DiData launches global cloud program

Systems integrator Dimension Data has launched a suite of services designed to take the heavy lifting out of designing, deploying and managing public, private and hybrid cloud solutions for the enterprise. 

Peter Prowse, general manager of DiData Australia’s data centre solutions, told CRN the company would compete against the likes of Google, Microsoft and Amazon bringing to market the message that its solutions were simpler to deploy and more flexible.

Last week's launch of the service in Australia followed earlier launches in the US and Amsterdam. Prowse said the service would go live in South Africa and South East Asia in the next 60 days, adding so far DiData had signed up "in the 10's" of customers.

He said DiData's Cloud Solutions Suite had a powerful point of differentiation in the market in that it was able to cater to customers wanting "the ability to burst through to the public cloud".

It's for this reason that DiData ruled out any risk the service would compete head on with Azure, Microsoft's cloud services platform to which the South African integrator is already aligned as a premier partner.

“There would be no competition at all," Peter Menadue, DiData’s group general manager for Microsoft solutions said.

He said DiData was largely focussed on provisioning private cloud solutions for enterprise customers with options to augment with public services, while Microsoft’s strategy with Azure was almost 100 percent based around a public cloud offering.

“A key target for us is the enterprise and the private cloud is very important to them,” Menadue said.

“Microsoft offers a very large scale / public cloud out of a few data centres; they don’t deliver on-premise or supplement with hosting services like us.”

DiData also unveiled its Managed Cloud Platform (MCP) delivery platform for its range of cloud services as well as the Data CloudControl cloud management system for the automation of provisioning, orchestration, administration and billing.

The company confirmed that ac3 (the Australian Centre for Advanced Computing and Communications) had signed on as its first Managed Cloud Platform customer in Australia.

Betting large

DiData is big on strong enterprise demand for cloud services. Mid-last year the company created the global Dimension Data Cloud Solutions Business Unit, promoting former DiData Australia managing director Steve Nola as head.

It also completed its takeover of merged Sydney-based hosting companies BlueFire and Netforce. Six months earlier it bought respected Californian cloud and hosting services provider OpSource. The year before DiData was itself acquired by Japanese telecommunications giant NTT in a transaction valued at around $3.7 billion, creating a potential cloud powerhouse with a massive global customer base and a sprawling IT and telecommunications infrastructure.

“Our clients realise the transformational potential of cloud computing, whether it’s moving into new markets, launching new products, or improving IT efficiency,“ Nola said in a statement issued by DiData. “They’re also aware that migrating to the cloud is complex, with significant implications to their business across operations and IT. Our cloud services are designed to help clients reduce cost, move faster and manage risk effectively.”

DiData's offerings include advisory and consulting services to help customers better understand issues such as cloud readiness, governance, IT optimisation, data centre consolidation and technology architecture. Cloud integration services would help companies mesh traditional infrastructures with the various cloud topologies.

Compute-as-a-service (CaaS) offers virtual servers and storage services in both private and public environments, with 24/7 help desk services and an online community support portal complimenting the latter. Customers are also offered a range of other services including managed hosting, managed services (patch management, device configuration and backup).

In addition, DiData offers what it calls advanced value-added cloud services, which includes cloud-based backup and disaster recovery on the company’s MCP offering.