Verizon goes with AWS as its preferred public cloud provider

Verizon announced today that it was going with Amazon Web Services (AWS) as its preferred public cloud provider.

Verizon said it planned on moving 1,000 business applications and database systems over to AWS, several of which also include the migration of production databases to Amazon Aurora.

Partnering with AWS is the latest chapter of Verizon's cloud journey. In 2011 it bought cloud and managed service provider Terramark as part of its public and private cloud strategy. Two years ago, Verizon shut down its public cloud offering and then sold off its cloud and managed hosting service assets to IBM.

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Verizon first started working with AWS in 2015 and it currently has several business and consumer applications running in the AWS cloud. Verizon is undergoing a company-wide effort to increase its agility and reduce its costs through cloud computing.

"We are making the public cloud a core part of our digital transformation, upgrading our database management approach to replace our proprietary solutions with Amazon Aurora," said Mahmoud El-Assir, senior vice president of Global Technology Services at Verizon, in a prepared statement. “The agility we’ve gained by moving to the world’s leading public cloud has helped us better serve our customers. Working with AWS complements our focus on efficiency, speed, and innovation within our engineering culture, and has enabled us to quickly deliver the best, most efficient customer experiences."

Earlier this month, Verizon's Oath unit selected AWS as its preferred cloud provider.

Operators are working with cloud providers as they virtualize and automate their hybrid networks to offer services to their enterprise customers. Last year, AT&T announced it had  expanded its business cloud network partnership with AWS.

Prior to its merger with CenturyLink, Level 3 gave its enterprise-cloud customers the ability to connect with AWS, which CenturyLink subsequently rebranded under its own product name.