Nokia and IBM enable 5G cloud solutions for enterprises

Nokia and IBM collaborate to enable telco grade 5G connectivity and edge cloud applications for enterprise customers at any location.

The confluence of 5G, Edge, cloud and AI technologies are creating new significant enterprise business and revenue opportunities for the mobile industry. Flexible and scalable solutions are needed to fully deliver on the 5G promise and to unlock the value of edge cloud applications for a wide range of use cases from industrial automation to delivering new AR/VR based Industry 4.0 experiences.

By combining the speed and latency benefits of 5G Cloud RAN with on-premises implementation of public cloud services, new use cases can be designed and delivered cost-efficiently and on-demand.

We have a long history of cooperation with IBM to support enterprise customers. In 2020, we extended the partnership to IBM Cloud technology and services. Now, we are combining the benefits of our 5G Cloud RAN with IBM’s hybrid cloud platform, including IBM Cloud Satellite.

Building on our long-term collaboration, we integrated IBM’s hybrid cloud capabilities with Nokia AirScale Cloud RAN software and AirFrame Open Edge hardware platform. At our 5G Standalone (SA) end-to-end test lab in Espoo, Finland, we completed a 5G layer 3 call with the following setup for the verification:

• The cloud-native Central Unit (CU) and Distributed Unit (DU) of Nokia 5G Cloud RAN running on IBM Cloud Red Hat OpenShift Kubernetes Service (ROKS) utilizing Nokia’s Open Edge hardware platform.
• Additionally, the team certified Nokia’s Open Edge hardware platform for the deployment of IBM Cloud Satellite.

Through these developments, IBM and Nokia can deliver telco grade 5G connectivity on a hybrid cloud platform to enterprise customers. Customers can now quickly deploy edge-enabled Industry 4.0 applications on IBM ROKS, unlocking the benefits of a fully managed, scalable cloud-native infrastructure that addresses new demands for network and edge. Enterprises can benefit from secure, low-latency services enabled by the high available 5G Cloud RAN, as well as the ability to process data at the point where it is collected. An integrated solution makes the deployment easy for customers and reduces time-to-market for advanced services.

For example, consider a manufacturing organization that runs safety monitoring equipment, machines and ERP systems for predictive analytics and inventory control. Reliable network connectivity without disruptive outages is a must to safeguard revenue, TCO, and the safety of employees. Through Nokia 5G Standalone Cloud RAN solution and IBM’s technology integration, manufacturing organizations can leverage hybrid cloud technology to make their networks faster, secure and always reliable, building trust with customers, employees and investors.  

Nokia Cloud RAN drives the next level of network agility for both enterprises and mobile network operators. Together with IBM, we will support customers who want to offer mobile private networks, cloud-based services and edge cloud applications for large enterprises and across industries, including transportation, logistics and manufacturing.