PLDT renews partnership with IBM

Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) has renewed its partnership with IBM Philippines as part of the company’s ongoing shift to the digital economy.

PLDT executive vice president Eric Alberto said the expanded tie up would further enable the country’s digital economy by helping thrust leading industries ahead with a wider suite of cloud-based services akin to ICT-advanced economies.

“The country is undoubtedly ready to lead a digital economy evident in our culture of being sociable, curious, creative, tech-savvy, and innovative. With some of our clients already enjoying the benefits of cloud, there has been positive impact on their bottomline because of operational efficiencies and lowered operating costs that have helped them manage their businesses better,” he said.

Alberto, who is also president and chief executive officer of ePLDT, said the enhanced partnership allows PLDT enterprise clients to leverage on IBM’s Cloud offerings and solutions through Softlayer Infrastracture-as-a-Service (IaaS).

Alberto said the solutions would give enterprises a wider choice and flexibility in implementing a cloud environment suited to their business.

“Together with IBM’s unique Softlayer Baremetal offerings, we hope to better evangelize cloud benefits and help more Filipino enterprises to integrate cloud into their business and enable them move ahead in the competitive digital era,” Alberto said.

Businesses could opt to roll out the full-range of SoftLayer infrastructure services, including bare metal servers, virtual servers, storage, security services and networking that can lower costs of implementing their own ICT infrastructure.

The IBM Cloud, offered through PLDT Cloud, gives organizations the speed and security of expanding its IT capacity based on dynamic needs such as seasonal demand. Philippine businesses will also benefit from cost efficiencies delivered by the on-demand and pay-as-you-go model as the cost can lower depending on the time of usage that they need the service.

“We are optimistic of the value of this partnership for the businesses and the entrepreneurs in appreciating the advantages of adopting a flexible cloud environment,” IBM Philippines president and country general manager Luis Pineda said.

“We are bringing a full suite of leading-edge cloud solutions to best answer the growing needs of businesses today from scalability, performance, and security requirements, easing the transition of business owners to implement Cloud-driven operations,” he added.