![](\"http:\/\/www.cloudcomputing-news.net\/media\/img\/news\/iStock-598678036_WLjBYwr.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Verizon is moving to Amazon Web Services (AWS) as its preferred public cloud provider – migrating more than 1,000 business critical applications and backend systems in the process.<\/p>\n
The announcement, made by AWS, notes that Verizon first started working with the cloud infrastructure behemoth in 2015, with the latest wave of migrations ‘part of a corporate-wide initiative at Verizon to increase agility and reduce costs through the use of cloud computing.’ Among the migrations are a series of production databases to Amazon Aurora.<\/p>\n
“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, Verizon senior vice president of global technology services in a statement. “The agility we’ve gained by moving to the world’s leading public cloud has helped us better serve our customers.<\/p>\n
“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,” El-Assir added.<\/p>\n
The move to AWS is an interesting one – and it’s worth noting here the distinction between having a ‘preferred’ provider and going all-in, as in the recent case with Ryanair<\/a>. At Google Next last year<\/a>, Alin D’Silva, VP and CTO of Verizon’s digital workplace initiative, explained to attendees how the company was rolling out G Suite to more than 150,000 employees.<\/p>\n Verizon’s history in the space is also worth mentioning. The telco acquired Terremark back in 2011, with a press release at the time noting the move would ‘clear the way for Verizon to lead the rapidly evolving global managed IT infrastructure and cloud services market.’<\/p>\n Alas, history did not quite turn out that way. Verizon’s cloud service was launched at the back of 2013, with Terremark’s technology at the forefront, and despite making a fair amount of noise and putting partnerships in place – one with Oracle for database software and middleware stands out<\/a> – the ship had long since sailed. In February 2016, Verizon shut down part of its public cloud service, and a year later it sold up to IBM<\/a>.<\/p>\n