South Korean operator KT Corporation is launching a cloud computing offering in Japan this week, in conjunction with Softbank.The new offering, which will operate on a datacentre in Korea, exploits a growing market for overseas storage in Japan, where an increasing number of enterprises have, since the devastating earthquake in 2011, looked to neighbouring South Korea for the opportunity to minimise their data storage risk.
Enterprise clients typically represent the subscriber group with the highest value for mobile operators. Mobile operators typically have whole departments dealing with large enterprise customers, but so far they have paid limited attention to the most important need of the mobile workforce: excellent mobile coverage in the office. This has been a reason for enterprise clients churning, especially when fierce competition allows competitors to offer better levels of service.
But this is now changing and enterprise specific technologies are evolving as the need to retain these high value customers becomes stronger.
Mobile operator group Vodafone has announced that telecommunications services provider ACN Europe’s CEO Brian Fitzpatrick will join the firm as group carrier services director.
UK operator group Vodafone has struck a five-year deal with British defence firm BAE Systems. The two have penned a partnership to provide businesses with a range of advanced communications security products and services for smartphones and tablets. BAE Systems has also selected Vodafone as its preferred supplier of mobile communications worldwide, excluding the US.
Four out of five European enterprises describe themselves as very or somewhat interested in adopting Network-as-a-Service (NaaS), reflecting rapidly increasing or spiking bandwidth requirements faced today as well as the need for a more cost-effective connectivity model. The findings were published this week in a survey carried out by Vanson Bourne on behalf of network specialist Ciena.
More than 99 per cent of European businesses are SMEs, yet the vast majority plan to change telecoms service provider at the end of their contract period, according to research published recently. The message is that the SME sector represents an enormous opportunity for CSPs to grow their revenues – but it is an opportunity they are not taking.
Networking equipment vendor Cisco has announced its intention to acquire privately held cloud management company Meraki for $1.2bn in cash.
Andy McFarlane, head of marketing for Vodafone Global Enterprise, talks to MCI about taking its services beyond operational boundaries.
As head of Orange Group’s enterprise division, Vivek Badrinath delivers one third of group revenues. And while the consumer retail market reflects economic uncertainty and value chain disruption, the enterprise segment is offering scope for growth in all directions.
Enterprises are facing a challenge from employees who want to use personal devices to access corporate data. Perceived benefits around cost and productivity are balanced by concerns around device management and security. Mobile operators are positioning themselves to address these concerns and facilitate the trend.
Finding an enterprise that doesn’t rely on Microsoft software is something of a challenge yet, when it comes to mobility, BlackBerry is king. But with software now seen as the key differentiator, how long will this remain the state of play?
Cloud storage firm Egnyte has received $16m in Series C funding led by Google Ventures with additional support from existing investors Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), and Polaris. As a part of the funding, Karim Faris, partner at Google Ventures will join the board of Egnyte.
European carriers KPN and Telefónica have struck a deal to support the delivery of global services within each other’s markets to multinational customers.
Vodafone UK has launched an enterprise smartphone service allowing corporate customers to manage and secure their data over a range of high end devices. The service, dubbed Smarthphone Professional, uses a solution from mobile security firm Good Technologies, which aims to provide security across a variety of devices at the kind of level that has made RIM’s Blackberry solution so popular with enterprise customers.
Vodafone Global Enterprise on Friday acquired two telecom expense management companies: Quickcomm and TnT Expense Management, giving the carrier an attractive toolset to help it target the enterprise space.
IT giant HP has announced a solution that helps wireless and broadband service provicders provide midsize business customers with cloud-based mobile device management. The HP Cloud Services Enablement for Device Management as a Service (HP CSE for DMaaS) helps businesses manage employee smartphones, notebooks and other mobile devices.
The incumbent carriers of Norway and Spain, Telenor and Telefónica, both of which have substantial international portfolios, have announced a partnership agreement that will see them join forces to serve their MNC (multinational corporation) customers in one another’s markets, with a particular focus on mobile services.
Orange Business Services has acquired Alsy, a French company integrating Microsoft communications solutions. This acquisition further enhances the offering of Orange Business Services in the full range of Microsoft technologies, by rounding out the agreement signed with Microsoft in 2009 to distribute the standard Microsoft Online Services offer in 21 countries.
Almost a quarter of global mobile data service revenues are forecast to come from the enterprise sector by 2014, according to figures released Thursday.
It looks like enterprise networking firm Avaya has emerged as the winning bidder for Nortel’s own corporate communications unit, with an offer of close to $1bn.
Lean and MeanWith summer supposedly fast approaching, many look to trim some fat and get in shape for the sunny months. The Informer has never been a huge fan of gyms; in fact his favourite machine in the gym is the one that sells chocolate. Telefonica’s UK arm O2, is one business that is looking to get lean for the holidays, though, and this week it announced that it is to trim 3,500 UK employees.
Cross-border opportunities are there, but Telenor has work to do in BulgariaPan-European operater group Telenor is making another move into Eastern Europe, this time buying Bulgaria’s Globul. The move makes sense for several reasons, but success won’t come easy in a country with high mobile penetration and a sluggish economy.
Telecoms.com speaks with Ali Agan, who has risen through the ranks of TeliaSonera Group to become CEO of KCell in Kazakhstan. With a young population Agan is keen to deploy LTE and exploit nascent demand for data services.
Jonathan Bell, VP of Marketing at OpenCloud, discusses how policy and pricing are just two dimensions along which telecoms operators can differentiate their propositions. By adding a third dimension, the service behaviour itself, operators can define and bring true innovation to the market that surpasses the traditional approaches of the past, he says.
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Calls for consolidation in the European mobile market grow louder by the week and four-operator markets look increasingly challenged. Now, those mobile operators that have already built scale seem to be suggesting that there is no option but to expand yet further through diversification.