Ericsson To Lead Estonia's Public Sector Cloud Transformation

Swedish communication technology and services giant, Ericsson (ST:ERICAs) (NASDAQ:ERIC) will lead the cloud transformation of Estonia, post selection by the State Infocommunication Foundation ("RIKS") for the same.

Ericsson will lead the deployment and operation of a hybrid cloud environment in the country through a public-private consortium, ensuring improved scalability, resilience and data security of an extensive range of e-society services (like tax reporting and online health care advice) in Estonia.

Apart from Ericsson, RIKS, EMC (NYSE:EMC), Telia, OpenNode and Cybernetica will be part of the public-private consortium. The integration of private and public cloud infrastructure will facilitate stability and security for e-society services, while optimizing resource efficiency and enhancing accessibility.

These entities will develop and operate a hybrid cloud solution with a DevOps environment. The resultant hybrid cloud infrastructure and platform as a service, will give freedom to the governmental agencies, municipalities or state-owned companies to concentrate on developing their services, rather than spending time on building and maintaining their server capabilities.

Ericsson will install Ericsson Hyperscale Datacenter System 8000 (built on Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) Rack Scale Design) as the lead partner. In addition, it will deploy Ericsson Cloud Execution Environment, Apcera Trusted Cloud Platform to ensure secure application lifecycle management and associated integration services. Further, Ericsson’s solutions boast Guardtime's Keyless Signature Infrastructure, which is a blockchain platform and ascertain the reliability of systems, networks and data on an industrial scale.

Technology-industry based research and data firm 451 Research believes that Ericsson’s Hyperscale Datacenter System 8000 is “literally many years ahead of the crowd”, setting it apart from peers. In these times, when cloud technology is taking over the traditional Information and Communication technology, Ericsson has become a key provider of services to assist clients adopt the same.

However, stiff competition and currency fluctuations have been hurting this Zacks Rank #4 (Sell) company’s performance lately. Ericsson is also grappling with waning sales in some key end-markets, slowdown in 4G deployment in China and ongoing industry consolidation among customers and major rivals.

Some better-ranked stocks in the same space include Ubiquiti Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:UBNT) , QUALCOMM Incorporated (NASDAQ:QCOM) and Clearfield, Inc. (NASDAQ:CLFD) , each carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).