The deal will also enable AT&T to consolidate its existing data centers and modernize its operations
AT&T has tapped Oracle to provide additional cloud capacity and capabilities. AT&T already runs database and application workloads in Oracle Cloud, but the latest five-year deal will build on this existing partnership while also adding new services, including the expanded use of Oracle Cloud CX, which AT&T uses to engage customers with personalized content, and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) services to support the carrier’s IT modernization and data center consolidation.
“AT&T’s cloud transition is a critical initiative for our business,” said Jon Summers, SVP of information technology at AT&T. “We’ve worked closely with Oracle on some of our toughest technology challenges over the years, and we’re excited to renew this collaboration for another five years.”
The pair signed their first cloud agreement in 2017, a development that Oracle CEO Mark Hurd called “an historic agreement” in a company statement. He went on to say that “the Oracle Cloud will enable AT&T to use Oracle technology more efficiently across every layer of the technology stack.”
At the time, Oracle stated that AT&T will have global access to its offering in both public cloud and via AT&T’s Integrated Cloud. AT&T’s Chris Rice, senior vice president of network cloud and infrastructure, has previously offered insight into the carrier’s integrated or multi-cloud strategy, stating that while AT&T has an internal private cloud that initially hosted network and non-network applications, it ultimately realized that wasn’t the best approach.
Learning that it wasn’t optimal to combine both types of workloads on a single cloud, the carrier instead created a private cloud for its network workloads and then turned to public cloud providers — Oracle, of course, but also IBM, Microsoft and AWS — to host its non-network workloads. “Think traditional IT applications like billing and customer care, and corporate applications like HR and finance,” Rice wrote in a blog post. “By 2024, most of these cloud workloads will be housed in the public cloud. Moving these applications and workloads to the public cloud allows us to take advantage of the elasticity and cloud economics.”
Of the latest announcement, Jonathan Tikochinsky, EVP of Oracle’s strategic clients group, commented: “AT&T is continually reinventing itself to better connect people and businesses, and we’re proud to extend our partnership to support that connectivity. By using Oracle Cloud Infrastructure and Oracle Fusion Applications, AT&T is able to continue scaling globally and adapting to the evolving telecommunications market.”
