NEC beefs up 5G collaboration with AWS in Japan

NEC announced it has expanded its collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS) in the areas of global 5G and support for the digital government of Japan.

NEC and AWS completed a corporate-level strategic collaboration pact in November 2020 and since then they’ve been developing offerings and strengthening delivery capabilities. NEC said it will now expand this collaboration in the areas of 5G, digital government and hybrid cloud.

In 5G, NEC plans to develop an end-to-end offering and provide it globally by combining its own high-performance cloud-native open 5G mobile core, OSS/BSS solutions, local 5G use cases and more, as well as AWS cloud and edge solutions.

The Japanese company said it will accelerate telecom carriers’ cloudification of the network and enhance digital transformation for enterprises by deploying 5G-based infrastructure and applications at the network edge. “This combined solution stack will be supported by NEC’s system integration services to enable customers to efficiently deploy and scale 5G networks, enhance automation and drive significant improvement in operational economics,” NEC stated.

In the area of digital government, NEC said it has been certified as an AWS Government Competency Partner based on the strategic collaboration that started last year and its achievements in governments to date.

NEC plans to further strengthen its relationship with AWS going forward while focusing on developing and providing a menu of offerings to “accelerate the digital transformation for government activities in Japan.”

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As for the cloud, NEC said it aims to develop and provide a set of offerings that connects on-premises and cloud environments securely, at high speed, with low latency.

To accomplish all of this, NEC Group has increased the number of AWS-certified engineers to 2,000, with plans for 3,000 – double the number it had at the start of the collaboration in 2020.

"We are delighted to deepen our relationship with NEC. AWS welcomes NEC's commitment and delivery of solutions built on AWS to deliver high-quality solutions that accelerate customers' digital transformations. We look forward to NEC's continued expansion of offerings and further expansion of delivery capabilities to optimize these transformations," said Doug Yeum, global head of Alliances & Channels at AWS, in a statement.

"NEC is pleased to announce the expansion of its strategic collaboration with AWS. Last year, NEC announced this global collaboration as the first of its kind between AWS and a Japanese company. It has been a great year, seeing many successes in the areas of government, modernization and in the skill enhancement of NEC engineers,” said NEC EVP Toshifumi Yoshizaki in a statement. “With the strong global support from AWS, NEC will help drive digital transformation in the government sector and across industries as part of orchestrating a brighter world.”