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SavvisDirect, the cloud arm of CenturyLink telecommunications, has launched a private cloud service for application development, AppGrid, to give enterprises a secure setting in which to produce and deploy new applications.

Public cloud services, such as Amazon Web Services EC2, are already frequently used as a testing site for new software. Test servers can be commissioned, configured to match a production environment and then dismantled when testing is done. In addition, platforms as a service, such as Heroku, bring sophisticated services to developers on Amazon to speed application development.

SavvisDirect is creating an alternative to the public cloud setting. It's inviting enterprise developers to adopt AppGrid as an off-premises cloud service that is nonetheless an unshared, single tenant environment where sensitive code can be produced, tested and deployed behind secure barriers.

For one thing, AppGrid starts with bare metal servers assigned to one customer that can be accessed only with credentials issued by SavvisDirect. The credentials can adhere to different privilege levels within a development team. Someone on the team must be granted root access to the servers but many companies don't want every developer having the ability to manipulate the basic operating characteristics of the server.