Nokia announced it will shift its cloud infrastructure and container operations to Red Hat to bolster its OpenShift and OpenStack platforms to better support 5G, core, MEC and RAN services.

A Red Hat representative told Mobile World Live more than 350 Nokia cloud infrastructure employees will move as part of the agreement.

Red Hat is now Nokia’s “primary cloud infrastructure platform” for the development, testing and delivery of its core network applications, the representative said.

In a statement, Red Hat SVP for telecommunications, media and entertainment and edge Darrell Jordan-Smith explained the companies will enable service providers to capitalise on the 5G opportunity by deploying their networks on its products.

Red Hat will combine Nokia’s Container Services and CloudBand Infrastructure Software into its OpenShift and OpenStack platforms, with the Finnish vendor continuing to ship, deliver and support its products and remain customers’ primary point of contact.

Nokia will certify its core network cloud-native and virtualised network functions on Red Hat’s products.

The arrangement gives Nokia cloud infrastructure platform customers access to Red Hat’s 4G and 5G use cases and technologies.