Telstra launches Gurrowa Innovation Lab

Telstra yesterday cut the ribbon on the Gurrowa Innovation Lab in Melbourne.

The telco said the lab's aim is to provide a space for Telstra, the telco's customers and partners, incubators, vendors and research institutes to collaborate on technology.

"The lab is the centerpiece of our innovation and technology research capabilities, located in our Melbourne Headquarters," the telco's CTO, Vish Nandlall, wrote in a blog entry.

"Gurrowa, which means Interchange in the Wurung language, signifies the interchanging of ideas that will take place in this unique co-creation space that will drive the new wave of innovation at Telstra."

"Gurrowa builds on the Telstra Research Partnership Program we launched last year and is part of our strategy to develop world-class innovation capabilities," Telstra's chief operations officer, Kate McKenzie, said in a statement.

"These include our Gurrowa co-creation environment, extended collaboration with our vast, connected innovation network, and an innovation model that will deliver speed at scale for new and enhanced products and services for our customers."

Pivotal partnership

The telco also announced a joint venture with US cloud software company Pivotal, and that it was joining the Cloud Foundry Foundation.

"Becoming a member of the Cloud Foundry Foundation will allow us to use cloud native platform capabilities as the engine room for innovation projects in Gurrowa and allows us to reduce our time to market for new products and services," McKenzie said.

"By partnering with Pivotal, who are global leaders in agile development and cloud native platform, we will enhance our innovation offering for our customers and create a pipeline of skills to grow our development capabilities."

Pivotal said it was opening a new Pivotal Labs office in Sydney later this year.

"The arrival of Pivotal Labs in Australia presents a great opportunity for local organisations," said Melissa Ries, vice-president and general manager APJ for Pivotal

"Pivotal Labs will quickly become a software innovation hub for Australia’s largest enterprises in all industries to transform into great software companies — taking digital disruption to the next level."

"Pivotal has a great relationship with Telstra, which is built on a foundation of shared visions," Ries said.

"With Telstra's involvement in the Cloud Foundry Foundation and our joint venture, we're partnering to help Telstra's customers transform into great software companies."