Summary Bullets:
• Ericsson is expanding its virtual RAN (vRAN) partnership with server maker Dell to include more joint solution development, customer engagement, and support.
• The deal shows each vendor taking a more committed approach to pursuing the vRAN market, interest in which has surged in the past two years.
Ericsson is strengthening its partnership with server maker Dell Technologies in the vRAN space this week, boosting what was a mere supplier agreement into more of a joint solution partnership.
Ericsson had previously announced collaborating with Dell in this area back in April 2023, when the latter began supplying its PowerEdge servers for Ericsson’s Cloud RAN offering (which had already employed servers from HPE). Now Ericsson is expanding the partnership to include more solution development, support and go-to-market components. The two vendors will:
• Collaborate to advise communication service providers (CSPs) on network cloud transformation.
• Co-develop and -create solutions to drive cloud RAN energy efficiency and innovation.
• Offer ongoing integration testing and lifecycle management of Ericsson/Dell cloud RAN to help speed deployment and decrease risk related to updates and upgrades.
• Co-develop joint support offerings and services to simplify deployment, including factory validation, installation and ongoing operational management.
The two companies fleshing out a more refined commercial offering and attack plan for this market shows that Ericsson and Dell are taking a more committed approach to pursuing vRAN opportunities, interest in which has surged in the past two years.
This agreement appears to make Dell a closer partner than HPE, with whom Ericsson has collaborated on vRAN but hasn’t announced a similar relationship. Ultimately, it is important for Ericsson to maintain strong partnerships with multiple vendors so that it can offer operators a choice of servers and thus satisfy different operator preferences. More broadly, vRAN stakeholders need to maintain a healthy, balanced ecosystem in order to assure operators of vRAN’s resilience and allow it to flourish. For now, at least, it may be the case that Dell is simply chasing vRAN with more vigor than HPE. Earlier this year, Dell managed to become Nokia’s preferred vRAN server partner, even replacing some in-house Nokia servers that were already in customers’ hands.
Meanwhile, any forward movement on vRAN gives Ericsson an increased advantage over China-based competitors Huawei and ZTE, which are not rigorously pursuing vRAN commercially.
In its announcement of the Dell deal, Ericsson also said the duo will advise CSPs on “reducing the risks associated with deploying on open, multi-vendor environments.” Highlighting the negative aspects of Open RAN in that way (its “risks”) is a hint that, as Ericsson introduces operators to vRAN, it won’t exactly be twisting their arms into an embrace of multi-vendor Open RAN. This is logical, as Open RAN poses a competitive threat to Ericsson by enabling competitors such as Samsung, Mavenir, and others. But it runs slightly counter to Ericsson’s public promotion of itself as an Open RAN leader in the wake of a major deal with US operator AT&T late last year that included an Open RAN component.
Because vRAN and Open RAN complement each other well, the two topics are sometimes conflated without appreciating important distinctions between them. (In fact, it’s possible that continued vRAN momentum could help stimulate the Open RAN space.) But for Ericsson, vRAN is a much more enticing commercial opportunity for evolving its traditional business, while Open RAN is a potential impediment that it will nonetheless accommodate to satisfy its customers’ wishes. And while true, multi-vendor Open RAN has struggled to build meaningful momentum, vRAN is gaining steam, as this week’s development between Ericsson and Dell illustrates.