Verizon Cloud Goes Global

Verizon cloud-based IT services goes global. Verizon business said it will expand its Infrastructure-as-a-Service to wholesale customers worldwide. The IaaS product, introduced in the U.S. last June, has previously been available to select customers in Europe and the Asia/Pacific region on a one-off basis.

A full suite of cloud-based on-demand IT infrastructure services, Verizon’s IaaS is designed to compete with similar cloud offerings from major tech companies including IBM, Amazon and others. It’s designed to allow service provider and large enterprises to quickly scale up or throttle back computing and network resources as changing business needs dictate, to monitor the performance and reliability of those resources, and to pay for them on an as-you-go basis.

The Infrastructure-as-a-Service product is offered by Verizon’s Global Wholesale unit. Research firm Ovum said in a report released in August that big carriers will become major forces in the cloud computing market as customer demand increases rapidly over the next two to three years. AT&T, Verizon, Orange Business Services and BT have all made significant strides in cloud services in the lasts year, report author Peter Hall wrote, and in terms of services, can now compete with established players from the IT industry.

“The major telcos have a long heritage in providing managed data center services and hosting," said Hall, “and have combined this with their networking and security expertise to meet the needs of customers for cloud computing services."