IBM and American Tower are partnering on a hybrid, multi-cloud computing platform at the Edge.

The collaboration will make IBM Hybrid Cloud capabilities and Red Hat OpenShift accessible in the American Tower Access Edge Data Center ecosystem. It will give clients access to Edge technologies, IoT, 5G, AI, and network automation.

American Tower has a portfolio of around 226,000 wireless and broadcast towers, rooftops, and in-building systems globally, as well as a collection of US-based data centers after acquiring CoreSite in 2021.

The company will be deploying IBM's hybrid cloud platform and systems at American Tower's distributed real estate locations, creating an "Edge cloud," and will also be able to deploy these on-premise for customers.

The two companies will provide all the necessary infrastructure for enterprises looking to utilize offerings such as AI and 5G networks.

In a statement, IBM said: “As a result of this collaboration, we aim to give enterprises more flexibility to deploy applications – on public clouds, at the Edge, or on-premises.

“This can help to securely process and quickly analyze data closer to the point where it is created.” Among those sectors likely to benefit, the automation industry is noted.

American Towers-owned CoreSite has eight data centers in Silicon Valley, three in Los Angeles, five in Virginia and DC, two each in Chicago, Denver, Miami, New York, and Atlanta, and one each in Boston and Orlando.

The company noted in its 2022 earnings calls that it had identified up to 1,000 potential locations for 1MW Edge sites. The company filed to develop an Edge data center in San Antonio, Texas, in July 2023.