Intel joins forces with Google Cloud for 5G edge services

The Google Cloud company logo fixed onto an office building
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Intel and Google Cloud have announced a partnership that will see the two firms develop integrated services for network providers to develop 5G innovations across various platforms.

The collaboration is another step towards Intel's goal to develop 5G networks with software-defined infrastructures and further evidence of Google Cloud's ambitions in the 5G arena.

Telecom-based cloud architectures and integrated services from both Intel and Google Cloud will help to accelerate scalable network and edge deployments, particularly with multi-cloud architectures. These are thought to be critical in achieving the full potential of 5G, edge computing and AI across many industries, such as manufacturing, retail and healthcare.

The partnership will focus on three areas, the first of which will be to aid the acceleration of Virtualised RAN (vRAN) and Open Radio Access Networks (ORAN) with infrastructure and hardware support. There will also be a Network Functions Validation lab to support vendors in testing, optimising, and validating their core network functions that run on Google Cloud's Anthos for Telecom platform. The lab environment will also expand to help customers conceive, plan, and validate their 5G and edge application strategies.

The partnership also includes edge services developed with Intel's compute-optimisation technology and blueprints to accelerate edge transformation in certain industries.

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"The next wave of network transformation is fueled by 5G and is driving a rapid transition to cloud-native technologies," said Dan Rodriguez, Intel corporate vice president and general manager of the network platforms group.

"As communications service providers build out their 5G network infrastructure, our efforts with Google Cloud and the broader ecosystem will help them deliver agile, scalable solutions for emerging 5G and edge use cases."

Google Cloud has been very active in this space. The firm recently announced an initiative to deliver more than 200 partner applications to the edge via its network and 5G service.

Bobby Hellard

Bobby Hellard is ITPro's Reviews Editor and has worked on CloudPro and ChannelPro since 2018. In his time at ITPro, Bobby has covered stories for all the major technology companies, such as Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and Facebook, and regularly attends industry-leading events such as AWS Re:Invent and Google Cloud Next.

Bobby mainly covers hardware reviews, but you will also recognize him as the face of many of our video reviews of laptops and smartphones.