Dennis Quan, IBM’s VP for SmartCloud Infrastructure described in an interview about the service- “It’s an integrated, end-to-end solution that provides access to cloud computing resources, and a secure pipe over which to access them. It’s going to unleash a lot of pent up demand for cloud computing because we’ve made the consumption of cloud a lot simpler.”Both IBM and AT&T plan to start the service in the first quarter of 2013. The service will be mostly used by the Customer base of IBM.
According to a statement issued by AT&T Business Solutions CEO Andy Geisse- “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,”
The service will be accessible for only those customers who will sign up for IBM’s SmartCloud Enterprise+ service. Dennis Quan however did not give any details of the charges for access to the AT&T private VPN network through which the service will be run. However he did say that the compute and network resources is available through partnership and would be sold on a pay as you go basis.
IBM said that the service will give a secure and one to one connection for enterprises. The SmartCloud Platform will include to virtual machines and storage, as well as application and security services. IBM by signing up with AT&T showed its motive of increasing its reach and hold over the cloud computing market. IBM is planning to touch $7 Billion as cloud related sales by 2015.
