Major Cloud Buildout for Verizon Business

Verizon Business plans a major expansion of its data center network to support its push into Computing as a Service (CaaS) cloud computing offerings. Today's announcement provides some details on the infrastructure that will accompany Verizon Business' push into the cloud, which was announced in June.

The expansion is perhaps the biggest sign yet of the telecom industry's growing commitment to cloud services, as well as its ability to invest heavily in the infrastructure required to deliver it.

Verizon Business currently has CaaS data centers in Amsterdam and the U.S., with a third center in Hong Kong scheduled to come online in October. Within the next year, Verizon Business will expand its flagship CaaS service into data centers in San Jose, Calif.; London; and Canberra, Australia. In addition, early next year cloud computing data centers to serve U.S. government customers will come online in Miami and Culpeper, Va., where Verizon Business has leased space from Terremark.

More than 5,500 More Cabinets
As part of this infrastructure expansion, verizon Business will also add space for more than 5,500 additional server cabinets in existing Verizon Business data centers in Paris, Dublin, London, Frankfurt, Belgium, Canberra, Hong Kong and throughout the U.S. The expansion further enables the delivery of private clouds via more than 200 global data centers connected to Verizon's MPLS network, Private IP.

Verizon Business is the enterprise services arm of telecom service provider Verizon Communications, which said the investment is part of Verizon's $17 billion investment in global networking and computing infrastructure this year. Verizon Business says it is evolving to an "everything-as-a-service" (EaaS) model in which cloud-based, converged solutions are delivered with built-in security via managed and professional services over the company's global IP network.

"Verizon is committed to providing the essential foundation for the delivery of cloud services that will enable businesses to more efficiently achieve their goals through IT transformation," said Kerry Bailey, Verizon Business senior vice president of enterprise strategy. "Our continued data center expansion marks yet another milestone in achieving our EaaS vision, which will enable enterprises to do business better by getting what they need, when they need it and where they need it while only paying for those resources consumed."

Enterprises have a choice between Verizon's flagship CaaS offering or its hybrid solution, CaaS enabled by VMware vCloud Datacenter, which supports moving applications from a private to a public cloud setting. Clients can configure their enterprise cloud using Verizon's Private IP network or its global IP network.