SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 31. At VMworld 2010, Verizon Business and VMware unveiled a new enterprise-class hybrid cloud solution that will enable enterprises to move their applications to the cloud more quickly without compromising security or performance. The new solution, underpinned by Verizon's world-class global IP network and the industry-leading VMware vSphere(TM) virtualization platform, will help remove the major barriers to cloud computing adoption, while enabling the delivery of "IT as a Service."
The new offering joins Verizon's Computing as a Service (CaaS) portfolio of cloud computing services. Earlier this month, Verizon began field trials of this new service -- Computing as a Service (CaaS) enabled by VMware vCloud(TM) Datacenter -- that will allow enterprises to decide which applications to move to the cloud so they can react more quickly to changing business conditions. The hybrid cloud environment from Verizon and VMware will help enterprises leverage the scalability and cost effectiveness of the public cloud by paying only for IT resources consumed (server, connectivity, storage) while delivering the levels of security, performance and control available in private cloud environments.
Additionally, with Verizon's new compute service, enterprises utilizing the VMware platform can leverage their existing infrastructure, tool and skill sets without changing their underlying IT setup. Kerry Bailey, Verizon Business senior vice president for enterprise strategy, said, "Verizon is highly committed to helping large-business and government clients harness the transformative power of cloud computing so they can be more agile. With this latest addition to our cloud computing portfolio, our enterprise clients can now trial the unmatched flexibility of our new hybrid cloud solution, which builds on our relationship with VMware to deliver a new, innovative service while leading the industry to an 'everything-as-a-service' model."
IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group) with more than 4,500 hotel properties and 650,000 guest rooms in more than 100 countries and territories worldwide is the first to participate in Verizon's field trial. Being able to quickly react to changing market conditions is key to IHG's ongoing success, and one way the company is meeting this challenge is through its technology and Web capabilities. For example, IHG experiences higher booking activity during holiday and vacation periods, and the ability to meet peak capacity by clicking a mouse is extremely helpful to the hotel company.
"With the right technology behind us, we can better respond to the needs of our guests, owners and employees to deliver a superior hotel experience," said Bates Turpen, senior vice president of global operations for IHG. "By teaming with Verizon and VMware, we are able to test moving different application mixes into the cloud. We must have the elasticity in our computing infrastructure that the cloud delivers while, at the same time, use our current IT configurations and applications; that's a big win for us."
