Tech Mahindra and Telefónica Germany expand partnership to build private cloud platform

Tech Mahindra and Telefónica Germany announced on June 23, 2026, an expansion of their existing partnership to build a next-generation private cloud platform and deliver Platform-as-a-Service for the German carrier's telecom and enterprise operations. The engagement is structured as a multi-year program, according to a press release distributed via PR Newswire.

What the platform covers

The platform is designed as a scalable blueprint for open digital infrastructure, built around six primary components: compute, storage, backup, containers, GPUs, and ransomware protection as a service. Together, these form the foundation of a full-scale private cloud that Telefónica Germany can use to run both traditional workloads and newer cloud-native services.

Tech Mahindra will contribute platform engineering, AI-driven automation, cloud-native orchestration, and infrastructure-as-code capabilities to the build. Self-service management tools are also part of the scope, giving Telefónica Germany's teams direct operational control over the environment.

Harshul Asnani, President and Head of Europe Business at Tech Mahindra, said the partnership reflects a shared focus on building infrastructure that combines automation, flexibility, and resilience to support cloud-native innovation and B2B growth, as reported by PR Newswire.

Infrastructure sovereignty is a central goal

A notable element of the deal is its emphasis on reducing Telefónica Germany's dependency on proprietary virtualization environments. The shift to an open, cloud-native PaaS architecture is framed in the announcement as a move toward greater infrastructure sovereignty, an increasingly prominent priority for European telecoms navigating regulatory and supply-chain pressures.

Markus Ruwisch, Head of Infrastructure Platforms and Services at Telefónica Germany, said the partnership is intended to establish a platform capable of supporting AI-native digital services, enterprise workloads, and evolving B2B requirements in Germany, while also strengthening operational control and long-term infrastructure resilience, according to PR Newswire.

B2B monetization and telco cloud advancement

Beyond internal modernization, Telefónica Germany is positioned to expand its B2B offerings through the new platform. The unified PaaS foundation is expected to support new service monetization opportunities as enterprise customers in Germany increasingly demand cloud-native solutions from their telco providers.

For Tech Mahindra, the deal extends its footprint as a platform engineering and cloud transformation partner for telecom operators across Europe. The company's work spans managed services, telecom infrastructure modernization, and cloud-native delivery, and this engagement adds a flagship private cloud build to that portfolio.

Context in European telecom modernization

European telecoms have been under sustained pressure to modernize legacy infrastructure, cut costs tied to proprietary vendor lock-in, and build the technical capacity to serve enterprise and B2B customers with cloud-grade services. Partnerships between telcos and platform engineering specialists have become a common response, with operators seeking partners who can deliver end-to-end builds rather than point solutions.

Tech Mahindra's approach in this engagement, combining AI-first operations with open-source-friendly cloud-native tooling, reflects the direction many European operators are taking as they plan infrastructure for the next decade. The next milestone for the partnership will be the delivery of the initial PaaS environment, which the two companies have not publicly dated.