Ericsson and Canonical partner to drive cloud innovation

• Three-year partnership to support industry with proven cloud technology and drive cloud innovation
• Innovation around OPNFV (NFV/VNF) and IT cloud
• Ericsson to deploy Ubuntu Server OS as Host OS for Cloud offering

Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, today announced a three year partnership with Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC), a world leader in communications technology and services, to drive innovation around IT cloud and telecom cloud solutions, the latter in line with OPNFV. The move will help both organizations respond to increasing demand from telecoms companies and enterprises for more flexible, scalable options to meet the ever-growing appetite for new services.

Under the terms of the partnership, Ericsson will deploy Ubuntu as the host OS for Ericsson’s Cloud System platform. Ubuntu Server OS will underpin Ericsson’s offering for its telecommunications network, internal data center and cloud computing customers; giving customers the choice and flexibility they’ve been waiting for, and assisting the global adoption of OpenStack-based cloud technologies.

Communication companies are exploring the benefits open source-based clouds can bring to NFV (Network Function Virtualization) projects. Recent studies have shown that 90+ percent of telecommunications operators plan to deploy NFV to modernize the way telecommunications networks are built and operated.

OPNFV has established itself as the platform of choice for NFV workloads. Currently, Ericsson networks bear 40 per cent of the world’s mobile traffic and connect more than 2.5 billion subscribers globally. The focus of OPNFV is to reduce the estate of hardware platforms in order to dramatically reduce operational expenses, reduce power usage, and create greater flexibility to grow or scale-down to better mitigate market volatility.

According to Ericsson, the partnership will enable them to meet these goals while helping customers bring exciting new services to market more quickly.

Ericsson chose Ubuntu Server OS as the host OS for its Cloud Execution Environment, a core component of the company’s cloud infrastructure, based on Ubuntu’s demonstrated leadership, innovation, and performance as the market’s number one choice for scale-out cloud platforms.   The partnership will see Ericsson capitalise on its world class domain expertise and extensive global experience in telecommunications, combined with Canonical’s Ubuntu Server OS, cloud and open source expertise.

Magnus Furustam, Vice President and Head of Product Area Cloud Systems at Ericsson said: “Cloud Platforms for the network have to be secure, resilient, robust and high performing. Partnering with Canonical for carrier-grade operating systems provides an opportunity for innovation to meet stringent telecom requirements in these areas.”

The alliance will help both telco’s and IT enterprise data centers embrace cloud computing with a high performing open source solution. Working together, Ericsson and Canonical plan to align engineering, product, and go-to-market efforts to drive the adoption of OPNFV and OpenStack based cloud technologies broadly across both telecommunication providers, where support for NFV implementations is critical, and large enterprises that are seeking to deploy the latest cloud and virtualization technologies.

John Zannos, VP Cloud Alliances at Canonical said: “Ericsson’s experience in telecommunications and enterprise means we can innovate together around the next generation of cloud solutions for the network. Companies are struggling to automate, reuse and simplify the deployment of applications and services on clouds, our Partnership with Ericsson will work to help customers overcome these challenges.

Ericsson is a critical partner to help bring Ubuntu, cloud and NFV solutions to both our customers.”

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About Canonical:

Ubuntu is the leading OS for cloud, scale-out and ARM-based hyperscale computing featuring the fastest, most secure hypervisors, as well as the latest in container technology with LXC and Docker. Ubuntu is also the world’s most popular operating system for OpenStack. Over 80% of the large-scale OpenStack deployments today are on Ubuntu

About Ericsson:

Ericsson is the driving force behind the Networked Society – a world leader in communications technology and services. Our long-term relationships with every major telecom operator in the world allow people, business and society to fulfill their potential and create a more sustainable future. Our services, software and infrastructure – especially in mobility, broadband and the cloud – are enabling the telecom industry and other sectors to do better business, increase efficiency, improve the user experience and capture new opportunities.

With approximately 115,000 professionals and customers in 180 countries, we combine global scale with technology and services leadership. We support networks that connect more than 2.5 billion subscribers. Forty percent of the world’s mobile traffic is carried over Ericsson networks. And our investments in research and development ensure that our solutions – and our customers – stay in front.

Founded in 1876, Ericsson has its headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden. Net sales in 2014 were SEK 228.0 billion (USD 33.1 billion). Ericsson is listed on NASDAQ OMX stock exchange in Stockholm and the NASDAQ in New York.