AT&T sticks with Oracle for cloud transformation

AT&T inked a deal to extend an existing cloud partnership with Oracle for another five years, in a move the operator pitched as beneficial to its cost saving and digital transformation efforts.

Jon Summers, AT&T’s SVP of Information Technology, said in a statement its cloud transition “is a critical initiative for our business.” He added: “We’ve worked closely with Oracle on some of our toughest technology challenges over the years, and we’re excited to renew this collaboration for another five years.”

The operator originally teamed with Oracle in May 2017, working with the cloud vendor to move thousands of its large scale databases to Oracle’s Cloud Infrastructure as a Service platform. As part of the deal, AT&T also rolled out Oracle’s Field Service Cloud offering to streamline scheduling and dispatching for its technicians.

AT&T’s new agreement with Oracle will expand upon their existing collaboration, leveraging Oracle’s Fusion Cloud Enterprise Resource Planning and Fusion Cloud Customer Experience products, among others. Implementation of the former will help AT&T eliminate manual processes as part of its supply chain overhaul, while the latter will be used to help offer customers personalized content to improve their experience.

Additionally, AT&T will use Oracle’s cloud services to continue its efforts to modernize its IT infrastructure and consolidate its data center footprint.

Over the past several years, the operator has stepped up efforts to utilize the cloud, working with major players like Amazon Web Services, IBM and Microsoft. AT&T most notably made headlines last year when it inked a deal with the latter to move its 5G network core to the Azure cloud.

It seems its work with Oracle, though, is focused on its internal digital transformation efforts. The operator is in the midst of a push to slash $6 billion in costs by 2023. During AT&T’s Q2 2022 earnings call, CEO John Stankey said it had “strong visibility on achieving” $4 billion in savings by the end of this year.