Telecom Italia and Cisco seal cloud business services partnership

MILAN (Reuters) - Telecom Italia's cloud business Noovle and U.S. technology firm Cisco have sealed a partnership to develop cloud services for companies and public administrations, they said in a statement on Tuesday.

The move comes as the Italian government prepares to create a national cloud hub for public administration data that will be financed using a portion of the European Union funds earmarked to help its economy recover from the pandemic.

Italy wants to use cloud technology developed by big overseas firms, Italy's innovation minister said, while making sure the data is stored locally.

Owned by Italy's biggest phone company, Noovle, which is targeting 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) in revenue by 2024, operates a network of 17 data centres across the country and is working on building six new data facilities.

It sealed a strategic partnership with Alphabet's Google last year.

($1 = 0.8248 euros)

(Reporting by Elvira Pollina; Editing by David Clarke)