ARMONK, N.Y. and DALLAS, July 16,
2019 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) and AT&T
(NYSE: T) today announced a multi-year strategic alliance. Under
the agreement AT&T Communications will use IBM's expertise to
modernize AT&T Business Solutions' internal software
applications, enabling migrations to the IBM Cloud. In addition,
IBM will provide infrastructure to support AT&T Business's
applications. AT&T Business will utilize Red Hat's open source
platform to manage workloads and applications. The improvements
will allow AT&T Business to better serve enterprise
customers.
IBM will also make AT&T Business its primary provider of
software defined networking. AT&T Business will help transform
IBM's networking solutions with their latest technologies including
5G, Edge Compute, and IOT as well as multi-cloud capabilities using
Red Hat. This builds on the existing relationship where AT&T
Business is IBM's strategic global networking provider.
"In AT&T Business, we're constantly evolving to better serve
business customers around the globe by securely connecting them to
the digital capabilities they need," said Thaddeus Arroyo, CEO of AT&T Business. "This
includes optimizing our core operations and modernizing our
internal business applications to accelerate innovation. Through
our collaboration with IBM, we're adopting open, flexible, cloud
technologies, that will ultimately help accelerate our
business leadership."
IBM will be the primary developer and cloud provider for
AT&T Business's operational applications and will help manage
the AT&T Communications IT infrastructure, on and off-premises
and across different clouds –private and public. This
approach will enable AT&T Business to build and deploy internal
application workloads, and deliver new, innovative services.
The two companies will also collaborate on edge computing
platforms, which will help enterprise clients capitalize on the
power of 5G network speeds and the internet-connected devices and
sensors at the edge of the network. Using 5G, enterprises will one
day be able to rapidly transmit data to and from multiple clouds
and billions of edge devices with increased reliability and
security, reduced latency and dramatic improvements in bandwidth.
This will eventually help businesses transform the user experience
for their customers and optimize processes across industries from
retail to financial services, transportation to manufacturing, to
healthcare and beyond.
AT&T Business has a strong commitment to utilizing open
source technologies. As part of the relationship, AT&T Business
will continue to use Red Hat's open source platform to manage the
workloads associated with AT&T Business's internal
applications. On the heels of IBM's recent Red Hat acquisition,
AT&T Business will have even greater access to Red Hat
Enterprise Linux and OpenShift platforms as the foundation for
workload portability and interoperability across any vendor's
cloud, on or off premises.
"Building on IBM's 20-year relationship with AT&T, today's
agreement is another major step forward in delivering flexibility
to AT&T Business so it can provide IBM and its customers with
innovative services at a faster pace than ever before," said
Arvind Krishna, Senior Vice
President, Cloud and Cognitive Software, IBM. "We are proud to
collaborate with AT&T Business, provide the scale and
performance of our global footprint of cloud data centers, and
deliver a common environment on which they can build once and
deploy in any one of the appropriate footprints to be faster and
more agile."
The agreement between IBM and AT&T was signed in IBM's Q2,
2019.
Cautionary Language Concerning Forward-Looking
Statements
Information set forth in this news release
contains financial estimates and other forward-looking statements
that are subject to risks and uncertainties, and actual results
might differ materially. A discussion of factors that may affect
future results is contained in AT&T's filings with the
Securities and Exchange Commission. AT&T disclaims any
obligation to update and revise statements contained in this news
release based on new information or otherwise.
This news release may contain certain non-GAAP financial
measures. Reconciliations between the non-GAAP financial measures
and the GAAP financial measures are available on the AT&T
website at https://investors.att.com.
About IBM
For more information about IBM, visit
https://www.ibm.com.
*About AT&T Communications
We help family, friends
and neighbors connect in meaningful ways every day. From the first
phone call 140+ years ago to mobile video streaming, we innovate to
improve lives. We have the nation's fastest wireless network.** And
according to America's biggest test, we have the nation's best
wireless network.*** We're building FirstNet just for first
responders and creating next-generation mobile 5G. With DIRECTV,
DIRECTV NOW and WatchTV, we deliver entertainment people love
to talk about. Our smart, highly secure solutions serve nearly 3
million global businesses –nearly all of the Fortune 1000. And
worldwide, our spirit of service drives employees to give back to
their communities.
AT&T Communications is part of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T). Learn
more at att.com/CommunicationsNews.
AT&T products and services are provided or offered by
subsidiaries and affiliates of AT&T Inc. under the AT&T
brand and not by AT&T Inc. Additional information about
AT&T products and services is available at about.att.com.
Follow our news on Twitter at @ATT, on Facebook at facebook.com/att
and on YouTube at youtube.com/att.
©2019 AT&T Intellectual Property. All rights reserved.
AT&T, the Globe logo and other marks are trademarks and service
marks of AT&T Intellectual Property and/or AT&T affiliated
companies. All other marks contained herein are the property of
their respective owners.
**Based on analysis by Ookla® of Speedtest
Intelligence® data average download speeds for Q2
2019.
***GWS OneScore, September 2018.
Scott Cook
IBM External Relations
scotty@us.ibm.com
312.669.4743
Clay Owen
AT&T Corporate Communications
clay.owen@att.com
404.538.0124
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SOURCE IBM