The agreement involves the deployment of AT&T Labs technology to combine the carrier’s virtual private networking offering with IBM’s cloud capabilities, creating a fast and secure shared cloud offering.
The service will be targeted at global Fortune 1000 companies with high security and availability demands and could be offered to clients as early as 2013.
“AT&T and IBM are delivering a new, network-enabled cloud service that marries the security and speed of AT&T’s global network with the control and management capabilities of IBM’s enterprise cloud,” said Andy Geisse, CEO of AT&T Business Solutions. “This new service gives companies yet another way to innovate, create new value, and transform their businesses and industries.”
Customers connecting to IBM’s cloud computing platform across AT&T’s VPN will have the security protections of both services tightly integrated through the AT&T Labs technology.
AT&T’s technology is designed to dynamically allocate networking resources to computing resources, automating functions that may previously have been performed manually.
It is also claimed to allow the network and compute resources to scale rapidly or contract to support fluctuating demand on systems.
AT&T said that clients will be able to quickly and reliably shift information or applications between their own data centres and the new cloud service.
This function considered crucial for businesses wanting cloud flexibility with the ability to protect data and applications as they move between data centres and devices.
Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
