Intelligent CIO Europe Issue 27 | Page 20

NEWS Telefónica Deutschland to invest in its mobile network by 2022 NetApp continues collaboration with Italian motorcycle racing team Andrea Dovizioso and Danilo Petrucci of the Ducati Corse motorcycle racing team T elefónica Deutschland plans to accelerate its growth significantly in the coming years. Between 2020 and 2022, the company intends to increase its revenue by at least 5% overall while further increasing its profitability. As a basis for growth, an additional several hundred million euros are to be invested in network expansion. To date, Telefónica Deutschland has invested around one billion euros annually, most of it into its network. The company will invest around 17% to 18% of its revenue in the next two years to enable the nationwide expansion of LTE and the rapid establishment of a high-performance 5G mobile communications infrastructure. After a strong increase in network performance in 2019 and obtaining a ‘good’ rating across three current network tests, the additional investment will help the company to offer its customers an outstanding network experience for all relevant fields of application. “With the new decade and the launch of 5G, our company is entering a growth phase,” said Markus Haas, CEO of Telefónica Deutschland. “We are going to invest more to capture market share, particularly in rural areas and with business customers, where a high-performance mobile communications and fixed-network infrastructure will be a great asset.” Thanks to the additional investment funds, the company will be able to accelerate the grid expansion even further from 2020 onwards. N etApp, a leader in cloud data services, is continuing its collaboration with the Italian-based Ducati Corse motorcycle racing team. In the last 12 months, Ducati has increased the use of hyperconverged (HCI) solutions, which are now the basis for the IT infrastructure of branches in EMEA and are used on the track to improve performance. In addition, all NetApp flash solutions are now powering over 200 applications, consolidating and protecting the entire Ducati data environment. Ducati, supported by NetApp, has been carrying out numerous digital projects ranging from HPC simulations for motorcycle aerodynamics to the 20 INTELLIGENTCIO development of connected motorcycles, as well as from the design and implementation of the Ducati Link app - which allows all motorcyclists to configure parameters, record performances and itineraries and discover a new way of travelling, up to the improvement of safety and the development of new motorcycles. NetApp has renewed the official sponsorship of the Ducati Corse motorcycle racing team for the 2020 MotoGP World Championship. “It gives us great pleasure to continue the partnership with NetApp, as we consider data and Digital Transformation a key component of our strategy for the future and for our success,” said Claudio Domenicali, CEO of Ducati Motor Holding. n www.intelligentcio.com