German pharmaceutical company Bayer is outsourcing the management of its global IT network to Verizon Business. The company said that in the past its in-house team handled the global IT network and was supported by several different technology companies, including Verizon. However, when Bayer decided to move to a cloud-first model, it decided that it wanted to outsource the management of most of its global network to a single service provider and selected Verizon.
For Verizon Business this deal is a significant win. The company will manage network services for Bayer in more than 700 sites in 91 countries. The five-year deal, which includes the option to extend it another two years, includes the management of a global Private IP network, a managed SD-WAN, and additional professional services.
Because this is such a huge deal that encompasses so many countries, Chris Nicoll, principal with Nicoll Associates, said there aren’t many companies other than Verizon that could manage such an enormous network. “The operators are showing that they have a significant role to play in enterprise networking,” he said.
Roger Entner, founder of Recon Analytics, said that Verizon Business is the unsung hero of Verizon Communications, adding that it is a global player and has a strong presence in Germany. In its second quarter 2020 earnings, Verizon’s global enterprise business reported revenues of $2.6 billion, which was down from $2.7 billion in the second quarter of 2019.
RELATED: Despite Covid-19, Verizon adds 10,000 residential broadband customers in Q2
Entner also speculated that although this deal doesn’t include a private LTE network for Bayer, it might eventually extend to include that type of arrangement.
Bijoy Sagar, Bayer’s chief information technology and digital transformation officer, said in a statement that the deal will allow the company’s internal IT department to focus on generating value for the corporation’s life sciences businesses.