MTN
and Microsoft are in the process of delivering a programme of work that will
see the latest technologies deployed for the benefit of MTN’s customers,
starting with South Africa and Nigeria, following the signing of a five-year
strategic partnership in September 2022.
According
to a statement issued by MTN Group on Monday, it hinted that the core of the
programme will focus on migrating BSS and OSS applications to the Microsoft
Azure cloud aiming to realise operational benefits and cost efficiencies.
It
said work has already begun with the establishment of MTN Group Cloud Centre of
Excellence and Project Nephos to migrate, carefully selected, business
applications to Azure.
MTN
and Microsoft will work closely with Accenture who will be providing technology
implementation, integration and support services to successfully enable the migration
and operations of the targeted environments.
One
of the cornerstone elements of the programme is the migration of EVA, MTN’s
extensive core big data platform, to Azure. Beyond infrastructure optimisation,
MTN will evolve further its common data model to enable use cases that bridge
typical divides across network, IT and commercial domains taking advantage of
native Azure capabilities, including machine learning and artificial
intelligence.
MTN’s
core belief is that everyone deserves the benefits of a modern connected life.
Through the partnership with Microsoft, with Project Nephos we have embarked on
an extensive skills development program in cloud technologies, devsecops and
data management.
Hundreds
of MTN employees in Nigeria and South Africa have already benefitted from the
Microsoft Enterprise Skills Initiative (ESI) which provides hands-on
technical training and certification in Microsoft Azure technologies; the
program will run across multiple countries where MTN operates to maximise the
impact of the partnership.
Project
Nephos is built around the principle of delivering maximum value as early
possible through selecting the most suitable applications to be migrated to
Azure with a fixed migration cost and carefully designed operational costs.
Working
together with Microsoft and Accenture, MTN is taking a unique approach to the
deployment of workloads to the public cloud seeking opportunities to improve
customer experience and enhance organisational agility while pursuing cost
transformation in a predictable and committed way.
This
approach has already enabled MTN to complete a proof of concept for the world’s
first 5G standalone core network solution deployed in Microsoft’s Azure public
cloud in just a few weeks!
The
MTN Group Chief Information Officer, Nikos Angelopoulos said in the statement
that “Our strategies partnership with
Microsoft will enable us to transform the way we deliver products and services
to our customers. We will bring the power of cloud computing to life driving
development and innovation with speed, flexibility, and predictable invenstments
and operations. We remain focused on nurturing the digital skills within MTN
and in the societies we operate in and building digital platforms to drive
digital transformation across Africa and the Middle East."
“Harnessing the power of
MTN, Microsoft, and Accenture, we will be working closely together to build the
next wave of compressed digital transformation across the continent. We see
this program becoming a global standard in the industry for years to come.”
Nitesh Singh Communications, Media and Technology Lead of Accenture Africa.
