Nokia and IMS Networks selected by RENATER for data centre deployments in Paris

Nokia has announced a major partnership with RENATER, the National Research and Education Network in France responsible for deploying and managing national, as well as some regional, network infrastructure, to connect research and education centres across France’s mainland and oversea territories.

Nokia will deploy its Data Center Fabric solution in Paris, in partnership with IMS Networks, a leading French network and cybersecurity managed services provider. As a result, RENATER will benefit from the latest features to enhance the performance and resilience of the network infrastructure, automate operations to facilitate management, and create new services ready for the AI era.

This strategic partnership will see deployment of the full Nokia Data Center Fabric solution in RENATER’s two data centers which include 7220 IXRs for leaf, spine and border leaf routers powered by Nokia that run on an open, extensible and resilient SR Linux Network Operating System (NOS).

Nokia has strong expertise in France within IP/MPLS networks for both operators and critical networks, and its Data Center Fabric solution offers the latest technological innovations coupled with advanced data center capabilities to simplify complex operations to meet the evolving needs of RENATER.

Boris Dintrans, Managing Director at RENATER, said: “We are excited to embark on this journey with Nokia, a company whose name is synonymous with innovation, reliability, and, what is increasingly important for our long-term strategy, European digital sovereignty. This new Nokia Data Center Fabric infrastructure will not only support RENATER’s capacity growth but will also allow for the development of new services for our members and users, particularly those operating in AI that require state-of-the-art networks, both inside and outside of data centres for data feeding.”

Sacha Hilic, Chief Executing Officer at IMS Networks, said: With this new Data Center Fabric project, we are bringing all our technical network expertise to the challenges of resilience and performance of RENATER’s critical infrastructures. This underlines our commitment to excellence and our vision of a more connected, secure and innovative digital future.”

Matthieu Bourguignon, Senior Vice President and Head of Europe for Network Infrastructure Business at Nokia, said: “We are honoured to help support RENATER’s transition towards the burgeoning field of AI and the promise it holds for educators and students, across France. Nokia is delighted to partner with IMS Networks with our Data Center Fabric solution, which is a key pillar of the evolution of Network Infrastructure and Data Center markets, dedicated to research, education and connected territories.”