Proximus is improving its cloud solutions together with HCL

“The telecom market is extremely dynamic and has changed very rapidly in recent years,” says Amit Sinha, Executive Vice President of Telecom, Media & Hi-Tech at HCL Technologies. “Telecom used to be synonymous with connectivity. Later IT services were added to this. Today, customers expect their telecom partner to guide them in their digital transformation.” That evolution ensures that an ICT service provider like Proximus takes a flexible approach, always staying in the forefront and anticipating the future needs of customers. In that context, Proximus is now further expanding its long-time collaboration with HCL.

Maintenance and operation of data centers

“This involves a twofold partnership,” says Alex Lorette, Director of Enterprise Solutions & Platforms at Proximus. “HCL is responsible for maintenance and operation of our data centers. We’re adding a business partnership to this so that we offer our customers additional services, with a broader range and higher quality.” It’s the combination of both companies that makes the difference: the in-depth technological knowhow of HCL, combined with the close contact that Proximus has with its customers.

Alex Lorette, Director of Enterprise Solutions & Platforms at Proximus

Hybrid reality

The collaboration with HCL allows Proximus to, among other things, further develop its data center services for businesses. “We’re making the Proximus data centers more resilient, more robust, and better focused on innovation and transformation,” says Amit Sinha. That gives Proximus more digital clout, especially in the hybrid world in which companies work. “Traditionally, a business managed its own ICT infrastructure,” says Alex Lorette. “Then came the shift toward the public cloud. Today we see that the reality is hybrid, based on three pillars.”

Manage a hybrid cloud via the Cloud Fusion platform

More than often a part of the infrastructure stays on-premises, while another part is migrated to the public Cloud and yet another part is managed in the data center of an external service provider like Proximus. Seamlessly integrating those three platforms is one of the major current challenges. “We offer that service with our Cloud Fusion platform,” explains Alex Lorette. “This involves a solution in which we manage and automate the hybrid cloud for customers via a single pane of glass, regardless of the technologies used.”

This shows how Proximus is further expanding its role as an ICT partner for customers, not only with private cloud, but also security, workplace, public cloud, and all the accompanying professional and managed services.

Local expertise

To guide them along their path to the hybrid cloud, companies are looking more and more to their ICT partner. “They’re also doing that for everything related to multi-cloud orchestration,” says Amit Sinha. “That’s just where we want to play a decisive role with HCL. We consider ourselves a catalyst. In the past two years, Covid has only accelerated the digital evolution,” Amit Sinha continues. Customers count on Proximus to guide their entire digital journey. The collaboration with HCL helps meet that expectation.

Amit Sinha, Executive Vice President of Telecom, Media, & Hi-Tech at HCL Technologies

Innovation Lab for test cases

Proximus and HCL are putting that into practice with, among other things, the new Innovation Lab for cloud solutions. “That’s an important feature of the partnership,” says Alex Lorette. “We’re positioning ourselves as the digital transformation partner for our customers. We’re developing an ecosystem in which customers can build and test specific cases with partners in the Innovation Lab.”

The Innovation Lab offers a safe environment, supported by Proximus and HCL, where companies can try out ideas with different partners. “A lab like this breaks through the feeling of ‘business as usual’,” says Amit Sinha, “to search for practical added value.”

Guidance over a wide scope of activity

The partnership with HCL and the joint Innovation Lab clearly indicate the direction that Proximus is taking. “We’re an ICT partner with a very wide scope of activity for our customers,” Alex Lorette concludes. “The market expects that too. For every issue our customers have – the Cloud, security, communication, collaboration – we want to offer the best possible solution. We do that ourselves, but also through the companies in our ecosystem and through close partnerships like the one with HCL.”