Verizon thinks of 'everything on cloud'

SINGAPORE: In an age of cloud, communications and IT solutions provider Verizon Business is looking at the possibility of 'everything on cloud'. And that was the core highlight of the Media Forum held here on Wednesday, which also highlighted India as the hub that connects East and the West in the cloud space.

“It is not just software or security as a service that we are looking at, but to provide everything on cloud,” said said Joe Crawford, executive director, IT solutions, Verizon Business while addressing the forum.

Crawford also talked about the immense potential of the cloud solutions spanning the length and breadth of the IT infrastructure of a company. To strengthen this cloud reach Verizon has also tied up with IBM and McAfee among others to offer more potential services in computing and security.

“Computing as a service answers all enterprise needs,” Crawford said, adding, “It helps a company to perform globally, and the customers have their choice too.”

And in that move, Verizon says, APAC, especially India, would benefit a lot. What the company has in mind is a “Europe India gateway”, where India can play a major role in Verizon's business plans in 2010, added Blair Crump, group president, worldwide sales and service at Verizon Business.

“We have the largest network in the world; we plan to grow more business from international markets than the US,” said Crump. He also emphasized that APAC benefited more from the expansion plans of Verizon, adding, “Verizon is a multinational company that, like its customers, is moving to new markets around the globe. This year our country-specific focus would be India and Japan.”

As of now Verizon Business has over 6000 people working in APAC region.

When Blair Crump was asked why the focus on Asia, he said, “Asia is the fastest growing economy, so it is the top area for us in 2010.”

He also said APAC is the region where the customers are growing, and the focus is mainly on finance, retail, network, energy and healthcare.

As part of the expansion in APAC, Verizon recently opened its second data centre in Hong Kong to meet the demand of its customers.

This year the company is planning to invest $16.8 billion to $17.2 billion to build, operate and integrate its networking and computing platforms.

“We continue to serve our presence globally to better serve our multinational customers and to accelerate the delivery of next-generation cloud services,” said Yali Liu, director of network planning for Verizon in Asia Pacific.

She also said Verizon is brining more and more new technologies to make cloud more cost effective and reliable.

“We have seven undersea cables in Pacific ocean and also in all major cities we have multiple nodes so that the customers face no issue even if there is a cable breach,” she said.

She also said the company is looking at expanding into more locations and there are lots of demands from Africa.

“We are in 15 countries in APAC and India and China are leading among them,” added Liu. She also said Verizon is exploring the possibility in Indonesia closely and a new data centre in India is also under review.

Talking about the India expansion plans, Andrew Dobbins, vice president, Asia Pacific, said the company has 33 new services in India. “Last year, we had hired 100 people and this year also we will hire over 100 in India. Last year we had opened a centre in Pune and this year we have opened one in Chennai,” he added.

He also observed that India would be leading the world in the usage of servers. “India is going to be the hub that connects the East and the West,” he ascertained.

Despite the hype created over cloud, most of the people are still apprehensive about cloud because they have the feeling that their data would not be safe and secure in a third person's hand. And to overcome that barrier, Verizon is planning a major campaign this year.

Meanwhile, asserting its corporate social responsibility, Verizon Foundation awarded a $30,000 grant to 'Beyond Social Services', which runs many restorative and developmental programmes in Singapore.

Blair Crump presented the cheque to BSS at a function held in Verizon's Singapore office.