OREANDA-NEWS. March 16, 2016. Deutsche Telekom has now kicked off the next stage of digitization in the German and European economies by launching the Open Telekom Cloud on Monday, a public cloud combining flexible IT resources with service and strict German data protection regulations. Deutsche Telekom now provides a comprehensive cloud portfolio all under one roof: private and public cloud, software solutions including integration in companies' existing IT infrastructure. "We are adding a new, decisive cloud offering to our existing portfolio of private cloud services that can be reached easily from the public Internet", says Deutsche Telekom CEO Tim H?ttges at Cebit in Hanover. "For our customers, whether major corporations or SMEs, this is an important new service for their digitization - and an essential milestone for us in our ambition to be the No. 1 provider of cloud services for business customers in Europe."

Thanks to the Open Telekom Cloud, Deutsche Telekom is entering a market segment that up to now has been dominated by its U.S. competitors. The technology firm Huawei is contributing the hardware and solution know-how, and T-Systems, Deutsche Telekom's business customer arm, is providing the data center, network, and cloud operation and management. Deutsche Telekom's multi-award-winning network will provide reliable availability and T Systems' certified German cloud data centers will ensure top quality and maximum security.

The first partner for the Open Telekom Cloud will be SAP. “We are pleased to advance our relationship with Deutsche Telekom and announce plans to join the Open Telekom Cloud,” says Bernd Leukert, member of the Executive Board of SAP SE, Products & Innovation. “We look forward to extending the value of our solutions through Deutsche Telekom’s public cloud platform.“

Market analysts welcome the Open Telekom Cloud: "Access to a scalable, inexpensive public cloud provided by a German service provider from a German data center under German law will be very attractive to many customers in Germany," explains Andreas Zilch from analyst firm PAC. "In particular the combination of an inexpensive service and German legal security represents a unique selling point right now."

The number of services from the Open Telekom Cloud will grow step by step. At first, clients can book IT infrastructure on a central booking portal in just a few clicks. These resources are then available in a matter of minutes. In this way, Deutsche Telekom supports its clients in digitizing their business models by providing simple and flexible services that can be scaled to suit any client, from major corporations to SMEs.

"More and more customers are discovering the advantages of the public cloud. But they want a European alternative," says Anette Bronder, head of the T Systems Digital Division and in charge of the cloud business. "With the Open Telekom Cloud we are now offering customers the right platform and solution. It is simple, secure and affordable." Two examples: A virtual machine with Windows server with two vCPUs and two GB RAM costs less than 17 Euro cents per hour; with Open Linux with two vCPUs and eight GB RAM no more than 12 Euro cents per hour.

“We are continuously expanding our strategic cooperation with T-Systems and Deutsche Telekom to create market-defining solutions that help enterprises drive business innovation and growth,” said Mr. Zhang Haibo, President of Deutsche Telekom Key Account Department, Huawei. “Open Telekom Cloud is the result of our joint commitment to innovation and collaboration, and demonstrates the next step forward for Deutsche Telekom, who will leverage our leading new ICT to power its game-changing offerings in the cloud.”

To make the Open Cloud easy to use for clients, T-Systems based its architecture on OpenStack, an open source cloud platform. Its open but standard and widely adopted APIs make integration of existing applications and development of innovations much easier. What’s more, thousands of software designers worldwide work continuously on the development of OpenStack, adding new features to support use cases including the Internet of Things.

"House of Clouds" in Biere
The Open Telekom Cloud will be set up in Europe's most cutting-edge data center, located in Biere, Saxony-Anhalt. Consequently, any data processed will be subject to Germany's strict data protection law. The Biere data center, and its twin center in Magdeburg, host almost all of Deutsche Telekom's ecosystem of technology and software partners. Deutsche Telekom's "House of Clouds" thus literally offers short distances to link one application to another, one cloud to another. Thanks to the extensive experience of T-Systems' cloud experts, data and whole application environments can be transferred easily from the public cloud to an even better protected private cloud.

The Telekom Cloud: simple, secure, affordable
Deutsche Telekom aims to double its revenue from cloud-based services for business customers by the end of 2018. Last year, revenue from cloud services rose by a significant double-digit figure at T-Systems alone. Up to now, customers have mainly used the specially secured private cloud. Deutsche Telekom and its subsidiary T-Systems have been offering secure end-to-end cloud solutions for companies of all sizes since 2005 – from consulting, implementation, billing and customer service through to maintenance. Deutsche Telekom’s growing partner ecosystem includes solutions from Microsoft, SAP, Cisco, Salesforce, VMWare, Huawei, SugarCRM, and Informatica.

Experience our products and services live at CeBIT from March 14 - 18 at the Deutsche Telekom stand in hall 4, stand C38. Deutsche Telekom's entire presence at the trade fair is carbon-neutral: All CO2 emissions generated in setting up and operating the stand are offset fully by carbon-reduction projects abroad.

About Deutsche Telekom
Deutsche Telekom is one of the world’s leading integrated telecommunications companies with more than 156 million mobile customers, 29 million fixed-network lines and around 18 million broadband lines (as of December 31, 2015). The Group provides fixed-network/broadband, mobile communications, Internet, and Internet-based TV products and services for consumers, and ICT solutions for business customers and corporate customers. Deutsche Telekom is present in more than 50 countries and has around 225,200 employees worldwide. The Group generated revenues of EUR 69.2 billion in the 2015 financial year – around 64 percent of it outside Germany.

About T-Systems
As one of the leading global ICT service providers, T-Systems supplies integrated solutions for business customers. These are based on global offerings in fixed-network and mobile communications, highly secure data centers, a unique cloud infrastructure built around standardized platforms and global partnerships, and top security in line with the strictest German data protection regulations, as demanded by our customers. With a footprint in more than 20 countries, 46,000 employees, and external revenue of 7.1 billion euros (2015), T-Systems is the ideal partner for digital transformation. Alongside traditional ICT services, T-Systems' portfolio also offers cloud access, custom infrastructure, and platforms and software from the cloud, alongside innovation projects in future business areas such as big data, the Internet of Things, machine-to-machine (M2M) communication, and Industry 4.0.