Nokia has announced an expanded collaboration with Google Cloud aimed at equipping developers worldwide with the necessary network software tools to create innovative new 5G enterprise and consumer applications faster for their customers.
A key component is that Nokia’s Network as Code platform, along with its developer portal, will now run on Google Cloud. This enhances the developer experience by providing access to Google Cloud’s data, generative AI solutions, and capabilities such as Vertex AI and Gemini 1.5 Pro. This integration will enable developers to seamlessly consume AI technologies within their applications and leverage AI-powered coding assistance agents to improve productivity.
Initially, the two companies will focus on industry use cases in the healthcare sector to demonstrate to Google Cloud’s wide developer community how the partnership can deliver improved virtual customer interactions powered by 5G. Nokia’s Network as Code developer portal will supply Google Cloud’s global developer ecosystem—spanning major industries and geographies worldwide—with standardised 5G network capabilities anywhere on the planet. It provides them with the critical technical tools needed to rapidly prototype new, bleeding-edge applications for their clients.
Unified ecosystem for telecommunication
Nokia’s Network as Code platform acts as a unified ecosystem, bringing together telecommunications networks, systems integrators, and software developers from around the world. Its goal is to accelerate the development of software applications that can harness the power of 5G and 4G network capabilities.
The platform offers developers software development kits (SDKs), network API documentation, a ‘sandbox’ for use-case simulation and testing, and snippets of reusable code that can be used in building new applications. Most significantly, the platform operates on a revenue-share basis, with money divvied up among developers, network operators, and Nokia.
Nokia has agreed to work with 13 network operators and ecosystem partners in Europe, North America, and South America, marking the rapid acceptance of the platform—only four months after it was formally released.
Commenting on the collaboration, Ankur Jain, VP of Google distributed cloud and global telco industry at Google Cloud, said, “Through this important collaboration with Nokia, we are enabling our global developer community to tap into the greenfield opportunity that 5G networks provide. Our developer community is a strong innovation driver globally, and we believe the telecom space offers significant value creation opportunities through new applications.”
Raghav Sahgal, president of cloud and network services at Nokia, echoed the sentiment, saying, “We are excited to expand our collaboration with Google Cloud, enabling thousands of Google Cloud developers to tap into our network capabilities so that they can create value for their customers faster.”
Broader partnerships for innovation
However, Google Cloud is not the only company Nokia has partnered with to accelerate the development of telco applications for consumers.
Just last month, Nokia announced a partnering agreement with Infobip, the global cloud communications platform, which will enable the global developer community to leverage both companies’ Application Programmable Interface (API) platforms to build a wider array of telco network-powered applications faster for consumer, enterprise, and industrial customers.
Infobip’s market-leading cloud Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS) provides developers with APIs for integrating real-time omnichannel communications features such as SMS, voice, video, chat apps, and network APIs into their applications. Complementing this, Nokia’s Network as Code platform with developer portal offers developers APIs for tapping into 5G network capabilities like quality of service (QoS) on demand, device location precision, network slicing, as well as 4G capabilities.
Through this partnership, developers will be able to utilise all of these capabilities more easily, giving them complete coverage of Network and CPaaS APIs in the development of new use cases and the capacity to enhance application performance.
The joint work between Infobip and Nokia will offer a simplified developer experience, eliminating the burden of navigating complex underlying network technologies individually, and allowing developers to integrate capabilities into their applications faster relative to working separately with the two companies’ platforms.
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The expanded collaboration between Nokia and Google Cloud is a promising development for the tech industry. By integrating Nokia’s Network as Code platform with Google Cloud’s AI and data solutions, developers worldwide are poised to create cutting-edge 5G applications more efficiently. The focus on industry use cases in healthcare initially demonstrates the practical benefits of this partnership, offering improved virtual customer interactions. Additionally, Nokia’s collaboration with Infobip further enriches the developer ecosystem, providing comprehensive tools and APIs for a seamless development experience. This collaborative approach is a testament to the innovative potential of 5G technology and its capacity to drive digital transformation across industries.