Nokia expands lab-as-a-service solution to accelerate the digital transformation of enterprises

• Nokia incorporates new capabilities into Lab-as-a-Service to support Industry 4.0 use case validation and enterprise digital transformation.
• Solution now includes baseline and performance testing of third-party and enterprise devices and equipment.
• Streamlines customer proof of concept tests using Nokia Modular Private Wireless and Digital Automation Cloud solutions.
• New dedicated facility to open in Bangalore, India, expanding the service to more industry partners and customers.

Espoo, Finland – Nokia today announced that it is expanding its Lab-as-a-Service (LaaS) solution to include the validation testing of industrial user equipment and third-party devices connecting people and machines over Nokia digital automation cloud (DAC) and modular private wireless (MPW) networks. This will allow enterprises to streamline the testing of equipment and Industry 4.0 use cases over private wireless to assess how they will help achieve their digital transformation goals. A dedicated device testing facility in Bangalore, India will allow more customers to accelerate Industry 4.0 service adoption.

Nokia LaaS will enable enterprise customers to assess how devices and equipment working over 4.9G/LTE and 5G private wireless networks, will support their implementation of Industry 4.0 use cases. Leveraging Nokia Digital Automated Cloud (DAC) and Modular Private Wireless (MPW) customers will be able to see how enterprise, third-party or Nokia Industrial devices such as handhelds, field routers, dongles and wearables will connect machines and people and how that can advance their digitalisation journey.

Device validation consists of standardised testing packages. Vertical segments will benefit from Nokia’s extensive network, connectivity knowledge and rapid access to a range of pre-tested validation services. Enterprises can ensure any device functions well within a Nokia private wireless environment, and guarantee they meet the performance requirements of any use case.

The new Nokia LaaS device validation capabilities complement an already extensive range of services supporting chipset, device manufacturers, communication service providers (CSPs) and enterprises who want to introduce new elements in their devices and networks. These include the development testing of equipment and applications, certification, proof of concept testing of solutions and features and factory acceptance testing.

Industry digitalisation enables enterprises to leverage and manipulate their operational technology (OT) to transform processes and achieve business goals. Widespread implementation of autonomous robots, zero-fault manufacturing, predictive maintenance and other Industry 4.0 use cases rely on the secure real-time connectivity of people and machines using a range of devices. With no investment required by the customer, Nokia LaaS will allow enterprises to test device capabilities in Nokia labs or at their premises.

Nokia LaaS facilities are already in operation in the United States, Europe, South Korea and Japan, Nokia will now expand the service by opening a dedicated device testing facility for enterprise customers in Bangalore, India.

Kitty Weldon, Principal Analyst at GlobalData, said: “The expanded Nokia LaaS solution provides unique benefits to enterprises that are planning to deploy private wireless networks but may be concerned with cost, complexity, or device performance. By providing a complete test environment on an opex basis, enterprises can eliminate much of the expense and worry about how their devices and applications will perform, not just in a theoretical network, but for their specific deployment and use cases. The flexibility of the testing service, which can be performed at a Nokia site or on the customer premise, adds to the ease-of-use. LaaS for enterprises not only provides differentiation for Nokia but should help substantially with customer adoption of private wireless networks for Industry 4.0 digitalisation.”

Stephan Litjens, Vice President of Enterprise Campus Edge Solutions of Nokia, said: “Nokia is committed to supporting our enterprise customers to achieve their digitalisation goals in the most intuitive ways. Device validation will be an essential part of Lab-as-a-Service, allowing them to accelerate service adoption. Enterprises will be able to experiment with devices, use cases, with no up-front investment, to see how they deliver the greatest value from their operations over private wireless networks using Nokia DAC or MPW. In addition, by opening the dedicated facility in Bangalore, we can extend these capabilities to even more enterprise customers across the world.”