Italy's digitisation is a systemic goal. A more digitally-advanced Italy has advantages for individuals, companies and public administration. For the entire economy.
We have known this for some time, but really rediscovered it during the emergency situation of recent months. Working from home, if connected to a profound cultural revolution and a rethinking of business processes, brings proven benefits, also in terms of sustainability. Digital learning, which is obviously more than the delivery of remote lessons alone, opens the pathway to new opportunities for students, families, teachers. There are various other examples as well.
The partnership between TIM and Google, residents of Mountain View in collaboration with a telecommunications leader, looks far beyond the pandemic. With association in the development of the most advanced fibre and 5G networks, cloud and edge computing services are fundamental for the development and recovery of the real economy, especially in a country where the attractiveness of goods and services (from SMEs to large industry) is closely linked to their accessibility in global markets.
Why is TIM making such a considerable effort in this direction? Firstly, because the cloud is intrinsically linked to three areas the company has already invested in for several years: 5G, artificial intelligence, sensor technology. However, looking beyond economic synergies, it also signals a desire for profound cultural change, as noted by Carlo d'Asaro Biondo, VP TIM Cloud Project, during the Google Cloud Next event.
“For years, when it was possible with the structure of the Italian market, TIM proposed proprietary solutions above all,” underlined Mr d'Asaro Biondo, “we don't do things alone anymore. For us, the partnership with Google is a huge innovation and a move towards complementarity. It’s the only way we can be more effective in a market as highly evolved as that of digital services for businesses, individuals and public administration. We’ll be leveraging our unique assets, namely the largest data centres in Italy, the most important network infrastructure in the country, our knowledge of the Italian market. Google will bring with it its technology, its platforms like Gsuite, but also its skills and its intrinsically open mind, which will collaborate with our own”.
“And together,” continued Mr d'Asaro Biondo, “we will develop an approach to services ranging from systems integration (in this vein note our recent acquisition of Noovle) to cloud services, infrastructure development and design. This is not a mere integration of technologies. The main principle is customer orientation: provide what each customer needs, when each customer needs it. We’ll need 100% commitment from both partners to achieve an ambitious goal: to digitalise the Italian nation”.
Within the scope of such partnership, Google has made the decision, as announced by CEO Sundar Pichai, to open two new cloud regions in Italy, for a total of $900 million over 5 years. An unprecedented investment in Italy by a foreign multinational company.
According to TIM’s CEO Luigi Gubitosi “This partnership with Google, world leader in innovation, will reinforce TIM’s role as a reference point to support the process of technological innovation in Italy. Over the next few years, Cloud and Edge Computing will be two of the key markets which will benefit most from the new products and services enabled by 5G technology.
