Alcatel-Lucent announces global collaboration with Intel to speed industry move to cloud

BARCELONA, Spain, Feb. 23, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Mobile World Congress -- Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris andNYSE: ALU) announced today that it is expanding its collaboration with Intel Corporation to help operators worldwide improve their time to market and operational efficiency, and to drive the creative development of new products and services for consumers and business customers with the use of cloud technologies.

As long-standing partners already working in the virtualization space together, Alcatel-Lucent and Intel are committed to accelerating these joint efforts and strengthening this relationship. Both companies believe these are the key underlying technologies to apply their combined resources and expertise and the ones that will drive a huge leap forward for the industry.

Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) appeals especially to mobile service providers now because it allows them to innovate more quickly and easily while providing the best return on their investments in an all-IP network infrastructure such as LTE. Specifically the expanded collaboration will focus on three areas to accelerate the development of three Alcatel-Lucent platforms optimized on Intel architecture to improve performance and scale:

• Virtualized Radio Access Networks (RAN) portfolio, developing and optimizing Alcatel-Lucent's LTE and LTE-Advanced wireless products.  The solution will enable operators to use general purpose platforms in configurations that will reduce TCO and increase operators' ability to scale networks to satisfy mobile data demand with rapidly changing devices and applications.

• Cloud Platform, developing and optimizing Alcatel-Lucent's CloudBand™ NFV platform including joint contributions to the Open source community and a push to accelerate service provider testing, validation and deployment of NFV technology and products.

• High-performance Packet Processing for advanced IP/MPLS platforms and functions to enable Alcatel-Lucent's IP development team the insights required to use the features and capabilities of Intel® architecture to deliver improved performance in virtualized IP/MPLS functions.

Visit Alcatel-Lucent at MWC

On February 19, 2014 Alcatel-Lucent announced its bold NFV roadmap, including virtualized EPC, IMS and LTE RAN to help Mobile Network Operators become more efficient, responsive and innovative. Alcatel-Lucent's virtualization portfolio will be on display in its booth 3K10 in Hall 3.

Press Conference Replay:
This partnership was announced today by Michel Combes, CEO, Alcatel-Lucent and Renee James, President of Intel in a MWC media and analyst event. Audio replay/video highlights will be made available at the Alcatel-Lucent Mobile World Congress web site.

Quotes:

"There are billions of devices and machines making up the Internet of Things that will connect to the network in the next few years consuming increasing amounts of bandwidth and network resources. However, the current economics and lack of flexibility in telecom networks is unsustainable," said Renee James, president of Intel Corporation. "Intel is working with industry leaders such as Alcatel-Lucent to leverage server and virtualization technology in telecom networks, data centers and the cloud, with the goal of reducing costs and making it easier to deploy new services."

Commenting on the collaboration at a joint media and analyst event in Barcelona, Michel Combes, CEO, Alcatel-Lucent, said: "In the last year we have seen an acceleration of innovation and industry changes. This is nothing compared to what we will see in the next decades, bringing new possibilities to our digital lifestyles. As we outlined in The Shift Plan, it is critical that we lead that change by working with the best and brightest partners who can break down the barriers between IT and networking. In working together with Intel - a world leader in computing technology - Alcatel-Lucent will continue to be positioned at the forefront of innovation as operators rapidly move to the cloud." 

Intel is a registered trademark of Intel Corporation in the United States and other countries.

About Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris andNYSE: ALU)
We are at the forefront of global communications, providing products and innovations in IP and cloud networking, as well as ultra-broadband fixed and wireless access to service providers and their customers, and to enterprises and institutions throughout the world. Underpinning us in driving the industrial transformation from voice telephony to high-speed digital delivery of data, video and information is Bell Labs, an integral part of the Group and one of the world's foremost technology research institutes, responsible for countless breakthroughs that have shaped the networking and communications industry. Our innovations have resulted in our Group being recognized by Thomson Reuters as a Top 100 Global Innovator, as well as being named by MIT Technology Review as amongst 2012's Top 50 "World's Most Innovative Companies". We have also been recognized for innovation in sustainability, being named Industry Group Leader for in the Technology Hardware & Equipment sector in the 2013 Dow Jones Sustainability Indices review, for making global communications more sustainable, affordable and accessible, all in pursuit of the Group's mission to realize the potential of a connected world.

With revenues of Euro 14.4 billion in 2013, Alcatel-Lucent is listed on the Paris and New York stock exchanges (Euronext andNYSE: ALU). The company is incorporated in France and headquartered in Paris.

For more information, visit Alcatel-Lucent on: http://www.alcatel-lucent.com, read the latest posts on the Alcatel-Lucent blog http://www.alcatel-lucent.com/blog and follow the Company on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Alcatel_Lucent.

SOURCE Alcatel-Lucent