Verb buys start-up cloud distie Infraserve

Regional NSW managed services provider Verb Group has bought cloud start-up and distribution partner InfraServe for an undisclosed sum.

InfraServe managing director Roy Pater has joined Verb as group sales director as part of the transaction.

He started InfraServe in 2010 as a cloud aggregator and began selling Verb's data centre services later that year. 

Verb sells wholesale managed services to system integrators, managed services providers and telcos. 

The merger with Infraserve added a channel-focused sales force and reseller base to the Verb Group.

“We had the channel program and channel skills set that they needed," Pater told CRN.

"At the same time we realised that we were distributing a finished cloud service, but the reseller isn’t quite wanting that yet.

“We found that resellers wanted to provide cloud and wrap their own services [around it]. They really want to be able to control that environment end to end, [and] Verb allows them to do that."

Pater said there was still room for cloud distributors in the market, believing the market was heading that way.

"But we're in a transitional phase," he said. 

Verb would focus on recruiting six or seven layer 1 system integrator partners. Synergy and Accucom have so far partnered with Verb.

The company planned to add another 30 to 50 layer 2 partners and resellers that wanted to start a cloud service but couldn't afford the infrastructure. 

Data centre and property

Verb Group was owned by property giants Henry Kendall Group which has diversified its focus from retirement village operator to data centres.

Damian WIlde, general manager of HKG told Australian Construction Focus recently that the business

was a "mix of property development and services delivery."

"Data Centres sit at the intersection of property development and information technology," he told the publication. 

VDC launched its Wyong-based modular data centre based on HP POD and Cisco technology in August 2010.

"Our infrastructure is fairly limitless based on the property we own.That is why we can rapidly deploy data centre,"  Pater said. 

"We have three data centre locations [in the works]. There’s not much we actually have to do. That’s taken care of by HKG."