Equinix, Inc. (NASDAQ: EQIX) today announced it has been selected as a strategic supplier for Nokia's Worldwide IoT Network Grid (WING) managed service, in a collaboration to bring next-generation edge architectures and services to market.
Nokia says its WING service allows operators without an IoT footprint to gain fast entry to the IoT market or to help operators expand an existing IoT business. Nokia is leveraging Equinix IBX data centers to deploy both core and edge nodes to support mobile, IoT and cloud connectivity at global scale.
"Nokia WING offers a superior IoT service experience for operators through global network presence, unified orchestration and consistent service level agreements," commented Ankur Bhan, Head of WING, Nokia. "This deal will support our efforts to manage IoT-related data analysis on a global basis."
Nokia WING enables operators to provide one worldwide IoT network grid across borders and technologies. It provides worldwide Infrastructure as a Service for low-latency and global reach to accelerate the deployment of IoT. It is billed as a "one-stop-shop" for IoT managed services that includes a pre-integrated global IoT core network and connectivity management, as well as dedicated IoT operations, billing, security and data analytics, along with an application ecosystem.
Equinix is a leading global data center provider that delivers access to all the major clouds, NSPs and ecosystem players across 55+ major metro areas worldwide. Platform Equinix provides access to nearly 10,000 businesses around the world in rich vertical ecosystems, including more than 1,800 networks, 2,900 cloud and IT service providers and 3,000 enterprises. This supports Nokia WING's focus on providing access to nine vertical markets (connected car, healthcare, logistics and transport, smart cities, utilities, connected agriculture, connected retail, smart home and building, connected industry).
Via Platform Equinix, Nokia WING will be able to support markets across the globe in areas such as IoT data traffic and device density, as well as local regulatory environments (such as GDPR). Nokia is leveraging Equinix's global data center footprint to enable the efficient collection from, and distribution across, multiple networks and clouds.
Additionally, Nokia and Equinix are exploring edge architectures and deployment models that can improve the performance of use cases relating to cloud computing, artificial intelligence, machine learning and IoT.
Per a statement by the partners:
The globally anticipated proliferation of data will increase demand for localized data collection and analysis across cities and countries. Faster, lower latency infrastructures—like that brought to market by Equinix and Nokia—provide the required gigabit speed and the ability to connect and collect data from billions of IoT devices. With this solution, Nokia is helping mobile network operators extract valuable insights to evolve their business performance. Nokia is working with Equinix to roll out WING deployments quickly and efficiently for its customers across regions.
"Nokia needed access to multiple markets and ecosystems to connect to NSPs and enterprises who want a play in the IoT space," concludes Jim Poole, VP, Equinix. "By directly connecting to Nokia WING, mobile network operators can capture business value across IoT, AI and security, with a connectivity strategy to support business transformation."
