Ericsson today anchored its burgeoning cloud and edge ambitions to Google Cloud, tapping the world’s third-largest hyperscaler to assist network operators’ shift to cloud-native infrastructure.

Ericsson onboarded its 5G services on Google Cloud’s Anthos for Telecom platform to allow network operators and enterprises to house network workloads and functions in the cloud, orchestrate network services with automation, and combine compute, storage, and networking at the edge. 

The Swedish vendor’s tie up with Google Cloud comes six months after Nokia inked a similar deal with the cloud provider. Ericsson recently closed the market share gap with Nokia, cementing itself as the No. 2 global telecommunications equipment supplier in the first quarter of 2021. Both companies ended the quarter with 16% of the total market, well behind Huawei’s 27% market share, according to Dell’Oro Group.

Ericsson, like Nokia, expanded its partnership with Google Cloud after previous activities involving network operators’ migration to cloud-native, container-based services.

The companies are piloting enterprise applications at the edge of TIM’s 5G network in Italy, claiming it’s the first deployment of its kind in the country. That project includes TIM’s telco cloud infrastructure, Google Cloud services, and Ericsson’s 5G core network and automation technologies.

The RAN and cloud vendors are also collaborating at Ericsson’s D-15 Lab to develop new services that can be tested on a live 5G network with a special focus on the automotive, entertainment, health care, manufacturing, and transportation industries. 

“Combined with edge cloud capabilities, 5G has the potential to accelerate the digital transformation of virtually any sector of industry or society,” Niklas Heveldop, president and head of Ericsson North America, said in a statement. 

Google Cloud executives highlighted the opportunity network operators and enterprises have to expand into new markets with 5G and cloud underpinned with artificial intelligence running at the edge. 

“To provide solutions that are relevant to enterprises, communications service providers must offer capabilities beyond connectivity,” Bikash Koley, VP and head of technology and strategy at Google Cloud for Telecommunications, wrote in a blog post. 

“Enterprise service orchestration, including exposure of network assets and network slicing, are foundational capabilities to provide value to the application ecosystem and be in control of the network and the delivered services,” Koley explained. 

Google Cloud has attracted support from independent software vendors (ISVs) to make about 200 edge applications from more than 30 partners available on its cloud platform.

The No. 3 cloud provider also today joined the O-RAN Alliance, the industry’s leading group and standardization vehicle for disaggregated radio access networks (RAN) with open interfaces. Google’s closest cloud competitor Microsoft is already a member of the O-RAN Alliance, as are Ericsson and Nokia. 

Amazon Web Services (AWS), the current leader in telco cloud due in part to its dominant position in the cloud market overall, works with multiple operators and vendors on telco services and open RAN, but hasn’t formally joined the O-RAN Alliance.