Unique Partnership: Deutsche Telekom Pioneers Cisco’s Intercloud in Europe

• T-Systems founding member in Cisco’s global cloud initiative
• Intercloud platform for Europe operated by T-Systems in German data center
• Customer relations through Telekom’s systems solutions unit

In a major push for highly secure cloud services, Deutsche Telekom and Cisco today announced their intent to enter into a new strategic partnership agreement.

T-Systems will be the pioneer to bring corporate customers in Germany and Europe onto Cisco’s global Intercloud platform. The systems solutions unit of Deutsche Telekom will operate and manage the Intercloud platform in its brand-new datacenter near the German city of Magdeburg.

The deal was announced today during a multi-national news conference broadcast from San Jose, California, London, United Kingdom, Bonn, Germany, and New York. The two companies outlined the deal: To start with, T-Systems will operate the cloud services as well as manage customer relations directly. The Intercloud platform will be operated in Germany’s most modern datacenter which T-Systems opened in July near the German city of Magdeburg.

For Deutsche Telekom, the partnership is an important building block in expanding its cloud business and in implementing its partnering strategy. "The cloud is global. However, if you want a strong foothold in the European market you need to be strong in Germany. We will help Cisco to implement its cloud strategy in Germany and the rest of Europe," said Reinhard Clemens, board member of Deutsche Telekom and CEO of T-Systems. "Based on Cisco’s Intercloud platform we will be able to offer simple and cost-effective cloud services in compliance with our strict data protection regulations in Germany and Europe."

The new partnership is a major step for Cisco’s plans to build the world’s largest global Intercloud, a network of clouds. "Cisco’s Intercloud uniquely position us to connect today’s world of disparate clouds in a seamless and secure manner, unlocking the full potential of cloud, and with it a new era in IT," says Cisco’s Rob Lloyd, Cisco’s president of development and sales. Cisco expects to invest over $1 billion to build its expanded cloud business over the next two years. The Cisco global Intercloud is being architected for the Internet of Everything, with a distributed network and security architecture designed for high-value application workloads, real-time analytics, "near infinite" scalability and full compliance with local data sovereignty laws.

The first service to be launched from the Platform will be an OpenStack based Infrastructure as a Service, followed by a rich Ecosystem of Cisco, Deutsche Telekom, T-Systems and Intercloud Partners Services.

Deutsche Telekom, cloud leader The current Experton "Cloud Vendor Benchmark 2014" study confirms that Deutsche Telekom is on track for success in its cloud business: As in the prior year, Deutsche Telekom has taken top positions in the categories "cloud market places" and "cloud services for small and medium-sized enterprises." T-Systems is number one in the categories "managed cloud services", "managed private cloud services", and "cloud workplaces" and is one of the top providers in other areas, too.

About Deutsche Telekom Deutsche Telekom is one of the world’s leading integrated telecommunications companies with over 142 million mobile customers, 31 million fixed-network lines and more than 17 million broadband lines (as of December 31, 2013). The Group provides fixed network, mobile communications, Internet and IPTV products and services for consumers and ICT solutions for business customers and corporate customers. Deutsche Telekom is present in around 50 countries and has approximately 229,000 employees worldwide. The Group generated revenues of EUR 60,1 billion in the 2013 financial year – more than half of it outside Germany.

About T-Systems Drawing on a global infrastructure of data centers and networks, T-Systems operates information and communication technology (ICT) systems for multinational corporations and public sector institutions. T-Systems provides integrated solutions for the networked future of business and society. Some 50,000 employees at T-Systems combine industry expertise and ICT innovations to add significant value to the digitization strategies and core business of customers all over the world. T-Systems generated revenue of around EUR 9,5 billion in the 2013 financial year.

About Cisco Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide leader in IT that helps companies seize the opportunities of tomorrow by proving that amazing things can happen when you connect the previously unconnected. For ongoing news, please go to http://thenetwork.cisco.com .