Telstra claims this is one of the largest partnerships Microsoft has established with a telco provider.
The partnership aims to:
• Boost Microsoft’s connectivity and growth in Australia, with Microsoft becoming an anchor tenant on Telstra’s new ultra-fast intercity fibre network.
• Drive Telstra’s ambition to have about 90% of its applications on public cloud infrastructure by 2025, which includes Microsoft Azure as a preferred cloud partner as part of Telstra’s multi-cloud approach.
• See Telstra launch a dedicated end-to-end Microsoft practice to unlock maximum value for the organisations’ joint customers across their digital transformation journey by combining Microsoft’s cloud, edge and modern work solutions with Telstra’s network leadership and technology experts.
• Increase collaboration between Telstra and Microsoft to support hybrid ways of working and develop environmental, social and governance (ESG) initiatives.
Under the agreement, Microsoft will also explore boosting its capacity on Telstra’s Asia-Pacific subsea cable network.
Through these investments, Microsoft will be able to achieve end-to-end connectivity across key telecommunications routes in Australia and across the Asia-Pacific region.
For Microsoft, more bandwidth and reduced latency will help provide the best possible experiences for customers connecting on Microsoft Teams, businesses that rely on the cloud, and its Xbox community.
In addition, the organisations will collaborate to accelerate Telstra’s migration of its internal information technology (IT) workloads to the public cloud, which will include Microsoft Azure as a preferred cloud partner.
Microsoft will bring its expertise to help Telstra scale and meet the targets of its T25 growth strategy.
Collaborating on new product offerings and future ways of working
Telstra will also provide a new suite of digital offerings with Microsoft.
Using Microsoft technology like Azure, Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams, Telstra intends to bring to the market a series of solutions that will help transform the way businesses look at hybrid working and cloud migration.
These new digital offerings will be delivered by an end-to-end Microsoft practice within Telstra Purple, Telstra’s managed services and technology consulting business. The organisations will also continue to co-develop products that reimagine familiar experiences and merge the network and the cloud to create new offers.
For example, Telstra and Microsoft recently co-developed Branch Offload, a 5G-enabled edge computing solution for enterprises.
The solution blends Telstra’s 5G and fixed connectivity with Microsoft Azure Stack Edge for edge computing, secure edge, SD-WAN and service orchestration.
It will help more enterprise, government, and small and medium-sized business customers benefit from the combination of Microsoft’s cloud solutions with Telstra’s connectivity.
Telstra CEO Andrew Penn said the deal is aligned with Telstra’s T25 growth strategy to deliver growth, exceptional customer experiences, and continued network and technology leadership.
“As the go-to partner for Microsoft in Australia, this expanded agreement will turbocharge how we deliver compelling, all-digital experiences,” Penn said.
Microsoft chairman and CEO Satya Nadella said digital technology is foundational to the resilience of every organisation.
“Our partnership brings together Telstra’s leadership in network connectivity with the breadth and depth of the Microsoft Cloud to address key challenges, including hybrid work and sustainability, and support Australia’s growth.”
Microsoft and Telstra will work together over the coming months to finalise the detailed scope of this expanded partnership.
This first appeared in the subscription newsletter CommsWire on 27 July 2022.
