Verizon Gets Physical, Virtual with New Cloud Services

| Jun 3, 2009 | Managed IT Services | Competitive Intelligence Report

| Analyst: Counse Broders

Current Perspective: Positive
Vendor Importance: Moderate
Market Impact: High

Event Summary

June 3, 2009 -- Verizon Business introduced its on-demand, “cloud-based” Computing as a Service (CaaS) solution designed to help clients meet their security and performance requirements. The service uses Verizon’s global IP infrastructure and data centers to help mid-market and larger companies. Clients use a Web-based portal to employ computing resources in the quantities and duration dictated by their business needs.

Analytical Summary

• Current Perspective: Positive on Verizon’s new Computing as a Service (CaaS), as the company hits this nascent market at a time when users are receptive to new ways of doing business, and it is offering a competitive product that should stand up well.

• Vendor Importance: Moderate to Verizon Business, because the company needed to stay on-trend, utilizing its Smart Centers with a computing-as-a-service offering that hits the market at a time when customers are ready to consider seriously an on-demand model.

• Market Impact: High on the managed data center services market, since Verizon Business comes to the plate with a solid offering that includes the ability to turn up a virtual or physical server, which should give it an edge over competitors’ offerings.

Recommended Competitor Actions

• AT&T can point out that it rolled out its AT&T Synaptic Hosting service in 2008, and it has already expanded on this with its virtual storage announcement in May 2009. AT&T can support large-scale computing and applications on demand via virtualized servers and deliver services across its IDC hosting infrastructure.

• IBM has long been a champion of cloud computing and it can point out that not only does it offer solutions such as Lotus Live, but it also has extensive resources for developers to support enterprises going to a computing-as-a-service solution, providing professional help that will be useful as clients educate themselves on this new technology approach.

• CSC got a head start on Verizon’s announcement by jumping into this space earlier this week. CSC is providing a family of cloud services leveraging the company's strengths with private clouds and combining them with new public cloud solutions.

Recommended Competitor Actions

• End users looking for a solid telco-grade computing-as-a-service option will find a lot to like with Verizon’s new CaaS offering, especially those customers that want to enable a physical server on the fly in addition to virtual resources.

• Customers will want to review this offering against others in the market, including Amazon’s CaaS solutions, as it has a long track record in this space against which others will be compared.

CLIENTS ONLY

Current Perspective

Competitive Positives and Concerns

Recommended Vendor Actions

| Client access - Full report in Managed IT Services | More information

Top