The OneCloud Partner Program, launched in late July, aims to reduce cloud investment costs and allow carriers to co-operate and manage traffic better, particularly in the emerging markets.
Keao Caindec, CMO of Dimension Data’s cloud solutions business, told Capacity the initiative would target emerging market players who have been notoriously slow to embrace the cloud.
Operators in the US and Europe have started investment in cloud services in earnest, as an increasing amount of telecoms carriers look to tap into the ICT space. So far, many have found a lower rate of return than projected. Analysts too, have pointed to the fact that there has been little investment in cloud services from the emerging markets, hindering growth of the global cloud.
The initiative will enable service providers, educational institutions, government agencies and trading communities to create an ecosystem of cloud service providers that will work to exchange traffic.
Caindec likened the initiative to similar forums and alliances that presently exist in the wholesale market for other services, including alliances between carriers in Ethernet and the IPX exchange.
“If you look at the Ethernet industry there are forums and initiatives that allow operators to collaborate and it has been successful,” he said. “Our approach requires an accurate amount of cooperation and business partnerships to make cloud work successfully.”
Dimension Data, which is owned by NTT, confirmed to Capacity that Indosat in Indonesia, Hutchison Global in Hong Kong and VSNL in India have already signed up to the cloud partnership platform.
