26th August 2011
Verizon Communications has announced it will buy Massachusetts-based CloudSwitch, for an undisclosed fee. The New York-based cloud computing specialist is hoping the acquisition will improve its hybrid cloud options for large enterprises, and increase its portfolio at a time of global expansion.
"The cloud market is a rapidly growing opportunity, with very real benefits both for our business customers and the consumers they serve," said Bob Toohey, president of Verizon's global enterprise unit.
"With the acquisition of CloudSwitch, Verizon has taken another step forward in defining the enterprise cloud."
The announcement comes at a time when a number of big-name cloud providers are switching their focus to the hybrid cloud, in an attempt to entice bigger organisations to move their IT infrastructure to cloud.
“CloudSwitch brings Verizon breakthrough software that enables enterprises to easily and securely move applications, or workloads, between company data centres and the cloud without changing the application or the infrastructure layer - eliminating a key barrier to widespread cloud adoption,” said yesterday’s press release on the acquisition.
The move will also bring Terremark, a company Verizon bought earlier in the year for $1.4bn, to the fore, with the company hoping to link its business cloud security solutions with CloudSwitch’s further enterprise expertise.
John McEleney, CEO of CloudSwitch, said:
"Our founding vision has always been to create a seamless and secure federation of cloud environments across enterprise data centers and global cloud services.”
“By joining Verizon, we will be able to deliver a solution that combines our software with the market-leading infrastructure cloud play.”
Related stories: IBM announces new hybrid cloud for enterprise
