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IBM and China Telecom announced a partnership to accelerate enterprise mobility in Chinese businesses by tapping the IBM MobileFirst Platform for iOS.
Big Blue said joint IBM/China Telecom customers will benefit from the IBM MobileFirst Platform for iOS to build, integrate and secure made-for-business enterprise apps that will be hosted on China Telecom’s cloud. The partnership builds upon China Telecom and IBM’s work to help businesses implement secure, cost-effective and scalable cloud-based applications.
Together, IBM and China Telecom will provide secure native mobile solutions to Chinese organizations, from traditional enterprises to startups. As the biggest cloud computing service provider in China, China Telecom hosts more than 70 percent of the domestic Internet content and services. China Telecom is deploying nationwide assets consisting of “8 (regions) + 2 (ultra-large data centers) + x (edge nodes),” which back up each other, IBM said. The nodes are interconnected via high-speed networks to provide more reliable services that address customer requirements such as cloud IT infrastructure construction, application migration and disaster recovery.
“China Telecom and IBM will jointly promote the mobile transformation of Chinese enterprises,” said Gao Tongqing, executive vice president of China Telecom, in a statement. “With the rapid development of mobile internet and the popularity of intelligent terminals, Chinese businesses and industries are facing unprecedented challenges and opportunities. How to use innovative technologies to create new customer experiences, how to implement the secure, cost-effective and scalable cloud-based applications and drive enterprises’ mobile transformation has become an important topic for us. In the future, both parties will continue to accelerate innovation when collaborating with various partners, so as to jointly promote the internet transformation of Chinese enterprises.”
The IBM MobileFirst Platform for iOS provides a tailored version of the IBM MobileFirst Platform that offers an enterprise-class cloud solution for securely building, integrating, deploying and managing native apps for iOS. It also enables enterprises to benefit from cloud-based management and security capabilities for mobile devices, applications, content and transactions. Apps built using the IBM MobileFirst Platform for iOS can be easily customized for any organization and securely deployed, managed and upgraded through China Telecom’s cloud platform.
“China Telecom and IBM will provide cutting edge mobile solutions for enterprises and start-ups across China. IBM’s capabilities in IT consulting, deep industry expertise and enterprise apps provide an opportunity to fully unlock the value of the mobile enterprise that will transform industries and professions,” said Bridget van Kralingen, senior vice president of IBM, in a statement.
Earlier this week, IBM and Apple added eight new apps to the IBM MobileFirst for iOS portfolio, bringing the total number of apps to 22 and the number of industries recommended to 10—including the newly added health care and industrial products. IBM and Apple also added three apps to the portfolio at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, last month.
In December, Apple and IBM delivered the first wave of IBM MobileFirst for iOS solutions in a new class of made-for-business apps and supporting cloud services that bring IBM’s big data and analytics capabilities to iPhone and iPad users in the enterprise. IBM MobileFirst for iOS solutions are available to enterprise customers in banking, retail, insurance, financial services, telecommunications and law enforcement, as well as for governments and airlines, among others.
IBM and China Telecom have a history of working together in the cloud. Last year, China Telecom and IBM announced a three-year agreement to help small and medium-size businesses (SMBs) in China implement cloud-based SAP applications.
The cloud-based SAP applications enable China Telecom SMB customers that have or are planning to implement SAP applications to reduce operating and application management costs with enterprise-ready applications, IBM said.
China Telecom manages clients’ infrastructure that includes cloud platform resources, networking and mobile devices. IBM integrates the software, hardware and end-to-end service capabilities to create a complete environment that supports SAP applications on the cloud. Working with China Telecom, IBM is providing management across all SAP architectures and delivery models. Users can migrate and integrate new applications on the cloud, while maintaining current applications.
Under the agreement signed last August, China Telecom and IBM are focusing on clients in the Guangdong province and then will extend the project to such key areas as Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, Beijing and Tianjin.
“This announcement represents an important step in the Chinese cloud computing market that will provide one of the fastest growing segments within China greater access to cloud resources,” said D.C. Chien, chairman and CEO of the IBM Greater China Group, at the signing of the agreement. “Our work with China Telecom will provide small-to-medium sized businesses in China with the means to more quickly deploy enterprise-grade cloud capabilities and assist them in driving innovation via the cloud.”