NaviSite Joins VMware vCloud Air Service Provider Program

Time Warner Cable-owned cloud and managed service provider NaviSite has joined VMware’s vCloud Air Network Service Provider Program.

The program is a bid to create an ecosystem out of all the service provider clouds built atop of VMware software. This same ecosystem is a way for service provider partners to extend their offerings with VMware public cloud to better serve enterprise hybrid needs.

VMware recently discussed its "One Cloud" strategy, which sees the company selling cloud services both directly and through its partners. The vCloud Air Network has over 4,000 service providers around the world who purchase software from VMware to build cloud infrastructure. This network of service providers is vital to VMware’s success. Other technology giants are building similar ecosystems, Cisco's Intercloud being a prime example.

The NaviSite and VMware partnership goes back a decade. The deepened relationship will enable a broader portfolio of integrated solutions overall and provide NaviSite with earlier access to new technology and platform updates from VMware.

As part of the partnership, customers can “test drive” NaviSite’s cloud using VMware vCloud for 30 days. At the end of trial customers can click over to production if they’re happy.

NaviSite hit a rough patch during the last recession, with shares trading at around a quarter at a low point. The company refocused on growing its enterprise hosting business, a large part of which is its VMware-centered offerings.

As part of the refocusing, NaviSite shed non-core business lines like its Lawson/Kronos application services business and got rid of some of its data centers. The company enjoyed a turnaround prior to its acquisition by Time Warner Cable in 2011.

NaviSite is staying the course in targeting enterprise needs, with its core competency being managed services. VMware is focused on providing service provider cloud building blocks, as well as providing consistency and management between well-defined public cloud from VMware and private cloud from a partner.

VMware is squarely enterprise-focused. The company believes hybrid deployments will be a strong majority in the next two years, according to Angelos Kottas, senior director product marketing, cloud, VMware.

“As we expand upon the relationship we have built with NaviSite over the past decade, we look forward to the collaboration between the two companies to enable the migration of the next set of enterprise workloads to the cloud,” said Geoff Waters, VP, Service Provider Channel, VMware, in a press release.