Swisscom plans to switch to the cloud platform of Amazon Web Services (AWS) for a range of applications which power its enterprise resource planning, operational support system, and analytics and contact center.
The Swiss telecom operator and AWS said in a statement they will also look to migrate Swisscom’s 5G network built on current infrastructure to a new, standalone 5G network powered by AWS’s cloud platform.
Standalone networks offer higher capacity and faster speeds which make it possible to apply new 5G use cases such as driverless cars or remote, high-fidelity medical consultations.
Telefonica has also been working with AWS in Brazil to deploy a standalone 5G core network. AWS is working with an increasing number of telecom operators, including Verizon, Vodafone and Dish Network.
AWS is looking to open data centres in Zurich, allowing Swisscom to process customer data in the country and deliver real-time services with low latency.
Swisscom plans to explore new customer experiences using machine learning and AI features from AWS for its TV and online services.
The initial work would centre around enterprise IT, and then both companies will work with Ericsson to explore how to build the 5G core network on the cloud.
Swisscom is the largest telecoms company in Switzerland and one of the country’s leading IT services providers.
Swisscom aims to reduce complexity, gain greater efficiency, and scale on demand to seamlessly deliver new innovations for its customers by transforming parts of its internal IT on AWS.
Swisscom will use AWS’s analytics, machine learning, containers, database, and storage services to modernize its applications. Swisscom engineers and developers will be able to automate hardware provisioning, database setup, patching, and backups, as well as deploy new applications in minutes.
Swisscom will use AWS’s advanced analytics offerings, such as Amazon Kinesis for scalable and durable real-time data streaming. The company will leverage AWS Glue for a serverless data integration service that makes it easy to discover, prepare, and combine data for analytics, machine learning, and application development, as well as Amazon Redshift for data warehousing.
By moving to an AWS-powered Data Mesh, Swisscom engineers can use the tools and interface that best suit each project, negate the cost and overhead of legacy solutions, and accelerate the time to market for new digital products, such as TV and online services that leverage AWS machine learning to deliver greater personalization.
Swisscom will also explore migrating from a 5G network built on current infrastructure to a new standalone 5G network powered by a cloud-native 5G Core—the architecture that aggregates and directs traffic flow across the network.
Swisscom’s 5G Core will run on a hybrid cloud infrastructure with Swisscom infrastructure, AWS Outposts, and in the AWS Europe (Zurich) Region launching in 2022. Running the planned cloud-native 5G Core will enable Swisscom to reduce operating costs, by virtualizing and automating network functions, and accelerate deployment of new features and applications to customers.
Christoph Aeschlimann, CTIO of Swisscom, said: “Leveraging AWS, we are able to quickly build and run the applications that underpin our organization with low latency, reliability, and scalability, while meeting security and compliance requirements.”
