Nokia and Microsoft announce tech partnership

In a move that sees the IT behemoth and the leading comms technology provider forge their first joint solutions, Microsoft and Nokia have announced a collaboration designed to enable communications service providers and enterprises to accelerate digital transformation.

The joint solutions combine Microsoft cloud, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning expertise with Nokia’s networking and communications prowess. Specifically, the venture will bring together Microsoft’s Azure, Azure IoT, Azure AI and machine learning solutions with Nokia’s LTE/5G-ready private wireless solutions, IP, software-defined wide-area networking (SD-WAN), and IoT connectivity offerings.

The result, claim the two companies, will be that firms can drive industrial digitalisation and automation across enterprises, and communications service providers (CSPs) will be able to offer new services to enterprise customers.