Telstra today announced that it will continue to partner with leading mining and construction equipment manufacturer, Komatsu. The agreement will see Telstra facilitate the future of Komatsu’s ICT and Machine to Machine (M2M) strategy in a whole of business deal worth $23 million over the next three years.

Building on a 15 year relationship, Telstra will provide the core telecommunications (voice, data and mobile) and strategic ICT services (M2M and agile cloud technologies) that helps Komatsu remain at the forefront of innovation.

Sean Taylor, Komatsu Australia’s Managing Director and CEO, said, “We’re committed to business innovation and staying one step ahead of our customer’s needs – and it’s only through relationships with key partners like Telstra that this is possible. We’re excited about the next phase in our ICT strategy and look forward to many more years of innovation.”

As part of the deal, Komatsu will build on a recent trial of Machine to Machine (M2M) connectivity, which enabled a ‘zero touch’ remote download of performance diagnostic data from Komatsu equipment on mine sites. Being able to access this data from the Komatsu inSite Centre in Fairfield (Sydney), in real-time, negated the need to remove the equipment from use while the data was downloaded, resulting in improved fleet and production efficiency for Komatsu’s customers.

Komatsu was also an early adopter of Telstra Cloud services, moving all of its’ infrastructure hosting into Telstra’s first-evolution cloud platform in 2010. Following a detailed review and roadmap development based on criticality of workloads, alignment to service levels, performance and cost outcomes, Komatsu will transition to a hybrid cloud solution this year. The new solution will include a dedicated private cloud with native integration into Microsoft Azure for storage and additional workload deployments. As part of the new platform deployment, Komatsu will also enhance its’ disaster recovery capability with automated services that will significantly improve the recovery time objective, dramatically reducing risk to the company.

Ian Harvison, CIO at Komatsu, said, “From the beginning of our cloud journey with Telstra, the focus has been on giving more time back to the business so we can innovate and adapt, and not worry about IT. This new agreement will be an extension of our collaborative relationship and will ensure we continue to lead our category within the mining sector.

“Telstra understands where we’ve come from and more importantly where we want to take our business, and we feel very confident that our technology and business is future proofed to allow us to compete in a continually evolving and competitive landscape.”

Martijn Blanken, Chief Customer Officer, Telstra Global Enterprise and Services, said, “Komatsu has consistently been an early adopter of technology, and this new agreement is further evidence of its continued innovation strategy.

“The Telstra team has been working closely with Komatsu to co-create solutions that deliver the right service outcomes for the right investment. The new hybrid cloud model will give Komatsu a base platform that aligns to its’ current workloads, but also gives them the ability to scale and grow as its’ needs change over time.”