Swisscom Ericson and AWS collaborate on hybrid cloud PoC on 5G core

Swedish kit vendor Ericsson and Swiss operator Swisscom have announced a proof-of-concept (PoC) collaboration to explore hybrid cloud use cases with hyperscaler AWS, beginning with 5G core applications.

While the trial starts with the Swiss operator initiating a PoC with Ericsson on 5G core applications which are to run on AWS, the plan is for more applications to then gradually be added as the trial continues. With each cloud strategy (private, public, hybrid, multi) bringing its own drivers and challenges the idea here seems to be enabling the operator to take advantage of the specific characteristics of both hybrid and public cloud.

This approach is supposed to offer Swisscom flexibility to exploit deployment efficiencies. For example, when capacity requirements on the operator’s private cloud are increased, e.g. at traffic peak times, or when maintenance activities are activated in private cloud, AWS can step in as an offload mechanism and complement the operator’s existing private cloud.

“By bringing the Ericsson 5G Core onto AWS we will substantially change the way our networks will be built and operated.” said Mark Düsener, Executive Vice President at Swisscom. “The elasticity of the cloud in combination with a new magnitude in automatization will support us in delivering even better quality more efficiently over time. In order to shape this new concept, we as Swisscom believe strategic and deep partnerships like the ones we have with Ericsson and AWS are the key for success.”

With the vendor as the supplier of the core infrastructure, Monica Zethzon, Head of Solution Area Core Networks at Ericsson said: “This Proof-of-Concept project with Swisscom and AWS is about opening up the routes to innovation by using hybrid cloud’s flexible combination of private and public cloud resources. It demonstrates that through partnership, we can deliver a hybrid cloud solution which meets strict telecoms industry requirements and security while making best use of HCP agility and cloud economy of scale.”

This is not Swisscom’s first rodeo on hybrid cloud together with the hyperscaler. The operator has already been collaborating with AWS on migrating its 5G infrastructure towards standalone 5G. In addition, it has also used the hyperscaler’s public cloud platform for its IT environments. As concerns linger around the use of public cloud in telecoms infrastructure (especially the core networks) for some operators, hybrid cloud is seemingly gaining momentum as a transitional approach.

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