Verizon's CaaS cloud is managed following IT Infrastructure Library guidelines and is audited for SAS 70 compliance. Part of Verizon's approach to cloud users this year will give them not only fast, automated provisioning of servers, but also the ability to conduct secure transactions in an environment managed to established standards. One result is that Verizon moved out of the also-ran category on Dec. 22 into the Gartner "Leaders" so-called magic quadrant. Other leaders include Rackspace, Terremark, Savvis and AT&T, according to Gartner. Amazon Web Services with EC2 is shown as leading the pack in the "Visionaries" quadrant.
In addition, Verizon is one of a handful of suppliers named a first-tier implementation partner by VMware, which means Verizon had adopted VMware's vCloud compatibility software and can run VMware ESX Server virtual machines. Since VMware is the most widely distributed virtualization software in the enterprise, a VMware-compatible cloud might have a broader market appeal than ones that run only their own brand name.
Verizon's CaaS is based in data centers in Amsterdam, Hong Kong and Beltsville, Md. Additional cloud data center capacity will be added by the end of the first quarter of 2011 in London, Canberra and San Jose, Calif. Two additional data centers will come online in Culpepper, Va., and Miami by the end of the first quarter to supply cloud services to the U.S. government. In all, Verizon manages 200 data centers worldwide, with the bulk of them dedicated to its network and telecommunications traffic, hosted services and co-location services.
Verizon cloud services are different from some people's notion of cloud computing. Verizon CaaS may host either virtual machines or actual, dedicated blade servers for any customer that wants its own physical resources. Verhoeven said some customers seek their own blade when they're running a major database system in the cloud, and 30 percent of its cloud business consists of the dedicated blade. Savvis and Rackspace also offer servers in either hardware or virtual forms; EC2 is a virtual machine environment.
Cloud users are no longer impressed with the speed with which you can spin up a virtual machine for them. Rather, they may want that virtual machine in a low-cost, plain-vanilla, x86 environment one minute and in a highly secure, well-managed one the next. That would allow them to develop and test a system in the cloud at low hourly rates, then upgrade it to a production system with stronger guarantees of high availability. Verizon is also likely to expand its security options as an established supplier of security services to business, such as intruder detection and firewall protections.
