Tech Mahindra deepens telco cloud push

TECH Mahindra has expanded its European telecommunications ambitions, announcing a multi-year agreement with Telefónica Germany to develop a next-generation private cloud platform, while separately strengthening its strategic alliance with Microsoft through an AI-powered 5G network digital twin solution.

The announcements reinforce the Indian technology giant’s focus on becoming a leading infrastructure and artificial intelligence (AI) partner for telecommunications operators as they accelerate cloud-native transformation and autonomous network operations.

Under the new agreement, Tech Mahindra will work with Telefónica Germany to build a private Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) environment designed to modernise telecom infrastructure and support enterprise workloads through a scalable, cloud-native architecture.

The platform will provide modular infrastructure services including compute, storage, backup, container management, GPU resources and ransomware protection, while reducing reliance on proprietary virtualisation platforms.

The initiative also aims to strengthen Telefónica Germany’s digital sovereignty and expand business-to-business (B2B) services.

Tech Mahindra will deploy AI-driven automation, cloud-native orchestration, infrastructure-as-code frameworks, and self-service platform management to support the new environment.

Tech Mahindra president and head of Europe business Harshul Asnani said operators increasingly required open and flexible infrastructure capable of supporting evolving digital services.

“Telcos are looking for open, scalable, and cloud-native infrastructure environments that support evolving digital service demands while optimising operational efficiency,” he said.

“Our partnership with Telefónica Germany reflects a shared commitment to building a solution that combines automation, flexibility and resilience.”

Telefónica Germany said the partnership would underpin its long-term infrastructure strategy.

“This partnership supports our strategy to modernise infrastructure through a more open, flexible and resilient Platform-as-a-Service architecture,” said Telefónica Germany head of infrastructure platforms and services Markus Ruwisch.

“Together with Tech Mahindra, we will establish a platform foundation capable of supporting future AI-native digital services, enterprise workloads and evolving B2B requirements in Germany.”

In a separate announcement, Tech Mahindra also revealed a collaboration with Microsoft focused on accelerating autonomous telecommunications networks using AI-powered digital twin technology.

The new solution combines Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Fabric and Azure Digital Twins with Tech Mahindra’s telecommunications expertise to create real-time digital replicas of live mobile networks.

Designed for medium and large-scale operators managing complex multi-vendor infrastructure, the platform continuously analyses network telemetry using agentic AI to simulate network behaviour, predict faults and automate operational decisions.

Rather than relying on conventional monitoring systems, operators will be able to model network performance, identify potential issues before they occur and automate corrective actions through closed-loop orchestration.

The platform is also designed to support monetisation of advanced 5G capabilities, including network slicing and edge computing services backed by enhanced service assurance and predictive analytics.

Chief transformation officer Amol Phadke said the technology represented a significant shift in how operators managed increasingly complex mobile networks.

“As telecom networks evolve to support increasingly sophisticated services and enterprise use cases, operators are under pressure to manage growing operational complexity while unlocking new sources of value from their infrastructure,” he said.

“Through our integration with Microsoft, we are combining digital twin technology, unified data intelligence and agentic AI to help operators move toward autonomous network operations.”

Microsoft said the collaboration would help operators move beyond passive network monitoring.

“Tech Mahindra’s AI-powered 5G Network Digital Twins brings real-time intelligence to even the most complex network environments,” said Microsoft senior global director of strategy Alessandra Antonelli.

“Operators can move from passive monitoring to active, intelligent decisioning, with agentic AI that reasons, simulates and acts across live network environments in real time.”

Together, details in the announcements may assist Tech Mahindra become an increasingly significant player in Europe’s telecommunications transformation, combining private cloud infrastructure, artificial intelligence and digital twin technologies as operators seek to reduce costs, improve resilience and unlock new revenue streams from next-generation 5G services.

With telecommunications operators under growing pressure to modernise ageing infrastructure while preparing for AI-native services, it appears Tech Mahindra is betting integrated cloud platforms and intelligent network automation will become central pillars of the industry’s next phase of digital transformation.