AT&T and IBM announces new partnership

IBM (NYSE: IBM) and AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) have partnered to help businesses manage applications hosted in hybrid cloud environments.

The IBM Cloud Satellite will leverage Red Hat OpenShift at the edge of the cellular network to provide businesses with the right size solution. As part of the partnership, the cloud satellite, which is currently in beta, will transfer the open hybrid cloud framework into a new environment through the 5G connectivity from AT&T and the containerization of the units from Red Hat. The cloud satellite is a software product offered by IBM that connects to AT&T and IBM's hardware. It provides a dashboard method for managing services across different computing environments, locations, and networks. The IBM Cloud Satellite is based on Red Hat OpenSHift and enables customers to access security and cloud services from any location.

By partnering with AT & T's 5G network, customers in highly regulated sectors will have access to 5G network capabilities that can improve user experience, optimize processes and generate new revenue streams. IBM stated that the collaboration will provide users with a single dashboard to manage services across billions of edge devices and multiple clouds for greater security and reliability. The idea is to get companies to adopt technologies that require both low latency and edge computing.

For example, retail stores will be able to monitor spills, spoilage and crowd data in real time via sensors and smart cameras and feed data into the cloud via AT & T's 5G networks instead of using an existing network. IBM indicated that the partnership is an expression of its commitment to upgrading its software platform.

The company has worked with other airlines such as Bharti Airtel, Verizon and Vodafone to develop an open approach to Red Hat OpenShift. In addition, the partnership builds on a strategic agreement between AT&T and IBM that was signed a year ago and in which AT&T committed to moving the majority of its large internal workloads to UBM Cloud. IBM is responsible for managing AT & T's hybrid cloud infrastructure and leveraging AT&T Business as the primary software-defined network provider.