Digital transformation and the explosion of big data are having an effect on businesses worldwide amidst new global standards for operation set by the General Data Protection Regulation, which aims to strengthen and unify data protection within the European Union. Telecom Italia Sparkle S.p.A., a global IP, data, cloud and voice solution provider, began feeling this shift as its traditional market moved away from wholesale.

“We are undergoing a severe transformation altogether because things must be very much synchronized in this new, crazy world that is accelerating day by day,” said Daniele Mancuso (pictured), director of innovation and engineering at TI Sparkle.

Through the transition, the company discovered a supportive solution in Nutanix. Through its partnership with Nutanix Inc., TI Sparkle is working to move away from the traditional concept of network infrastructure to reach targets of new connectivity through the cloud platform.

Manusco spoke with Stu Miniman (@stu), co-host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the Nutanix .NEXT EU event in Nice, France. They discussed TI Sparkle’s journey with Nutanix and what the company hopes to achieve through the partnership in the years to come. (* Disclosure below.)

Refocusing strategy for a new age

In order to restore the sustainability of the company in the face of price declines and a shrinking wholesale market, Manusco and his team began a strategy that would pivot toward enterprises. “Our strategic plan involves us to consolidate and to enrich the offering of the wholesale services, as well as develop the new services focused for the enterprises with high capability of execution, fast time to market, and enriched with a plethora of plugins,” he said.

TI Sparkle adopted Nutanix to help make smooth, orchestrated transition. The partners created a data center to deploy all new software-driven capabilities. “Everything is running on Nutanix on this huge cluster with different nodes … in a very orchestrated and simple way,” he said. The agile model and rapid development provided by Nutanix has helped TI Sparkle improve service and better predict what customers will need in the future.

As the company scales, TI Sparkle is working to further utilize the Nutanix platform to expand the creation of its cloud infrastructure. Manusco and his team plan to gradually transition to cloud through a pivot to enterprise in markets where Sparkle has a consolidated presence like Italy, Greece and Turkey. Through this shift, the company plans to move even further into big data processing and transform its localized hubs. “They will essentially become microdata centers from which we can offer data proximity, data locality to customers,” Manusco said.

Looking ahead, Manusco is assured of TI Sparkle’s path forward with the support of Nutanix. “They have a strong vision of where they want to be in a couple of years from now, and we have seen that they have a high capacity of execution. … We want to get the same achievements,” he concluded.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of Nutanix .NEXT EU. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the Nutanix .NEXT EU event. Neither Nutanix Inc., the event sponsor, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE