The deal, details of which have not been disclosed, will give Verizon access to CloudSwitch’s products for migrating applications securely between data centres and the cloud, without the need for adapting those applications or the infrastructure level that carries them.
The CloudSwitch purchase is just the latest in a series of moves by Verizon to bring about a strategic switch into the cloud services market. Earlier this year, the carrier spent $1.4 billion to buy Terremark, a cloud service company that delivers services out of 50 different data centres around the globe. Joint Terremark and Verizon cloud services were launched worldwide in June centring around infrastructure as a service and managed hosting services.
Verizon has also partnered with major equipment vendor Cisco to offer cloud-based unified communications services such as videoconferencing and instant messaging services using Cisco's dedicated cloud infrastructure. And last year Verizon teamed with IT firm IBM to offer a cloud storage and back up service.
“The cloud market is a rapidly growing opportunity, with very real benefits both for our business customers and the consumers they serve,” said Bob Toohey, president of Verizon’s global enterprise unit. “With the acquisition of CloudSwitch, Verizon has taken another step forward in defining the enterprise cloud.”
“By joining Verizon, we will be able to deliver a solution that combines our software with the market-leading infrastructure cloud play,” said John McEleney, CEO of CloudSwitch. “Our vision has always been to create a seamless and secure federation of cloud environments across enterprise data centres and global cloud services.”
