Jun 29, 2021

Alma Media expands use of Google Cloud with Elisa 29.6.2021, 09:00 Alma Media is expanding its usage of Google Cloud in cooperation with Elisa, a Finnish pioneer in telecommunications and digital services. Alma Media, a leading Finnish media and digital service company, is continuing to expand its public cloud usage and has selected Google Cloud as a key data and analytics platform and its future platform for running SAP. The capabilities of Google Cloud provide Alma Media with increased agility and scale, which are important in its growth strategy. In addition to both organisations being based in Finland, Elisa and Alma Media are united by their long history of cooperation. Elisa already produces various IT services for Alma Media, and Google Cloud is a natural choice for the expansion of this collaboration. “Alma Media and Elisa already have a long-term, wide-ranging cooperation in IT and connectivity services. Having Elisa as a partner for Google Cloud services is a natural extension of our collaboration that will bring synergies in further development and maintenance of services,” says Santtu Elsinen, CDO of Alma Media. “Elisa’s portfolio in cloud services is divided between professional services, managed services and partner programmes. We are seeking strong growth in public cloud services in our home market in Finland, and this agreement marks a significant milestone on our journey, as it expands our ability to provide a broad range of ICT services for a wide variety of needs. Elisa has long been a provider of Alma Media's ICT services. Close cooperation and dialogue between the three parties lie at the heart of this partnership,” says Anna-Mari Ylihurula, Vice President of Customer Operations at Elisa. For Alma Media, other important criteria included the customer data being located in Finland, the sustainability of the cloud technology, and the local impact on employment. Elisa became the first carbon-neutral operator in the Nordics in 2020. Elisa uses electricity from renewable sources, optimises its network, and supplies the waste heat from its data centres to district heating networks. Elisa also has the goal of reducing emissions from its own operations by 50% from the 2016 level by the year 2025. Google Cloud has made remarkable investments in its data centre in Hamina, and the local employment impact of the data centre is considerable. Google’s Hamina data centre is one of the worlds’ most sustainable – it already operates on more than 90% carbon-free energy and is aiming to become fully carbon-free by 2030. “Deploying SAP, data and analytics on Google Cloud at scale will enable Alma Media to quickly respond to its ever-changing business demands,” says Annika Nevaste, Head of Corporate Business at Google Cloud Nordics. “Our clients are increasingly turning to us for core compute workloads in the Nordic countries. We’re committed to providing them with a futureproof cloud for their critical workloads and working seamlessly with our strategic business partners.” The transition to the cloud platform will take place in stages, and the first steps have already been completed together. There is a separate migration, and Alma Media, Elisa and Google Cloud will work closely together to ensure a successful transition. Google Cloud can accelerate organisations’ ability to digitally transform their businesses with futureproof infrastructure, platform, industry solutions and expertise. Google Cloud delivers enterprise-grade cloud solutions that leverage cutting-edge technology to help companies operate more efficiently and adapt to changing needs, giving customers a foundation for the future. Customers in more than 200 countries and territories turn to Google Cloud as their trusted partner to solve their most critical business problems. Tietoa julkaisijasta Elisa’s mission is a sustainable future through digitalisation. We are a pioneer in telecommunications and digital services, and technologies. We provide sustainable solutions for over 2.8 million consumer, corporate and public administration customers in our core markets of Finland and Estonia as well as in over 100 countries internationally. In Finland, Elisa is a market leader in telecommunications, our international cooperation partners include e.g. Vodafone and Tele2. Elisa is listed on the Nasdaq Helsinki; in 2020 our revenue was EUR 1.89 billion euros and we employed over 5,000 people. Elisa is a carbon-neutral company. Follow our journey: elisa.com, Facebook @elisasuomi, Twitter @ElisaOyj