Nokia entered a five-year collaboration with Google Cloud, a move designed to cut the vendor’s costs by migrating its on-premise IT infrastructure onto the cloud computing service.

In a joint statement, the companies noted the tie-up will involve Nokia migrating its global data centres and servers, and software applications to Google Cloud as part of the vendor’s shift to “a cloud-first IT strategy” and moves “to strengthen and transform” its global digital operations.

The pair expect the deal to drive “meaningful operational efficiencies and cost savings over time” by reducing Nokia’s property footprint, energy consumption and hardware capacity purchasing requirements.

As part of the partnership, Nokia will exit its data centres “on a rapid schedule” spanning 18 months to 24 months, while Google Cloud deploys “strategic systems integrators, solutions specialists and engineers to ensure a stable migration”.

Going forward, the vendor’s infrastructure and applications will run in the public cloud or a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model.

Nokia VP of global IT infrastructure Ravi Parmasad commented it was an “ideal time for Nokia” to team with Google Cloud to accelerate its digital transformation efforts “in a secure and scalable way”.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.