Ericsson and Intel have announced a multi-year collaboration to develop software defined infrastructure (SDI) for the 5G era.
The two companies plan to develop a next-generation infrastructure management platform combining the capabilities of the Ericsson SDI Manager software and Intel Rack Scale Design technology.
With the platform, the companies plan to extend the agility of the cloud to the hardware infrastructure layer, providing the transparency and efficiency required for 5G, network functions virtualization and distributed cloud capabilities.
Under the collaboration, Ericsson and Intel will converge Ericsson SDI Manager software and Intel RSD reference software while maintaining full backward compatibility for current customers.
The companies also plan to add jointly-developed software and hardware innovations to future Ericsson hardware platforms, and potentially to Intel's server products sold through partners.
“We have long history of successful collaboration with Intel. This new collaboration will focus on software in addition to hardware and we see it to be truly transformative for service providers’ ability to successfully deploy open cloud and NFV infrastructure, from centralized data centers to the edge,” Ericsson head of cloud and NFV infrastructure Lars Mårtensson said.
“Intel’s and Ericsson’s joint efforts significantly strengthens the competitiveness and roadmap of the Ericsson Software Defined Infrastructure offering.”