traditional data center is going to be cloud infrastructures.
2
IBM and AT&T aim to jointly speed up these digital journeys for businesses by making use of two top-notch emerging technologies - 5G networks and edge computing.
3
5G networks offer users, not just high-speed Internet but also stunning benefits such as low latency in the wireless networks and high bandwidth.
4
As security demands continue to increase with every passing year, IBM aims to add multiple layers of security to this partnership by making use of their encryption methods.
5
Via this partnership, users will be provided with a single dashboard that’ll help them manage multiple services across a multitude of clouds and edge devices. The added features to this user-friendly dashboard are enhanced reliability and security.
6
AT&T’s 5G networks will be deployed in IBM’s Thomas J Watson Research Center where the development and implementation of this technology will take place.

Details

While digital reinventions and transformations were underway, the delivery of these technologies wasn’t expected to take place several years down the lane. The global pandemic has forced businesses and other organizations to shift to an on-the-fly virtual work environment faster than we could have imagined before. This is where AT&T and IBM plan on working together and bringing forth a transforming technology.

The industries that look at enjoying the best benefits from this partnership are healthcare, manufacturing, retail and banking, and finance. It’s also expected for the data processed thereafter to be utilized by AI, machine learning, and natural language processing in providing the businesses intelligent workflows and actionable insights.

The convergence of 5G and edge computing, driven by this alliance of IBM and AT&T, can help ensure that businesses capture the opportunity to thrive in this new era.
Howard Boville
Senior Vice President, IBM Hybrid Cloud